Proposal to Sunday 5 October 2014 Meeting for Worship for Business that Friends Meeting at Cambridge become the host Meeting for a Quaker Voluntary Service house in the Boston area.
Fiscal Year 2014–15 Budget for the National Quaker Voluntary Service organization.
What is Quaker Voluntary Service? How Can We Bring QVS to the Boston Area?
Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) is a national program that selects young adult Quaker applicants to be volunteers at social change agencies in a target city. (A large part of the costs are covered by the agencies employing the volunteers.) The volunteers live together and worship at local Friends Meetings and Friends Churches. At present QVS has programs in three cities — Atlanta (GA), Philadelphia (PA), and Portland (OR) — and after receiving a letter of interest from FMC in July, they have enthusiastically agreed to consider opening a program consider opening a program in Boston, which holds the possibility of collaboration between FMC and other area meetings (Beacon Hill, Framingham, Fresh Pond, Wellesley). We are in the process of learning more details about the benefits of such a collaboration; the plan is to come to Meeting for Business in Worship on October 5th with a concrete proposal.
From David Anick
Hello Friends,
Some of you know of my long-standing enthusiasm for the Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) program in which 20-something Quakers spend a year working for a non-profit while living in community with other Quakers. It’s a 21st century resurrection of the once proud Quaker Work Camps. You probably know that FMC submitted a proposal to become a host Meeting / host city for a QVS house. Our proposal has been accepted by the QVS board (yay!) and the issue will come to our Meeting for Business in Worship on October 5th, where we will talk about FMC making major commitments of fundraising and person-hours to the project.
Briefly, I would love to recruit more of you to the cause of making QVS happen in Cambridge. We will need folks who will do any of the following: talk with non-profit and activist groups to identify internship opportunities; fun(d)-raise; set up the furnished housing for the volunteers; and serve as spiritual mentors for the volunteers once they arrive. There is also a part-time job to serve as local coordinator — perfect for a YAF.
I would love to see more of us turn on to the potential of QVS to make a real difference in the lives of 20-something Friends. Let’s go into Meeting for Business in Worship on October 5th prepared with an understanding of what it means to become the fourth QVS host city.
Thanks for listening,
David A.