Senior Service Project: Finding Solutions

By William Jackson ’23

AS A SENIOR AT LOYOLA, I have spent my last two years deeply engaged with the Center for Service and Justice (CSJ). Through my work with the CSJ, I have had the opportunity to engage in activities that have ignited my passion for service and advocacy to find solutions to the most difficult issues in our society. The Matthew 25 trips, the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington, D.C. and my Senior Service Project have had the biggest impact.

The Matthew 25 trips are overnight weekend service trips usually on or around Skid Row. I’ve now been on four of these trips, three as a student leader, and I still feel heartbroken to see people living on the street. Their stories demonstrate that they were once not so different from you and me. When we bring other Loyola students for the first time, they are usually surprised at how nice and welcoming most people are on Skid Row. From serving food to passing out water and other basic necessities on the street, I hope we are able to make a difference in their day. But I know what they really need is so much more.

On one trip, I encountered a woman hauling trash bags with her son in the park who looked no older than eight. I offered her water which she initially refused but the boy came up to me and started tugging on my pants, begging for water. It was roughly 6:00 p.m. and I knew, unless they had some form of permanent housing, it was probably too late to get a shelter bed, meaning they were likely to sleep on the street.

It baffles me how in the richest country in the world, we allow children to sleep on the street. For me, it’s quite simple—housing should be a right.

With my growing commitment to addressing the issue of homelessness, I volunteered at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker (LACW) for my Senior Service Project,* which included living there. LACW community members live together in a house in Boyle Heights with formerly unhoused individuals, operating a soup kitchen and service center in Skid Row. The LACW’s primary focus is “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” or as one of my fellow volunteers said, “They are the hands and feet of Jesus putting his words into action—literally.”

One resident in particular at LACW had a huge impact on me. Previously homeless on Skid Row, he had been living at the Catholic Worker for 30 years. He had stage 4 lung cancer with very little time left to live. But, it didn’t kill his spirit. He was the house champion at dominoes and chess, and he loved music. If the LACW hadn’t taken him in, he likely would have died on the streets years ago.

One of the many themes of the Center for Service and Justice is that service is important but we also must address why people are hungry and unhoused—that is where justice comes in. Several other Loyola students and I were able to participate in the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington, D.C. and soon I will be joining students at the state capital in Sacramento. We have direct access to talk to politicians and their staff, to be a voice for those who are forgotten and not listened to.

These life-changing experiences have helped me decide to be a political science major and invoke change in the world.

*A three-week service project where students put away their books and work full time at homes for battered women, shelters, schools, hospitals and other institutions.