The Loretto Volunteer Program has been a project of the Loretto Community, a welcoming and inclusive Catholic order of sisters with a 200-year history of advocating for peace, women's equality and solutions to social injustices. You can learn more about the Sisters of Loretto here.
Loretto Volunteers are an extension of the mission and spirit of the Loretto Community. Volunteers serve for a year at social justice organizations while living in intentional community with other volunteers. All the while, volunteers find ways to connect to their spirituality and to practice sustainability and solidarity in every day life.
Loretto Volunteers serve in both direct service and advocacy roles. They serve with the unhoused and with immigrant legal services; in women's social enterprise and in community hunger relief. (See our full listing here.) Each volunteer is paired with an organization based on their skills and interests.
We are rooted in the creative spirituality of the Loretto Community. We consider earth care, activism, and justice work as deeply spiritual pursuits. Though we have grown out of Catholic social justice teaching, we proudly welcome volunteers of any faith, as well as those who are struggling with the idea of religion and God. All volunteers must simply be open to exploring a variety of spiritual practices that reflect their community's backgrounds and interests.
We are committed to anti-racism and anti-oppression work in ourselves, in our approach to service and in our participation in our communities. All volunteers participate in learning and un-learning about systems of oppression as a part of their service year; and all volunteers are called to action towards a more just and equitable world. Our program is committed to an equity-based approach for supporting all volunteers who want to participate in our program - we have a sliding scale model for our volunteer stipend and provide funding support based on need and access to systemic privilege. In these ways, and in many others, Loretto Volunteers explore and embody the program's core values of intentionalcommunity, spirituality, solidarity, sustainability and social justice.
We welcome individuals of all backgrounds, races, socioeconomic status, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities, immigration status and faiths.
“Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” -Wangari Maathai -
Loretto Volunteer Program lorettovolunteers@lorettocommunity.org Denver, CO | El Paso, TX