Mission and Purpose

	Project SERVE participants lending a hand at Veneable Elementary School.

Goals

	To promote the value of serving others in the community.
	To introduce incoming students to the concept of service learning.
	To provide incoming students who have previous community service experience an opportunity to continue participating in those activities.
	To introduce participants to local community service agencies and to the Charlottesville community.
	To offer opportunities for leadership.
	To enable incoming students to meet and interact with their fellow classmates.

How You Can Participate

	Project SERVE 2007 Site Leaders enjoy lunch after a day of service.

First Years: Project SERVE 2008 online registration is now open! Click here to register now.

Transfer Students: We encourage you to sign up for the Barrett Early Learning Center as this site project is designed specifically with the desire to connect incoming transfer students with other transfer students.

Click here to view/print the "Release of Liability" form.

Site Listings

AIDS/HIV Services Group
The AIDS/HIV Services Group Established in 1986, the AIDS/HIV Services Group (ASG) has served residents of a 2,200 square mile area of Central Virginia. ASG began by offering supportive services to people living with HIV/AIDS, and now has a wide range of case management and HIV prevention services. ASG also serves as the Virginia Department of Health's lead agent for Northwest Virginia, administering prevention education programs and funds for other AIDS organizations in a 12,000 square mile area.

Albemarle County Historical Society
Founded in 1940, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society seeks to study, preserve, and promote the history of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. The Society strives to accomplish this mission through a variety of public programs, including exhibits, publications, lectures, walking tours, oral history interviews, and various educational programs.

Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP)
The Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) is a private, non-profit housing and community development organization dedicated to assisting low income Albemarle County and Charlottesville City residents to have the opportunity to live in safe, decent and affordable housing. AHIP will pursue its mission by facilitating programs and services, and assisting low income families and individuals to acquire and/or maintain a home. It is the conviction of AHIP that the opportunity to live in adequate shelter is a basic human right.

Barrett Early Learning Center--For Transfer Students
Barrett Early Learning Center exists to provide a safe and nurturing learning environment for children that encourages opportunities for physical, emotional, social, and intellectual growth.

Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association
The Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association represents one of Charlottesville’s largest neighborhoods, and one of the oldest subdivisions in America. Those who live here enjoy the housing variety, neighborhood schools, unique Mom-and-Pop stores, parks, churches, immediate access to the historic downtown mall, and the numerous local businesses.

Blue Ridge Commons Neighborhood Network
The Blue Ridge Commons Neighborhood is a low-income housing community of a few hundred families.

Buford Middle School
Buford Middle School, named in honor of Florence Buford, a Charlottesville educator, first opened its doors in August of 1966. In 1988, Buford became Charlottesville’s only public middle school, housing grades 7 and 8. The school serves 612 students.

Camp Holiday Trails
Camp Holiday Trails is a summer camp for children with special health needs. Our campers range in age from seven to fourteen and our Blazer program is designed for kids aged fifteen to seventeen. Kids come to us from all over the mid-Atlantic region and their medical diagnoses vary. We serve kids with arthritis, asthma and other respiratory conditions, cancer--including children on IV chemotherapy, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, heart disease, immunodeficiency-HIV, kidney disease, urological disorders, visual impairments, and other medical conditions.

The Cedars
The Cedars is a 140 bed skilled nursing and rehab facility in Charlottesville.

Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries (CALM)
Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries (CALM) is a partnership among the residents of the Fifeville/Prospect Avenue neighborhood and volunteers from local churches and area nonprofits to support for the people within their community.  Almost 140 children and more than 100 volunteers are involved in weekly meetings -- tutoring, mentoring, eating dinners together, learning the Bible, playing basketball, going on field trips, praying, and just hanging out together.

Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA
Our shelter, the major focal point for the SPCA, provides a number of programs and services for the Charlottesville/Albemarle community and its unwanted, homeless and neglected animals. One of the most important services is providing a positive alternative for close to 5,000 homeless dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats/mice and hamsters each year. We have a high adoption rate for our dogs and puppies, and are working very hard to reduce the overpopulation of cats and kittens so as to place as many of our felines as possible.

Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA)
This office manages over 376 units for the exclusive use of low income families, seniors, and disabled individuals. Another 300 units of privately owned homes are available by the CRHA through the Housing Choice Voucher Program, with the goal of assisting low to moderate-income families with viable housing options.

Children, Youth, and Family Services
Children, Youth & Family Services, Inc. is a private, non-profit human service agency located in downtown Charlottesville, serving residents of the City of Charlottesville; and Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Nelson and Louisa counties. CYFS is one of the area's oldest private, non-profit organizations, with roots dating back to 1921. Originally founded as an orphanage to house children left parentless after a tragic influenza epidemic, today CYFS provides a continuum of services for children and families in three focus areas: promoting Parent Education & Support, fostering quality Child Care, and preserving family bonds through mediated Clinical Services.

The Habitat Store
The Habitat Store accepts donations of new and salvaged building materials and home furnishings and then sells them to the general public at discount prices. All proceeds from the Store contribute to the construction of new Habitat homes in the Charlottesville community. While our primary goal is to provide funding for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, we also seek to make home maintenance more affordable for everyone and to promote responsible stewardship of our natural resources by diverting usable materials from the landfill.  A significant  benefit of the store is the recycling and reuse of surplus new and used building materials.

Jumpstart
Jumpstart is a national early literacy program whose mission is to work towards the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. Through Jumpstart Charlottesville, U.Va.-student AmeriCorps Members spend 10-15 hours each week with low-income three-, four- and five-year-olds in local harlottesville, U.Va.-student AmeriCorps Members spend 10-15 hours each week with low-income three-, four- and five-year-olds in local preschool programs, working to help them develop early language, literacy, social, and initiative skills. Our aim is for each child to take advantage of his or her education, beginning with the first day of kindergarten. In the Charlottesville area, we work specifically with students from Barrett Early Learning Center; the Albemarle County Bright Stars Program at Cale, Greer, and Stone-Robinson Elementary Schools; and the Charlottesville City Schools Preschool Program at Burnley-Moran, Clark, Greenbrier, Jackson-Via, Johnson Elementary Schools. We additionally sponsor service projects with area programs such as Habitat for Humanity, AHIP, Urban Vision, and the Salvation Army so that our service to children extends beyond the school walls, allowing us help build a community of support for their future success.

Martha Jefferson House
As a multi-level retirement community, the Martha Jefferson House offers a close-knit and extraordinary independent living environment or, for the handful of folks here who aren't quite as independent, the support offered in assisted living. For those who need more comprehensive care, we have our nursing care facility, called "The Infirmary."

McIntire Park
McIntire Park is the second-largest park in the City, with almost 136 acres of land. Located in the center of the city, this popular park was made possible by Paul Goodloe McIntire who purchased land from 1926 to 1941 and then donated it as as one park to the City of Charlottesville. McIntire features rolling land with magnificent views of the mountains to the east, a heavily wooded area with steep and varied topography and winding streams.

Piedmont Court Appointed Special Advocates
CASA is an organization that trains Court Appointed Special Advocates, who work one-on-one with abused and endangered children to assist the courts in determining the best environment to ensure each child's safety and well-being. Volunteer court advocates may be the only voice that can truly speak for these children.

Rivanna Trails Foundation
The mission of the Rivanna Trails Foundation is to create and protect natural footpaths, which follow the Rivanna River and its tributaries, for the enjoyment of all. The foundation incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1992, and to date has completed more than 18 miles of hiking trails.

Ronald McDonald House
The Ronald McDonald House is a low cost lodging facility for pediatric patients and/or their families who live beyond Charlottesville and Albemarle County and are being treated at local hospitals.

Salvation Army
The Charlottesville Salvation Army Corps has served this community since 1912. Our primary programs are Emergency Services, Homeless Intervention Program, Medical Assistance Program, Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing Program, Feeding Program, Booth School of Life Management, Preschool/After-School Childcare Program, Summer Camp, Disaster Services, and two Thrift Stores.

Sexual Assault Resource Agency (SARA)
The Sexual Assault Resource Agency (SARA) is a private, non-profit organization whose volunteers and staff are dedicated to facilitating the healing of sexual assault victims; and to reducing the vulnerability of women, children, and men to sexual assault and sexual abuse.

Venable Elementary School
Venable School is an elementary school for children in Kindergarten through 4th grade. It is a school rich in a tradition of community participation and volunteerism. Located near the University of Virginia, Venable brings together a heterogeneous group of families from the surrounding neighborhoods that view the school as the focal point for their children's education and socialization. It is in a large part through these families' interest and involvement in Venable that it has been able to provide a breadth of experience from art enrichment to after-school computer instruction and community picnics.

Virginia Discovery Museum
The Museum provides hands-on activities, programs, and exhibits designed for children 1-10 years of age. A discovery art studio and gallery is located inside the museum which supplies directions, materials, and samples to help guests make unique, creative projects to take home. Special events are put on throughout the month.