Eight Quality Components of An Alternative Break
Strong Direct Service: Should provide an opportunity for participants to engage in direct or “hands on” projects and activities that address unmet social needs, as determined by the community.
Orientation: Alternative breakers learn about the purposes and goals of their community partners with which they will be working.
Education: Breakers learn about the complexity of the social issue through reading materials, speaker panels, documentaries, and guest lecturers related to current trends and historical context. A strong educational foundation for the trip will contribute to a meaningful service experience.
Training: Breakers are provided with adequate skills necessary to carry out service projects during their trip. This may include learning physical skills, such as construction or maintenance skills, as well as interpersonal communication, such as interacting with children, sensitivity training, working with people with disabilities, trail building, etc.
Reflection: During the trip participants process the service work as it connects to the broader social issue. Groups set aside time for reflection to take place individually and as a group.
Reorientation: After students return to campus, reorientation activities allow participants to talk about issues with others on campus, learn about local volunteer and civic involvement opportunities, and brainstorm other means to benefit their local community. Reorientation (the post-trip application of the experience) is the essential purpose of an alternative break - to provide a platform for participants to work towards lifelong active citizenship.
Diversity and Social Justice: Strong alternative break programs include: 1) diverse representation of students from the campus community and 2) studying the social issue by examining the social justice concepts of privilege and oppression.
"The trouble around diversity, then, isn't just that people differ from one another. The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass." (Privilege, Power, and Difference, 2001, Allan G. Johnson)
Alcohol & Drug Free: Alternative breaks are alcohol and drug free. Awareness of legality, liability, personal safety, and group cohesion addressed through training prior to the trip.
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