FrancisCorps is Ready for Another Year of Service

Brother Jim Moore - first row centre - is the director of FrancisCorps;

In this photo he is surrounded by FrancisCorps volunteers from previous years

FrancisCorps – the Conventual Franciscans’ volunteer program for young lay people – will continue into 2010-2011 with a contingent of 11 new volunteers. Based in Syracuse, New York and in San Jose, Costa Rica, the program places volunteers into various institutions where they serve vulnerable people. Persons who wish to serve in Costa Rica need to be proficient in Spanish.

The organizations where FrancisCorps volunteers work bring them into contact with many of their brothers and sisters whom they would most likely not encounter otherwise. The volunteers, for example, might work with refugees from around the world who recently arrived in the United States. Some have the chance to feed homeless persons, work with the disabled or provide care to the abused.

Vincent House (a community hall) - one of the placement sites in Syracuse, New York

In the coming year, six of the FrancisCorps volunteers will live together in Syracuse. They will spend their days at their ministries and their evenings together – the way Francis and his brothers did – sharing meals, praying, talking, and having fun. The volunteers’ names are Amy Aubrecht, Montserrat Corbera, Mike Lamanna, Molly LeBlanc-Medeiros, Jeannette Rowland, and Tim Smilnak. Not long ago they attended academic institutions such as Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, and several others.

The area around San Jose, Costa Rica

FrancisCorps’ Costa Rica volunteers will also live together while spending their days at various ministry sites. These five young people - Matt Aujero, Brittany Buckner, Jordan Differding, Angelique Snyder, and Tom Robertson (recent grads from schools such as Catholic University, the University of Notre Dame, and others) – are set to live in a country that is in some ways different than the United States. But then Francis and his brothers traveled and continue to travel throughout the world, the way these young people will. Franciscans interact with people from all around the world, serving them and appreciating the diversity they add to the human family.

(Sources of all related images on homepage and webpage: www.wikipedia.org and www.franciscorps.org.)