Community
After more than 25 years in La Jara, the MVS house relocated in 2011 to Alamosa, a larger nearby town. This community is more central to our service sites, long-time partners, and an emerging Anabaptist fellowship, drawn together through our common commitments to peace and justice work in south-central Colorado. Alamosa is the commercial, governmental and non-profit hub for the San Luis Valley - a high mountain valley with a rich tri-cultural blend of multi-generational Anglo and Hispanic settlers, along with new immigrants primarily from Mexico and Guatemala. The area is known for innovations in organic and natural food production, as well as solar energy. The Valley also boasts both a thriving arts community and an abundance of spectacular landscapes - from mountains, to forests, to desert - suited to biking, hiking, camping, photography and winter sports. A second-year volunteer recently exclaimed, "this place is so beautiful, I still need to bring my camera to work with me everyday!" With the highest poverty rates in the state, hunger, homelessness, insecurities related to immigration, and other struggles common to families on the margins are also part of the everyday landscape, and it is these ever-present realities that drive the vision for our work. The volunteer house is an easy walk or bike ride to most placement sites and nearby coffee shops, libraries, etc. Unit cars are available for other travel. There are four individual bedrooms, plus a separate apartment area, suited to a living community of 4 singles and a couple, or up to 6 singles. Alamosa hosts two colleges; another volunteer program, with a corps of 20 additional full-time volunteers, expands social networks quickly. "After living in Chicago for 5 years, it has been so refreshing to be welcomed into a community, a true community, where people care about one another." Be a part of reinventing rural life.
Service
Our focus on peace and justice (economic, legal, social, environmental) – as well as the practical realities of families and youth in poverty – provides a rich variety of potential connections for service. We are known for high-responsibility placements that draw on, challenge and expand your educational and vocational interests, while meeting priority needs of the receiving communities. No paper-pushing here. "We get learning opportunities and responsibilities that aren't possible in a bigger city. The people who started these small nonprofits are right here and accessible to us." Priority areas include: restorative justice/mediation, immigration, domestic violence/sexual assault, high-risk youth, housing, and support for local initiatives focused on healthy and sustainable rural lifestyles, food and environment.