Ignatian Corps: Seniors with a heart for service

Becky Goff, above, directs the New Orleans-area location of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a Jesuit-founded lay service ministry that places volunteers ages 50 and up into local anti-poverty efforts. (Photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald, and courtesy of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

While searching for ways in which to spend their newly acquired “spare time,” some retirees find themselves in a quandary: How can I plug myself into some meaningful service work as a volunteer?

Since 2019, the New Orleans regional office of the Jesuit-founded Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC) has been alleviating some of that confusion by linking people ages 50 and older to the volunteer needs of nearly 30 partner agencies that assist the poor in our local area.

“You may have this feeling inside like, ‘OK, I’m retired, but I still have a lot to give,’ but you’ve got to go through the process of moving that feeling into action,” said Becky Goff, director of the IVC’s New Orleans office, which recruits men and women who can commit to volunteering one or two days a week during the IVC’s 10-month service year running from September to June.

“If the average person wants to find a place to volunteer, it can be kind of daunting: Who takes volunteers? Who would need my skills?” Goff said. “We recruit volunteers, we work with partner agencies to place them where they’re a good fit, and then we support them in their work (over the) long term with spiritual formation – so they can stay in the game, because serving the poor can be very challenging and tiring.”

Goff, who stepped in as the regional director of IVC New Orleans last December, succeeds founding director Lisa Schillace, who left to assume her current role as national director of #iGiveCatholic.

New Orleans is one of the IVC’s 19 regional hubs in the U.S., the first of which was established in Baltimore in 1995 as a “senior version” of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC), which recruits 21- to 25-year-old volunteers to work in anti-poverty initiatives. 

During a ceremony in which Baltimore’s JVC recruits were being sent forth to their respective assignments, “one of the parents went up to the priest during the break and asked him, ‘What about our generation?’” Goff said.

Volunteer steam provided

Recognizing this untapped demographic of retired yet active Catholics who craved opportunities to answer Christ’s call to serve the poor, the Jesuits created the IVC to deploy older volunteers to both secular and faith-based settings.

One of IVC New Orleans’ biggest partner agencies – and the office’s home base – is Loyola University, which operates several ministries targeting the poor and food insecure. For example, one service corps member, a retired Georgetown University professor, mentors Loyola students who are interested in social justice outreach, while another IVC volunteer helps supervise “Iggy’s Cupboard,” an on-campus pantry that provides emergency food to students in need.

“We’ve placed tutors at Good Shepherd School, and we have other volunteers at the Rebuild Center – at DePaul USA, the Harry Tompson Center and Lantern Light,” said Goff, reeling off just a few of the IVC’s 29 partner agencies. “At the YMCA, we have two gentlemen who are tutoring people who are trying to get their GED; we’ve also placed people at Hotel Hope.”

Goff’s own husband, Richard “Dick” Goff, volunteers at Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, which renovates houses earmarked for rental to New Orleans’ working poor.

“He was a project leader at General Electric for 40 years (overseeing) multimillion-dollar projects,” Goff said, sharing that her retired husband, 75, works with Jane Place’s executive director to inspect and manage renovations undertaken by the affordable housing agency. In his previous year of IVC service, Dick Goff assisted clients of Habitat for Humanity with their FEMA paperwork and made sure construction professionals were fulfilling their contracts. 

“I use (my husband) as an illustration because he’s got all this work experience dealing with contractors and doing building projects, and now he’s able to use that in his volunteer work,” Goff said.

Community of volunteers

In addition to their commitment to complete weekly service, service corps members come together at monthly meetings held at Corpus Christi-Epiphany Resource Center. Time is built in for prayer, Ignatian spirituality topics, book club-style discussions on assigned readings and speakers on social justice issues.

“We talk about our work together, and we reinforce each other. These are adults who are interested in continuous learning,” Goff said, noting that her service corps members are currently discerning whether to add a concluding Mass to the monthly check-ins. The Jesuits, who are among the IVC’s biggest supporters, sponsor the group’s opening retreat in September and its year-ending retreat at Manresa in June.

Regular spiritual direction is also provided to all service corps members, enabling the volunteers to “reflect on how their work is affecting them, how it’s helping them draw closer to God and to help them work on any struggles they may be having,” Goff said.

Getting involved is easy

Goff said the first step to becoming part of the IVC is to call her to schedule a friendly, in-person interview.

“I ask them about what skills, abilities and experiences they are bringing and would like to deploy in volunteering; why they want to volunteer; and I also make sure they understand the commitment to both (the weekly volunteer requirement) and being part of the community,” Goff said. “I give them a folder that shows the different kinds of jobs that we have available, and then give them some time to discern. If they want (to accept the volunteer post), they fill out an application and join us.”

After the volunteer has a few weeks under his or her belt, a memorandum of understanding is written up between the partner agency and the volunteer.

“The partner agencies are thrilled with this arrangement because they’re getting skilled, talented and dependable people who are going to show up on time,” Goff said. “Our model is that our people become like an adjunct member of the staff at the partner agency – they’re not people who just show up and do something if there is something for them to do; they’re a part-time member of their agency’s team.”

Scheduling details are left up to the volunteer and the partner agency. Some members volunteer the same days each week, while others have varied schedules, such as the service corps member who transports homeless individuals to their medical appointments.

Getting the word out

A native of Evansville, Indiana, Goff brings her own career experiences to the IVC. During her more than 30 years as a chemical engineer at General Electric and independent engineering consultant, Goff was introduced to Ignatian spirituality while completing a master’s degree in theological studies at Jesuit-founded Spring Hill College. Her career shift to faith-based work, bolstered by 75 graduate theology credits to date, includes leading her former parish’s RCIA and evangelization ministries, being a certified spiritual director and advocating for those seeking annulments in the Marriage Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Mobile.

Caring for an elderly relative prompted yet another change of course: Goff pursued her Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) certification as a hospital chaplain, landing her initial chaplaincy job at a cancer treatment center in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2018, one of the Goffs’ three sons – a graduate of Loyola Law School – asked his parents if they would consider relocating to New Orleans to be closer to their future grandchildren.

“A great job opportunity came up (as staff chaplain) at Ochsner-Baptist, and so we came to New Orleans, right before COVID,” said Goff, noting that she and her husband felt “housebound” during the ensuing lockdown and began searching for a place where they could meet service-oriented peers.

“I just happened to be Googling and ran across (IVC),” she said. “Having gone to a Jesuit school, I knew about the JVC model, but I had no idea that there was a JVC version for mature people!

“Many people, when they first retire, feel very disoriented,” Goff said. Here, we have a group where everybody’s doing the same thing together. IVC is also something lovely that couples can do together.”

Goff said every time she sits down with someone “from that mature, have-some-time demographic,” they become excited about the chance to use their skills, be part of a community of like-minded people and take part in the continuing faith formation that IVC provides.

“But they’re just like, ‘What’s the IVC?’ They don’t know about us!” Goff said. “So, my job is not having to ‘sell’ IVC to volunteers or to agencies; my job is to let people know to call. That’s my huge challenge. Call me!”

For more information, call Becky Goff at (504) 264-3438; email her at [email protected]; visit ivcusa.org; or watch an informational video at bit.ly/3JgUfu6.

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