The Staff Live Simply

The JVC program is founded on four values: social justice, spirituality, simple living, and community. The staff at the Baltimore Program Office is acting to further incorporate the value of simple living into our program for the Jesuit Volunteers, but also into our daily work at the office.

We seek to use this time of Lent as a space for renewal in practices of simple living, and we invite you all to take time and reflect on how you are currently living out this value. It can be a lifestyle that is difficult to embody, especially for those in office environments and urban spaces of busy schedules, traffic, noise, and seemingly endless printing and resource consumption. However, Lent opens a space to reevaluate daily habits and practices in order to cultivate a more mindful and intentional life in this created world.

We invite you to take a few moments to ponder these questions: What new strides can you make in the value of simple living? What can you do differently as an individual? What can you do with your community, your family, your housemates, or your office? Our staff has put together some points below that we will be working towards. Feel free to take these ideas and add your own! Hopefully these practices can seep into your life and be instilled beyond these 40 days.

1. We will be mindful of what resources we use and the life cycle of objects.

• Paper
• We will be mindful of what we need to print in the first place.
• If we do print something, we will think about reformatting it or only printing the necessary pieces.
• We will save one-sided paper to use for hand-written notes or future printing.
• We will have clearly marked recycling bins and recycle any paper that is no longer usable or necessary.
• Electricity and Water
• We will ensure lights are turned off when we are not in a room or when we leave for the day.
• We will turn off our computers and unplug them/turn off power strips, especially on weekends.
• We will watch our water use when using the kitchen and bathroom.
• Containers/Materials
• We will be creative about reusing containers before throwing them into the trash.
• If we do not have a use for something, we will see if anyone else needs/wants it.
• If we must discard of materials, we will recycle them to the best of our ability and know what our building/city codes are for recycling.
• We will use real dishware and utensils for office gatherings in order to create less waste and avoid items designed for one time use.
• Eating Habits for Healthy Ecosystems
• We will gather organic matter in a classy ice cream bucket and store it in the freezer for compost.
• We will deliver the scraps to a local farm in Baltimore city to add to the compost pile for good and healthy soil and eventually good and healthy crops.

2. We will be mindful of our time and how we use it.

• We will see when we can combine meetings or rearrange schedules.
• We will work on effective communication with staff members, especially on time-sensitive items.
• We will take time to refocus, take a breath, take a walk, or do a three-minute retreat (thanks, Loyola Press).

3. We will build relationships and take time for self-care.

• We will have staff lunches, both with our program office and with the larger main-office group co-located in the building.
• We will take time for conversation about non-JVC topics.
• We will go to group prayer on Monday mornings to cultivate a spiritual community.
• We will recognize our limits, ask for help when necessary, and offer support to our colleagues.

4. We will be careful with financial resources.

• Keeping in mind the finances of JVC, we will think about what supplies we need for the office.
• On area visits, we will be conscious of the budget and creative with the money we have for travel and time with the JVs.