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An alternative break is a trip where a group of college students (usually 10-12 per trip) engage in volunteer service, typically for a week. Alternative break trips originated with college students in the early 1980s as a counter to "traditional" spring break trips. Alternative breaks may occur during students’ fall, winter, weekend, or summer school breaks. Each trip has a focus on a particular social issue, such as (but not limited to) poverty, education reform, refugee resettlement, and the environment. Students learn about the social issues and then perform week-long projects with local non-profit organizations. Alternative breaks are also drug and alcohol-free experiences, with a heavy emphasis on group and individual reflection. Alternative breaks challenge students to critically think and react to problems faced by members of the communities they are involved with. Being immersed in diverse environments enables participants to experience, discuss, and understand social issues in a significant way. The intensity of the experience increases the likelihood that participants will transfer their experience on-site back to their own communities even after the alternative break ends. The aim of the experience is to contribute volunteer hours to communities in need, and to positively influence the life of the alternative breaker. Breakers are emboldened to take educated steps toward valuing and prioritizing their own communities in life choices such as recycling, donating resources, voting, etc. Many breakers have returned to their college campuses to create a campus organization related to the social issue, have a deeper understanding and commitment to an academic path, execute a fundraiser for the non-profit organization they worked with, organize a letter writing campaign to members of Congress, volunteer in their local community, or commit to an internship or career within the non-profit sector. == History == One of the first alternative spring breaks was founded by Gregg Cassin at Boston College in 1978. Gregg and 11 students raised money from bake sales, keg parties and raffles to rent two funky vans and headed to the town of Vanceburg, Kentucky in Appalachia. There they worked repairing homes, helping out on farms and wherever else they were needed. The experience was life-changing and the group continued to grow each year. This was the humble beginnings of the BC Appalachia Volunteer Group. Now, it is nationally known volunteer program which sends hundreds of students throughout the country each year.() Student-led initiatives, now known as alternative breaks, became more prevalent on college campuses in the 1980s and early 1990s as part of an overall surge of interest in institutionalizing community service on college campuses. Rather than travel to a traditional spring break location, groups of students came together to form a new community that was immersed in education on social issues, service work, and reflection. In 1991, Michael Magevney and Laura Mann, two recent graduates who had been very involved in building a successful alternative break program at Vanderbilt University, gained the support of then Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt and founded a national nonprofit organization called Break Away: The Alternative Break Connection. Their purpose was to gather the resources and best practices for the alternative spring break programs that had been established on multiple campuses across the U.S. Break Away, began as a modest resource center for alternative breaks and continues to be the national organization dedicated to developing lifelong active citizenship through quality alternative break programs. Break Away's development and national growth was supported and facilitated by leveraging the national network of campus service programs built by the Campus Outreach Opportunity League. COOL's National Conference provided a great platform to engage college students interested or involved in alternative breaks from all over the nation. For the last two decades, there has been a consistent increase in the number of colleges and universities with alternative break programs. This growth accelerated in the mid-2000s, and has been attributed to two factors: 1) the institutionalization of volunteer service as an integral part of the college experience, 2) the overwhelming interest in service work along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In response to the rapid growth in popularity of Alternative Break programs, organizations like (Break A Difference ) began hosting turn-key, all-inclusive Alternative Break programs in communities across the country. These programs are unlike any other because they are not limited to specific universities, have offerings in multiple cities in the United States, hold trips each of the four weeks in March, focus on a variety of social issues and can accommodate students and student groups whose school either did not offer trips or the trips were full. Additionally, these programs include a comprehensive leadership training component prior to arrival, reflection and team building activities during the trip and resources and tools to stay involved once they return to their community. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alternative break」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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