The Jesuit Volunteer Community provides fully funded opportunities for volunteers aged 18 – 35 from Britain and other countries in the European Economic Area to work in British inner cities for a year, or for a month during the summer.

JVC is a charity operated by the Jesuits, an  order of priests in the Roman Catholic Church, renowned for their work for social justice.

JVC volunteers aspire to be contemplatives in action in the Jesuit tradition. Through working for social justice in inner cities, living simply in community and exploring spirituality, volunteers live out their values in generosity and care for others.

The first JVC was set up in the USA in the 1950s by a Jesuit priest, Jack Morris SJ. As JVC grew in the States, Jesuits thought the experience would be of value to young adults in Europe, and JVC Britain was born. Two British women did a JVC volunteer year in the USA in 1986, reported back, and in 1987 the programme opened here with one community.

The JVC experience – both on the Summer Programme and the Gap Year - is life-changing. Volunteers come to understand what life is like for those who are marginalised in British society - people who are homeless, disabled, excluded from education, refugees and asylum seekers, or those at risk in other ways; they learn how to live in community with people from different cultures and backgrounds; and experience the challenges of living on limited means.

JVC volunteers do not have to be Roman Catholic, or even Christian, but they must respect Christian beliefs and be willing to explore and share Christian spirituality in the Jesuit - or Ignatian -way.