Social Impact Trips

Do you want to make a difference and give back to others? Spend your 2024 spring break volunteering through one of AU's five Social Impact Trips. These trips can take you out of your comfort zone, stretch how you understand the world, and be incredibly rewarding experiences that impact your life and create lasting relationships. Each trip involves varying types of work, simple living, an open mind to new ideas, and constant teamwork.

Social Impact Trips are designed to allow you to:

• Immerse yourself in a dynamic learning experience around an important social issue.
• Engage in transformative action with experienced community partners.
• Reflect on your social responsibilities as local and global citizens.
• Consider how your profession or career intersects with pressing social issues.
• Live in a community with fellow AU students and staff for a week.

Choose Your Social Impact Trip

Housing Security and Youth Homelessness
Indianapolis, Indiana
March 4-9, 2024

• Gain a deeper understanding of the causes of homelessness, especially how homelessness is affecting youth.
• Partner with an organization providing services to youth threatened by homelessness.
• Engage with a furniture-making organization that provides job training to men experiencing homelessness.

Equine Therapy, Environmental Justice, and Housing Security
Michigan City, Indiana
March 3-8, 2024

• Support an organization that assists children and youth with disabilities through equine-assisted therapy.
• Partner with Habit for Humanity to assist in home construction.
• Care for the environment by cleaning up beach shores.

Housing Security, Migration, Racial Justice, and Environmental Justice
Cincinnati, Ohio
March 3-8, 2024

• Explore the complexity of housing insecurity in an urban environment with a unique history of migrant communities.
• Learn about the effects of racism on access to affordable housing.
• Partner with organizations that construct affordable housing and provide assistance to vulnerable neighborhoods.

Housing Security, Food Security, and Environmental Justice
Aurora, Illinois
March 4-7, 2024

• Explore the theme of a "Beloved Community" by learning about the work of local agencies making an impact in Aurora and beyond.
• Engage in service projects in Aurora and the surrounding areas that address basic-needs security.
• Deep dive into concerns related to environmental justice and gain tools to make a sustainable impact.

Native Americans in Urban Life
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
March 2-7, 2024

• Learn about some of the social issues facing Native Americans living in urban Minneapolis-St. Paul.
• Explore the topics of food insecurity, housing and homelessness, health disparities, and cultural revitalization.
• Gain insight into the history of Native Americans in the U.S. and how that history has caused and exacerbated present-day issues.

Now Accepting Applications

Due to the purpose of social impact trips, limited spots, and increased student interest, the selection of students for each trip will be done through an application process. If you are interested in participating, please fill out our Spring Break Social Impact Trips Application.

Volunteering with different organizations really helped me see the different challenges people have to go through and overcome throughout their lives. Valeria Rivera ’26

Questions?

Contact Justin West, executive director of the Wackerlin Center for Faith and Action/chief diversity officer, at 630-844-5142 or juwest@aurora.edu.