Community

Christian Appalachian Project’s Volunteer Program has three guiding principles, or pillars, that reflect what volunteering for CAP is all about: Service, Spirituality and Community. We use the three-legged table metaphor to illustrate the importance of each pillar—all are essential to keeping volunteer life balanced. Because CAP is a Christian volunteer organization, the service and spirituality aspects are the most obvious. Though “community” might not be the first thing that comes to mind when people think of volunteer life, it is an absolutely essential—and exceptionally rewarding—component of the CAP volunteer experience.

Whether a volunteer serves with CAP for a week, a summer or a year, he or she does so not really as an individual, but as a member of a unique community of volunteers who share a common commitment to serving families in need in Appalachia. CAP’s volunteer communities are incredibly diverse in terms of life experience, education and background. This diversity lends itself to a rich community experience where recent college graduates may realize that retired grandmothers can still run circles around them, and where someone who has never cooked can learn there’s more to the culinary arts than BLTs. As of this writing, CAP has 74 long-term (serving 9 months or longer) volunteers from 28 different states who range in age from 18 to 77. One visitor to a CAP volunteer house called our volunteers “a collection of [the] best and brightest caught in a moment of pure generosity.” It is in community that this generosity can develop and blossom in CAP’s service programs.

The center of CAP community life is the volunteer house. Though some volunteers choose to find their own housing, most live in one of CAP’s seven volunteer houses, and volunteers who do live independently participate in volunteer house life by joining the house for dinner and prayer at least twice a month. A CAP volunteer house is so much more than a shared living space—it is a place of fellowship, self-discovery and most of all, fun. Friendships are formed, more than a few practical jokes are played and a skilled baker can always find housemates willing to try a new treat. Our houses are a source of pride for our volunteers, and years later volunteer alumni write their own revisionist histories of how their community was “the best volunteer house in CAP.” Volunteer houses are a starting point for road trips, lively discussions, and, though dating is not exactly encouraged, a few romances. Many former volunteers have met their spouses through CAP, and we’ll forgive them with the understanding that all progeny will be future CAP volunteers. Personalities vary, so while volunteers should not expect to be best friends with all of their housemates, they should expect to enter a community of people who desire to serve Appalachia and support others in their service.

Because community is so essential to the volunteer experience, the Volunteer Program evaluates applicants not just on how effectively they can serve the people of Appalachia, but how well an applicant can fit into community. Applicants should ask themselves questions about how they communicate with others, how they deal with conflict and how they interact with people from different faiths or backgrounds. For long-term applicants, the personal interview in Kentucky gives potential volunteers the invaluable opportunity to spend a night or two in a volunteer house to see if community life is really for them. If God is calling you to make a commitment to service, spirituality and community, please consider applying to be a long-term volunteer.