On May 15, Hilary Burgin, the Executive Director of Quaker Voluntary Service, led Memphis Friends in a double-feature MfL.

First she shared a very informative slideshow of QVS. Did you know...

• QVS fellows range in age from 21 to 30.
• To date 250 have participated as QVS fellows and are now QVS alums.
• Approximately 40% of QVS fellows identify as Quaker upon entering the program, and approximately 60% do as alums. 
• QVS fellows live in intentional communities of 6-8 in the cities of Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Portland, and the Twin Cities and are placed in service sites where they work full time for a year to add capacity to the sites.
• In each of these cities QVS fellows are matched with a Spiritual Nurturer from that city's Quaker meeting.
• In addition to housing, QVS fellows receive transportation, support for health and wellness, and a small stipend.
• Other financial supports available for QVS Fellows include the Black Hair Fund, Emergency Discretionary Funds, Student Loan Support, and a Program Completion Stipend.
• Over 50 Quaker meetings or churches give annually to QVS. Participating service sites pay half of program costs.

Next, Hilary encouraged Friends to join her in sampling one of her favorite workshops for new QVS fellows - a worship sharing on simplicity. She shared this passage: “If the primary focus of a Quaker’s life is to harmonize that life around the promptings of the Inward Light, then all that distracts from that focus needs to be pruned away.” She followed this passage with queries, "What are times when you have had to make a personal choice about what/how to prioritize? How did you employ faithful discernment in this decision making?"

Hilary, who can be reached at hilary@quakervoluntaryservice.org, offered the following links for further information about QVS:

• Sign up for QVS eNews: https://bit.ly/QVS-eNews
• Read stories about QVS Alumni: https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/category/alum-update/
• QVS Alumni Impact Report: https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/alumni-impact/
• Make a one-time or sustaining gift to QVS: https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/donate/