Hildegard House (Duluth, MN) Seeks Short-Term Volunteer (May – Sept.)
Hildegard House (Duluth, MN) is looking for someone to help with hospitality to asylum seekers from May to September — and longer, if it seems like a good fit.
Hello Catholic Workers,
Anyone out there who would like to take on a 3 month stay at Hildegard House within the months of May-September? Longer if it seems like a good fit. Currently our house is offering hospitality to asylum seekers who have been held in detention because they didn’t have a sponsor or host. Hildegard House is part of an interfaith network teaming up with faith-based communities in the Twin Ports. Hildegard House is one of 6 host/sponsor communities. Hildegard House does not act as a shelter. The house is home to our guests who have their own keys and are relatively self-sufficient. Our role is to connect them with whatever services they may need as they work on their asylum cases and to help them feel welcomed and safe in their new home and community. To this end, HIldegard House is taking a lead role in developing a welcome center in Duluth.
Hildegard House maintains a strong connection with the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery. We are invited to attend their daily prayers and we volunteer in their gardens during the summer. In exchange Hildegard House has a substantial vegetable garden adjacent to their flower garden and next to an Anishinaabe medicine garden which was given to the Native community in a gesture of returning some of the land to the original people that were there before the monastery and college took it over.
Hildegard House supports mutual aid farms in our area and volunteers in various social justice initiatives. We are strong allies/accomplices with the Indigenous Water Protectors and remain committed to standing in solidarity with them as our region continues to face destruction by fossil fuel and extraction companies.
Hildegard House is firmly grounded in the principles of the Catholic Worker Movement, ie, the Sermon on the Mount, the Works of Mercy and the Beatitudes.
Hildegard House provides room and board. We don’t offer stipends. We are not a nonprofit and do not receive grant money. Part time jobs are available in the area if you need money for personal expenses. We are a clean and sober house meaning that we don’t have alcohol or drugs in our house. If you like beer, Duluth has a host of micro breweries in town with a variety of flavors.
Summer is a spectacular season here in Duluth. We are right on Lake Superior and there are lots of parks, forests and green spaces.
Please call or email if you want to know more or have questions or would even like to come for a short visit before making a commitment
Peace, Michele Naar-Obed for the Hildegard House Catholic Worker Community.