belongs to ASF´s International Program for volunteers from Germany.
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Contacts between ARSP and the United States developed when American volunteers helped with the rebuilding of a devastated Europe after the Second World War. In 1968 the peace churches and the United Church of Christ welcomed German volunteers from ARSP in 1968 to come to the United States so that the peace service would not be a one-way street. The emphasis of the work in the 60´s (and until the 80´s) included social and political disadvantaged people, specifically with disadvantaged ethnic minorities (African Americans, Native Americans and Mexican migrant workers), as well as the work with peace initiatives and community organizing.
It took many years until the first ASF volunteers worked in Jewish establishments. The USA has the biggest Jewish community outside of Israel. Before the Holocaust, approximately 150,000 Jews fled Germany and other European countries. Today approximately half of the volunteers work in Jewish establishments and/or preserving the memory / Holocaust education.
Other volunteers work with the homeless, with the mentally ill, with financially-disadvantaged children, as well as with women, who are victims of sexual assault. Still other volunteers are active with solidarity and peace work.
Today approximately 25 ASF volunteers work predominately in large cities in the Northeast and in the Midwest. In some projects volunteers live with disabled individuals out in the country.
Working in the USA has always appealed to many Germans. The USA is often misunderstood, therefore, there is a certain amount of anti-Americanism. This is also one of the challenges for volunteers: We want to learn about the country and its people but the reality is totally different.
“Live simple so that others can simply live”- is surely a motto of volunteer work: to get by with very little, with simple and poor living conditions. Volunteers in the USA can expect only 2-3 weeks of vacation per year, which is different to that in Europe.
