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Housed under the Center for Service and Leadership within the Division of Student Life, Beyond Bama: Alternative Breaks is gearing up for Spring Break to travel to 7 different communities nationally and internationally. This year’s Spring Break trips focus on topics such as housing insecurity, urban education, healthcare accessibility in rural areas, and social services in wellness and recovery.
How does this happen?
Beyond Bama volunteer student staff are planning these trips from the ground up: communicating and confirming community partners, creating budgets and itineraries, recruiting participants, leading pre and post-trip meetings focusing on education regarding these topics and the communities, and ultimately leading the trips themselves.
Why is this important?
These trips are immersive, hands-on volunteer experiences with community partners that are ethically seeking to fight against disparities or provide needs within their communities. Beyond Bama gives an opportunity for UA students to be within a new community and to learn about the impact that service can have, which can be fundamentally life changing for the student and impactful towards the community. The introduction to these topics and immersion creates a higher understanding of issues, translating into developing open mindsets, learning about the importance of cultural competency, and overall empowering students to become active citizens.
Within the 2018-2019 academic breaks, Beyond Bama traveled over 22,000 miles to 13 different locations. The economic impact that over 200 volunteers had through Fall, Winter, and Spring break was $402,447 with a total of 16,300 hours served.
How can you help?
Beyond Bama: Alternative Breaks wants you to be a part of providing the opportunity of enrichment, education, and empowerment for students across campus. One of the largest barriers students face when wanting to go on a Beyond Bama trip is the cost. During the 2018-2019 school year, our trips ranged from $175-$2,700.
Beyond Bama asks for your support in making the Spring Break 2020 service trips more accessible to all students.
To learn more about Beyond Bama, click here or follow us on Social Media! https://leadandserve.sa.ua.edu/community-action-teams/beyond-bama-alternative-breaks/
This will provide 43 miles of domestic trip travels. Did you know? Beyond Bama’s service trips have ranged from traveling 300 miles to over 2,000 miles
This will cover the cost of one baggage fee of a suitcase full of medical supplies to go to Costa Rica.
This covers the cost of a van rental for one day for domestic travels.
This feeds a group of 11 students breakfast for a week-long service trip.
This covers the average cost of a participant to be able to go on a service trip.
This covers the total cost of the van rental for one week-long domestic service trip.
This feeds a group of 11 students for one week-long domestic service trip.