A group of close to 60 educators, health care professionals, civil servants, and those working in careers both inside and outside social and spiritual services recently gathered in Syracuse, New York to celebrate an exciting milestone.
FrancisCorps – of which they were all alum – was marking 25 years of providing a unique service opportunity for young adults.
“This experience really stays with you,” A.J. LaPoint, the current FrancisCorps director, said. “We want this experience to be unique to what God’s calling every volunteer to do.”
Founded in 1998, FrancisCorps welcomed its first group of volunteers in 1999. The program offers the opportunity for youth to live in community during a year of service for those in need. More than 200 volunteers have answered the call to this year of service, experiencing firsthand what it means to live as a Franciscan.
An official ministry of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, FrancisCorps continues to invite young men and women to this experience of Gospel life in Syracuse, New York. The goal is helping volunteers turn their year of service into a lifetime committed to living the Gospel in their families, careers, parishes, and communities.
A.J. himself served as a volunteer for FrancisCorps and has been director of the program for 10 years. The last decade has brought a series of challenges for bringing on and helping volunteers – primarily the COVID-19 pandemic – but he said volunteer numbers have remained steady year after year.
“The landscape of what volunteer service has looked like has changed so much,” A.J. said. “We give the Holy Spirit space to work.”
The current volunteer cohort includes six college graduates hailing from Washington, Nevada, Louisiana, and New York. The group lives in community in a volunteer house in central New York, a short drive from Assumption Church in Syracuse. A.J. said while the program has changed over the last 26 years, the core mission remains the same: sharing the passion and vision of St. Francis of Assisi and empowering young adults to make a difference.