Service Year at Haley House

Description

A Lived Partnership:
Haley House Live-in Community and Service Year Participants

The Live -in Community at Haley House in Boston, Massachusetts is a group of individuals who live together simply as they develop a life based on contemplative service. They engage the poor who come as guests to the soup kitchen, the elder meals, and the food pantry as they develop a vision of a society in which everyone can live meaningful lives.

Our vehicle is food. We meet the poorest among us in the soup kitchen where we create relationships while sharing wholesome foods. We recognize that when we began 44 years ago, those facing homelessness were hungry but now struggle with the same health disparities as so many people with few resources.

The Community interfaces with Haley House’s Noonday Farm that gives away its nutrient dense, organic produce. A growing partnership supports access to food sources and food availability as a human right – not a luxury. The Haley House Bakery Cafe, our social enterprise, makes healthy food available in a struggling urban neighborhood where health disparities prevail. Our commitment to permanent housing and work force development keep us focused on the links that make economic independence possible for those of limited means.

Central to the vision of our Live-in Community is its intentionality which flies in the face of today’s fractured society. There is a commitment to practices that lead to true self-awareness, and a willingness to challenge attitudes and habits that separate us from one another. Contemplative service gives witness to an ancient yet newly radical way of being human.

Service Year Participants work as members of the Live-in Community managing the soup kitchen, the clothing room, the neighborhood food pantry, the culinary partnership with the McKinley School, Noonday Farm, residents in our permanent housing and the basic care of 23 Dartmouth Street. Additionally, Service Year Participants use their individual interests in IT, business development, communications, and social enterprise to develop Haley House’s sustainability. Service Year Participants can also work to develop our justice based catering business by helping with business problems such as market research, time study, price control, customer service and the like. Currently we are growing our Cookie Today, Better Tomorrow initiative on local college campuses.

With the Live -in Community, Service Year Participants also work to strengthen our linkages with organic food providers including our own Noonday Farm and Earthworks along with facilitating college urban immersions and the summer internship program. As Community members, Service Year Participants make a full time commitment usually for 5 rotating days a week in exchange for room and board. Service Year Participants are free to engage in discernment with the Haley House Community to become permanent community members.

For an application go to www.haleyhouse.org and click on “Live -in Community”. Please Indicate Service Year Participant.

Requirements:
a willingness to grow in community while engaging with the poor and living justly

Requirements

Language

English

application is on going and acceptance is done on a rolling basis