IVC Stories
Following Christ to a Homeless Shelter
by Nick Sharkey When I joined IVC I wanted to do something different with my life. I wanted to work directly with poor people. After many years of pursuing a demanding career and raising three children together with my wife, Janice, I was ready for a change. I was...
Volunteer’s Unplanned Retirement Leads to Life of Gratitude
Bob Greenwell is a planner. He worked hard at his accounting job for 40 years, planned how he and his wife would raise their family of six children, and mapped out his retirement. What he didn’t plan was what he’d do after he retired. “I thought I’d get up late, watch...
An Author’s Unfinished Story
At 80, Barbara Lee has had her first book published and is embarking on a new career in spiritual direction. She rightly declares that neither she nor God is finished with her life yet.
IVC & JVC Volunteers Work Together to Build Up Lives of Immigrants and One Another
Boston’s Casserly House is a crossroads where Jesuit-minded volunteers bridge across generations not only to serve vulnerable immigrants struggling to build a life in the United States — but also to help one another on their own life journeys. For nearly a decade,...
Volunteer Makes Sense of Work at Milwaukee Inner City School
A rainbow connects an IVC Milwaukee volunteer to an inner city school, where she helps children process the traumas they experience in their young lives.
What do you find challenging about retirement?
by Linda Wihl When I meet with potential volunteers I become keenly aware of how our culture squanders one of our greatest resources, retirees. When I ask retirees, “What do you find challenging about retirement?” I hear three common responses: “I miss...
Giving Back and Changing Lives for 20 Years
Lou Naglak, an Ignatian Volunteer in Philadelphia, has served prisoners at the Bucks County Prison for over 20 years. “I couldn’t have predicted this would be the next phase of my life,” he says. “I grew up in a coal town above Scranton, Pennsylvania. In the 1930s...
A Tradition of Ignatian Service and Spirituality: IVC and JVC
by Catherine Albornoz As we embark on a new year of service in September, we recognize all those in the Ignatian Volunteer Corps and our partners in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, with our shared mission of service and spirituality, at different stages of life. This...
My Kids
This blog post comes from Ignatian Volunteer Rich Pozdol of Chicago and is reprinted with permission from the IVC Chicago Footprints blog from earlier this year. Father “Bo” T.M. Lyons, spiritual director extraordinaire, and I were having dinner at Siam, my favorite...