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Ten summer interns at the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) are meeting up every other week to serve food, wash dishes, unload supply trucks and engage with the community at the Chicago Christian Industrial League (CCIL), a residential facility which provides housing, food, case management and employment training to poor and homeless men, women and children.
The volunteers, comprised of university students, represent an array of religious and philosophical traditions and include Christians, Muslims, Jews, Agnostics and others.
"We are a religiously diverse group and many of us feel that our faith traditions inspire us to serve," said Molly Fried, a volunteer. "For me, the Jewish concept 'Tikkun olam,' which means 'to repair the world,' is particularly meaningful and inspires me to get involved in service."
The interns spend four hours every other week on site at CCIL.
"Service at CCIL has been a great way to tie our trainings and faith discussions back to real, concrete action," said Hana, a rising Junior at Northwestern University. "It allows everyone, regardless of religious tradition, to draw on a conviction of service that unites us all."
The volunteers' work began in June and will continue through late August. According to organizers, the CCIL initiative was inspired by the United We Serve campaign spearheaded by the White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
"For many decades, the central narrative of America was of the individual pulling himself up by his own bootstraps," said Lucas Artaiz, a volunteer and rising senior at Northwestern University. "Through self-reliance and courageous individualism, it was said, one might overcome life's obstacles. Now, President Obama is telling a new narrative, one that emphasizes pulling not just ourselves up, but also one another."
The mission of IFYC, a worldwide organization with hundreds of locations spanning six continents, is to create inter-religious understanding and respect through serving communities.
For more on IFYC visit www.ifyc.org.
Posted August 5, 2009
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