Urban Service Camps
Old First welcomes youth, adult and intergenerational groups for weekend or week-long Service Camps, which combine direct service at a number of organizations throughout Philadelphia with time for reflection on the realities of urban inequality and homelessness.
Service campers learn the challenges facing the city and the joys and rewards of hands-on work in agencies that are making a difference in our city. Service campers volunteer at social service sites including Old First’s Saturday Breakfast or Shelter Dinners, as well as other sites across Philadelphia such as the Whosoever Gospel Mission, Sunday Breakfast Mission, MANNA, and Broad Street Ministry.
The urban service camp experience also includes time for participants to reflect on the spiritual, social and political implications of their experiences. Members of Old First work with group leaders to help groups unpack the structural realities that create and perpetuate homelessness, combining hands-on experience with learning and spiritual growth. And there is usually time for some good, old fashioned fun, too– often, for example, sight-seeing in the historic district or fun on South Street!
Old First strongly encourages service camps to stay and worship with us on Sunday as that may be the only opportunity for visitors to get to know us as a church (worship is at 11 during the year and at 10 am in the summer).
To Register
Print out a registration form and send in via snail mail or attach it to the contact form below. Be sure to check out this other information too
