What is the program?
The Inscape Missions Program is for young adults ages 18 –23 who want to do hands-on missionary service in a community context while growing in self-awareness and exploration of their unique, personal vocation.
When does it start and end?
Missionaries can serve for different lengths of time:
- One Year – August 15, 2022 to August 15, 2023 (two-week break for Christmas and one-week break for Easter)
- Fall Semester – August 15, 2022 to December 15, 2022 (4 months; time off for Thanksgiving)
- Spring Semester – January 15, 2023 to May 15, 2023 (4 months; one-week break for Easter)
- Summer Mission – June 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023 (2 months)
There will be up to six men and six women guided by our Inscape Mission Coordinator, Brooke Miller with help from a “house mother” and “house father” who will live and work alongside the missionaries. Dr. Joshua Miller, Inscape’s Executive Director, will lead the personal vocation formation part of the program.
The first part of the program (regardless of when a missionary starts) will consist of formation and community building including:
- Assessment of each participant’s unique gifts using a life-giving story-based approach
- Individual coaching
- Missionary training
- Fun, community building events
- And lots of good meals!
After this period of formation, missionaries will move into service at one or two of 40 after school programs offered by the Sycamore Youth Center for local Steubenville youth. Missionaries will offer their unique gifts in service as they explore, develop, and apply those gifts.
Alongside individual service opportunities all the missionaries with their “house parents” will work together on projects now taking place in Steubenville to bring restoration and healing to the city. We will build and tend a community garden, revitalize city parks, work with The Harmonium Project and the Steubenville Cultural Trust to put on programs for music and art.
The program goals are three-fold:
- Produce confident, self-aware, purposeful young adults who embrace their personal vocations and are able to make wise choices about college (including topic/s of study), career, state of life, and more.
- Help in building up the Body of Christ in Steubenville and renewing the city itself.
- The ongoing impact of young adults cultivating personal vocation in their own spheres of influence as they leave the program and help heal other communities around the country and the world.
Who is it for?
The Inscape Missions Program is in partnership with Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS). Although we will take applications from all young adults who qualify, we prioritize applications from those who meet one of the following three criteria:
- Those who have graduated from high school and been accepted at a college or university but want to defer enrollment for a year
- Those who have completed one or more years of post secondary education and want (for whatever reason) to take a break from formal education to discern future direction
- Those who have been academically dismissed from FUS but still want formal connection to the university and an opportunity to reapply.
- Those who have graduated from college, but who are not sure about next steps in life.
There will be clear expectations for each student-participant. For instance:
- A commitment to prayer
- A commitment to minimum requirements of the formation program: two formation sessions each week (two hours each), preparation for these sessions, and coaching or spiritual direction twice a month.
- A commitment to the moral demands of the Christian life
- A commitment to professionalism in work arrangements
Where will the missionaries live?
Missionaries will live in the classic, King Frederick Apartments, a three-story Tudor Revival-style apartment building constructed in 1927. It is adjacent to St. Peter’s Catholic Church which houses a chapel of perpetual adoration and is a block away from The Sycamore Youth Center, where missionaries will do much of their work during the year.
There will be two missionaries per apartment. The men will live alongside their “house father” on the third floor; women will live alongside their “house mother” on the second floor.
Funding?
Missionaries will raise their own support in the way that other Catholic missionary organizations do (e.g. Fellowship of Catholic University Students or Net Ministries)
- For 12 months (8/15/2022 to 8/15/2023) the funding amount is $22,500
- For Fall Semester (8/15/2022 to 12/15/2022) the funding amount is $7,500
- For Spring Semester (1/15/2023 to 5/15/2023) the funding amount is $7,500
- For Summer Missions (6/1/2023 to 7/31/2023 the funding amount is $3,750
- Each will be given individual 1-on-1 help to raise the support funds
- Missionaries will need to provide their own transportation to and from Steubenville
- Missionaries may bring their own car, although transportation will be provided during the program
- Food and housing costs are covered by funding raised by the missionaries.
- Each will be given a monthly stipend of $150
How do I apply?
We welcome applications from anyone ages 18 to 23. Applicants must have an authentic, dynamic Christian Faith. While our program is clearly Catholic and most missionaries will be Catholic, we warmly welcome non-Catholic applicants.