LIFT is welcoming new volunteers in the fall from Boston College’s 4Boston program. As part of the program, Boston College students commit to serving four hours a week for an entire school year at one social service, health or education placement. The goal is to provide students with an enriching urban service experience, and to provide consistent assistance to Boston agencies that work on behalf of the city’s poor and marginalized.
When 4Boston began 20 years ago, there were only 9 places students could volunteer. Now, that number has grown to 29, and LIFT-Boston will add to that this fall. Silvia Turk, a LIFT-Boston summer advocate in Roxbury, is part of the 4Boston program. “The program’s mission is to serve the marginalized in Boston, and LIFT is a direct form of service, more tangible than the other placements. The people LIFT serves are exactly the people 4Boston’s mission is to serve.”
LIFT-Boston recruits hundreds of volunteers from area colleges and provides a sustained commitment to community issues and poverty alleviation. Through their service, students are directly exposed to the systematic causes, issues and solutions to poverty. “LIFT is one of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve had. I hope the BC students that serve here will find it challenging and realize how important their work is and how they can impact clients.”