Johnson Service Corps provides training and mentorship to support our Fellows in becoming tomorrow’s leaders. JSC’s goal is that Fellows will be positioned to step into leadership roles, especially in nonprofits and churches, after their year of service with us. We provide mentorship, professional development training, relationship skills, justice workshops and trainings so our Fellows can grow towards their best selves and their divine calling.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman
Mentorship
Johnson Service Corps believes that young adults benefit from relationships outside of their peer groups, and that these relationships help to grow their character, inner strengths, and overall leadership skills. It’s for this reason that JSC pairs each Fellow with a mentor during the program duration; mentoring helps a person move from where they are to where they want to be. A mentor assists one to become more clear, more focused, and unconditionally committed to getting what they want to give and to receive in their lives. Mentoring is an ongoing process that accelerates learning, compassion, performance, and character.
This special mentoring relationship will be a confidential, mutual relationship that encourages trust through open dialogue. This is a way for Fellows to work through the discernment process, to articulate personal and professional goals, to reflect on their experience in the program, and to tackle challenges that may arise in the Fellows’ lives.
Because JSC has been around 24 years, we are blessed to have an incredible rolodex of community members interested in serving as mentors. We work to match Fellows with a mentor from our JSC community who can support the Fellow in the ways they seek to grow. For example, some of our Fellows are primarily seeking spiritual mentorship, so will match them with rectors, spiritual directors, or community members with strong spiritual leadership experience. Other Fellows are looking for more professional mentorship, and we will then connect them with mentors in their field of interest.
Fellows and mentors are encouraged to meet at least once a month and check in as needed, although creating time to meet is the sole responsibility of the Fellow and Mentor. This relationship creates yet another layer of intentional community building, by offering a network of community members that care about both the Fellows and the program they are a part of. Our mentors are sometimes JSC alumni themselves, and serve as a wonderful resource for our Fellows throughout the program year.
Trainings
On Fridays, Fellows participate in trainings and workshops about social justice issues, spiritual practices, and understanding the self, others, and group dynamics. Among many transformative opportunities, Fellows attend Durham Cares Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope, train on Conflict Resolution with the Dispute Settlement Center, study local hero, Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, take a 2 day Racial Justice and Equity training through Organizing Against Racism, and retreat at Avila Center.
Fellows also participate in Call and Money, a 6 week course designed to deepen the Fellows’ process of “vocational discernment.” In the course, Fellows dig into the elements of “call” and explore their personal relationship to “money.” In this course, the Fellows gain a better understanding of how these two areas can either support or conflict with “living into” their sense of call and service.
Praxis Project
In the spring, Fellows complete a Praxis Project. For this project, they work together as a group to discern a call to a particular need in the local community, develop a project plan, write and present a small grant proposal, administer the project, complete a project report, and evaluate and reflect on the whole experience. The Praxis Project is a way to put the values and theory of JSC into practice in a concrete way and represents the culmination of the Fellows’ service experience.
