Centre Service: Students address poverty, homelessness efforts during winter break

Service is a key tenet of the Centre College experience — and the College’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement provided an opportunity to put that purpose into practice during winter break.

Interested students experienced three days full of hands-on activities in Louisville, including community service, non-profit organization tours and meet-and-greets with officials in the area to discuss poverty and homelessness.

“Poverty and Homelessness is a national issue that has gotten worse and grown in prominence over the past few years,” said Colby Kinser ’24, CentreEngage coordinator and a Centre fellow funded by AmeriCorps. “Centre has been doing work to educate our students on these issues for decades through our annual Poverty and Homelessness Week, which just celebrated its 31st anniversary. This trip serves as a continuation of this work and as a way to educate our students on the current housing epidemic facing the nation.”

Students were able to take the trip to Louisville during the College’s winter break, between CentreTerm and the spring semester. It was an in-depth experience, provided by the OCCE and Religious Life Office at Centre, that allowed students to see firsthand the work local non-profits and government agencies are doing to combat poverty and homelessness.

“I wanted to attend the trip to find out how I could continue to support and educate my own community,” said Louisville native Emily Salcedo Cachu, class of 2028. “Learning about the extent of homelessness in my community was devastating. However, discovering non-profits and the resources they provided did not go unnoticed. The combined efforts the organizations have made benefit Louisville, and being able to provide people with those resources is a step in the right direction.”

Kinser said the group visited The Coalition for the Homeless, United Crescent Hill Ministries, Blueprint 502, The Muhammad Ali Centre and The Hope Village. Along with those visits, former Louisville Metro council member Bill Hollander and Elizabeth Strojan ’06 spoke with the group. Strojan, an alumna of the Bonner Program at Centre, currently serves as executive director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority.

Centre’s Bonner Program attracts students from across the United States who are daily changemakers and are passionate about serving their communities, with yearly service trips and scholarship funding based on need.

“This trip served as a great example of experiential learning and community engagement, which are both core components of the Centre Experience,” Kinser said.

Salcedo Cachu and fellow first-year Tyler Frisby enjoyed working with children at United Crescent Hill Ministries, a non-profit that provides local social services.

“I attended the trip because service is essential to me,” Frisby said. “It was nice to help the community with something as simple as giving my time. Overall, this entire experience was eye-opening, and I am now more equipped to help and use the information I’ve gained.”

“The trip to Louisville was super educational and left an impact on me forever,” Salcedo Cachu said. “I’m so lucky to have been able to contribute to my community and learn how I could help.”