Mission, Vision, Goal Statement
Mission
"Together with a dozen Mexican-American families, we helped build not just houses, but a community. It was a fantastic experience."
- 1995 California Self-Help Housing Project Participant
Since June, 1990, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) have conducted a special form of learning and service involving youth and adults. We live in a nation of varied and often conflicting value systems that tend to pull us away from the traditional Quaker testimonies of community, harmony, peace, equality and simplicity. To find and share a new, practical understanding of these testimonies, we believe service is necessary for us.
We seek to learn more about peace and service from all with whom we meet and work, using non-violence, listening, and love to guide us. Our commitment to service is grounded in respect for the communities with whom we interact, and in worship as vital to a fully human life.
Our projects are designed to connect small, intergenerational groups of youth and adults (ages 14 and up, and not limited to Friends) with the work of the AFSC. We seek opportunities for service that will build continuing relationships with communities. We open ourselves to be guided by the Spirit into more informed, respectful ways of living in peaceful balance with our planet and its many societies.
Goal
"These service projects assist us to look at our own addictions, which drive our society to build walls to protect ourselves from other people whose cultures, lives, and patterns of consumption are very difference from our own. At the same time, we recognize that we must be careful not leave communities "hanging up" or dependent on our resources, or disconnected from their own."
- JSP Oversight Committee September, 1998
The Joint Service Project goal is to "see what love will do" in offering service projects and potential connections between people living in a broken world. Service opportunities that reflect the spiritual values of Friends and AFSC and which involve direct service are few and far between, especially for youth in IMYM. Many adults in IMYM have had such opportunities in their development as Friends. While Friendly inter-visitation and family trips kindle awareness of other communities and societies within IMYM, deeper experiences born out of service and intentional living, even for a short period, can contribute to both social and spiritual growth for young and old alike.
Overarching vision
To provide opportunities for participants to serve with AFSC in direct service and have a quality experience.
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