Service Goals

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ’s compassion to the world.”  - St. Theresa of Avila

The inspiration for the service pillar was drawn from the social teaching of the Catholic Church, Vatican II documents, and the parish survey.  The goals of the service pillar encourage a broadening of service opportunities and an increase in participation by members of our community. As a parish rooted in Christ, we hope to truly live out and embody these words from Gaudium et Spes: “Whoever in obedience to Christ seeks first the Kingdom of God, takes from there a stronger and purer love for helping all his brethren and for perfecting the work of justice under the inspiration of charity.”

• St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center will be a community attuned to the needs of Gainesville.
• We will provide regular service opportunities for parishioners.
• We will better communicate service opportunities to parishioners.

• Create an online database and sign-up for parishioners who are interested in service opportunities
• Create a process for evaluating and recording the experiences of service volunteers
• Offer and publicize a list of service opportunities through various forms of media
• Promote and publicize the annual “You Got Served” volunteer fair to communicate opportunities for short-term, long-term, and community service events to parishioners
• Offer a volunteer fair once per semester to promote local service opportunities to all parishioners
• Offer the “Protecting God’s Children” class at least once per semester
• Write an environmental action assessment and plan for St. Augustine’s Parish
• Participate in service opportunities with other faith communities once per year
• Explore an annual parish-wide domestic mission trip during the summer
• Recruit a volunteer coordinator to work with the parish council to implement the service goals

• Expand the number of service listings by 15 percent
• Increase the number of service volunteers by 15 percent
• Update, maintain, and expand the database of parishioners interested in service opportunities
• Review, evaluate, and, if needed, revise the process for evaluating the experiences and recording the number of volunteers
• Launch an annual survey of parishioners to adjust the various service opportunities to meet their interests or personal situations
• Review, evaluate, and, if needed, revise the procedures for publicizing the service opportunities to parishioners
• Organize ongoing training sessions for specific volunteer experiences, as needed
• Review, evaluate, and, if needed, adjust the semester volunteer fair
• Evaluate, promote, and expand the “You Got Served” event to once per semester
• Implement the environmental action plan
• Increase the number of service opportunities with other faith communities to at least twice per year
• Implement an annual parish-wide domestic mission trip during the summer

• Expand the number of service opportunities by an additional 15 percent
• Increase the number of service volunteers by an additional 15 percent
• Evaluate, expand, and update the database of volunteers
• Continue to record and evaluate the experiences of volunteers
• Review, evaluate, and, if needed, revise the implementation of the environmental action plan
• Conduct a survey to evaluate the various service opportunities available to parishioners