As classes start to pick up, reading assignments pile up and midterms draw near, most students begin their countdown to fall break and look forward to the extra days as an opportunity to relax. Participants in Alternative Fall Break, however, kick into overdrive in their mission to serve the Charlottesville community.
Currently in its second year, the Alternative Fall Break program had a successful pilot year and anticipates an even greater turnout ahead. Started as a partner program to Alternative Spring Break, Alternative Fall Break provides University students with an opportunity to make something of their break and build connections within the local community.
“There are a huge number of nonprofits in Charlottesville and they are largely under-utilized by students,” third-year College student and President John Connolly said. “Alternative Fall Break provides a really great opportunity for students to make these initial connections with those nonprofits.”
Over the course of three days, students participating in Alternative Fall Break will work with four local nonprofit organizations – Rivanna Trails Foundation, Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, Loaves & Fishes and City of Promise. Each day consists of six hours of service followed by “reflections” on the experience and major takeaways.
“We tried to get a wide span [of community partners], … that can cater to everyone’s interests,” fourth-year College student and Vice President Devin Rowell said. “The volunteers can volunteer every day or they can just pick one. We really tried to make it something where people could experience all the different facets of Charlottesville.”
Each trip attempts to highlight an issue within the community, whether it is environmental degradation, affordable housing, food scarcity or educational opportunity.
On the first day of service, participants will engage in environmental impact work by building new trails for the Rivanna Trails Foundation. On the second day, volunteers for the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program will clean, build and repair homes in the Charlottesville area to support the organization’s mission of providing safe, affordable housing.
The break finishes out with a day of volunteering at Loaves & Fishes, a Charlottesville food pantry, and City of Promise, an organization promoting higher education among Charlottesville’s youth. Through diverse volunteer opportunities, Alternative Fall Break seeks to expose students to different corners of Charlottesville.
“Alternative Spring Break is about service learning,” Connolly said. “It’s about helping the community partners we created these relationships with, in whatever capacity we can. These are experiences that can be really impactful and formational in decisions you make later on in life.”
Alternative Spring Break, which organizes service trips across the world, recognized needs within the local Charlottesville community and opportunities for University students to fill this void.
“There’s this strange contradiction in ASB because you’re sending people typically far away to do service over spring break, which is wonderful because you’re doing service, but there’s also lots that can be done in Charlottesville,” Community Service Coordinator Vanessa Ehrenpreis, a fourth-year College student said.
Alternative Fall Break aims to bring that learning and service element to the immediate community, Ehrenpreis said.
“We have so many assumptions about the Charlottesville community, despite the fact that we rarely get out in it,” third-year College student and Site Leader Lucy Trieshmann said. “An emphasis of the Alternative Break trips is the history of the community and the culture.”
Through reflection questions and discussion, site leaders force participants to consider tough questions and look closely at what their community needs and how they can step in to serve.
“Our main goal is for [participants] to realize that, as students here, we have a lot of opportunities and are very fortunate for the opportunities we have,” Rowell said. “Not everyone has those same opportunities and [it is important to consider] how we can live more mindfully through our day-to-day life and appreciate what we have.”
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