It is easy to dismiss the humanity of others when we have our eyes closed. It is easy to ignore society’s injustices when our ears only listen to the stories of those who sound like us. It is easy to think nobody cares when we stay within our boundaries, never knowing of the work so many are doing to bring peace and justice to restore our broken systems.

Our mission Social Reform Club is to invite people to be aware that there are things we need to work on and then to actually do them. The seven leaders of SRC this year are: Hayley Brooks, Martin Hofkamp, Ammon Allen-Doucot, Vasti Rosado, Kiernan Wright, Avery Martin and me.

SRC will focus most of its energy on two main projects. One of the projects is going to the Elkhart County jail located inside the Elkhart County Criminal Justice Complex. Dostoyevsky once said: “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”

The first step of this project will be to take those who are interested on a tour of the facility. This will help people get a better understanding and a concrete image of the jail. The next step will be to go over to the facility for an hour-long training session, which is required of all volunteers.

These two things will be happening in the next month. The third step is to have GC people visit with the people inside the facility twice a month. For now we are thinking of pairing up a GC person with a person inside the jail. We are working on the logistics of this project with the help of Cory Martin, jail chaplain.

The second project will be to organize a trip to the School of the Americas Watch. It is a protest to shut down the SOA due to the many graduates that turn out to be human rights abusers. This event will be happening November 22-24 in Ft. Benning, Ga., where the school is located. PAX Club and SRC are working together to organize the details for this event in order to take all of those who are interested in going.

Our hope is that through these two projects, we will become a part of the greater community that is working within a world of violence by actively making peace.