Moving hearts and transforming lives, also with volunteering

As every year, ARCORES presents its volunteer proposal for 2025. It is an invitation to “move hearts and transform lives”, as expressed in the motto of the Augustinian Recollect International Solidarity Network.

Since its inception, ARCORES has as one of its main objectives the promotion of social volunteering for development and awareness towards the most vulnerable people and groups. In ARCORES, local and international volunteering is a strategic priority and one of the best expressions of personal commitment to solidarity, justice and the fight against poverty.

Moving hearts and transforming lives

Moving hearts means offering a different way of living: an experiential, personal and communitarian path, based on training, accompaniment and mutual enrichment, through encounters and social action, both locally and internationally. The aim is to enable the volunteer to put his or her heart, mind and will at the service of the most disadvantaged and needy, committing him or herself deeply. Sensitivity, a critical sense, global citizenship and care for people, the common good and the planet will be the footprints through which he/she will walk.

To this we add the proposal to transform lives, inviting the volunteer to change his or her own life to positively impact the lives of others. Their fraternal and transforming commitment must have an impact on improving the living conditions of other people. The volunteer strives to seek a dignified life for all human beings, especially the most vulnerable, and to create a more humane world without injustice.

For ARCORES, this purpose has a dual perspective: a local, loving and humane look at the person in front of us, and a global, transforming and hopeful look at the reality that surrounds those with whom we establish links.

Augustinian Recollect missionary volunteers

The volunteer proposal of ARCORES looks at the world and reality from a humanizing and socio-transforming perspective of the Gospel, under the prism of Augustinian Recollect spirituality, which includes a passion for service. Jesus is our point of reference: we try to act in the style of Jesus, as He would do. His gaze full of mercy and love for all leads us to speak of a “proximity” volunteerism and of an “all-caring” God. The neighbor is the one who is close to us in space and time. We are aware that solidarity makes us better Christians and children of God, and that integral care includes the fight against any kind of poverty: material, structural, social, personal or spiritual.

“We are the Church going out, we are people who seek to share life and meet with other people. We are going to be with others, prioritizing the encounter based on dialogue over action. Being close is the priority, always being respectful of other mentalities, solutions and behaviors. We are guests of other cultures, other communities and other projects, and at the same time we are models of a different way of living. For this reason, we live naturally and simply to show authenticity.”

Volunteer programs

ARCORES volunteer programs have had a significant development in countries such as Venezuela, Mexico and Spain. In Spain, the offer is particularly broad, with local, national and international volunteer programs. The local and national proposal focuses on the country itself and is also open to students from schools of the Order. International volunteering takes place in countries where the Augustinian Recollect Family is present and, as described in the presentation, offers “the possibility of living an experience of encounter with yourself, with others, with another culture, with life and with God, based on an experiential formative itinerary and the development of a work of support in a project of promotion and development of ARCORES”. In recent years In the last few years, groups of volunteers have lived their experience with ARCORES in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Philippines, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama and the Dominican Republic. It is “a way of showing solidarity and accompanying people in their development through a direct relationship, by carrying out concrete actions and sharing work and experiences with communities in mission places”.

The itinerary that ARCORES proposes to become an ARCORES VOLUNTEER has the following objectives: to become aware of the reality of the world of the impoverished; to learn to accompany each other in order to give meaning to our lives based on welcome, respect, care and solidarity; to become sensitizing agents in the family, work and friendship environment, exerting a multiplying effect of social transformation; to know how to work in spaces of encounter and promotion where mutual enrichment and social cohesion prevail; and to commit effectively and continuously to the local and/or international actions of ARCORES or other entities with similar social purposes.

The preparation and training process for all volunteers begins months in advance and is planned as an experience of accompaniment in several phases, including pre- and post-volunteer meetings.

The pre-registration period for ARCORES Spain’s international volunteer program ends on October 31. Detailed information is available at https://es.arcores.org/que-puedes-hacer-tu/voluntariado/