June 6, 2026- August 3, 2026
The Worker-Scholar Program is an opportunity for college students seeking to support urban youth and engage in urban farming this summer.
Joshua Group and the St. Martin de Porres Catholic Worker are seeking college students for The Joshua Group Summer Learning Program who will assist with community activities at the Catholic Worker House and one urban farmer who will help manage the Harrisburg Catholic Worker’s Mama Mary Farm and assist with broader community work at the Catholic Worker House.
The Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg is a vibrant, multicultural urban neighborhood facing economic hurdles but possessing untapped potential, characterized by its rich cultural tapestry and a demographic profile of younger adults and diverse families. The Joshua Group and The Harrisburg Catholic Worker have been a part of the neighborhood fabric for over 25 years.
The Joshua Group’s mission is to give hope and support for at-risk Harrisburg youth, particularly through educational and vocational opportunities. The Joshua Group addresses the academic and social needs of economically disadvantaged city youth of all ages living in an area of concentrated poverty, an epidemic of crime, drugs, and violence. We believe education is the anti-poverty program that works. Our goal is to help students maximize their educational potential and graduate from high school prepared to further their education and secure self-sustaining employment. For 25 years, Joshua Group has served students from pre-school to high school. We currently serve over 200 at-risk students each year in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg. The Joshua Group supports its mission through early childhood education and school-age educational support programs that include an afterschool program and a summer learning program, which are free of charge for families.
The St. Martin de Porres Catholic Worker seeks to create a new society of beauty and dignity in Allison Hill by stewarding our community farm, repairing the neighborhood ecology, and accompanying our neighbors in all areas of their lives to help them meet their needs and build a stable, cooperative life for them and their neighbors.
Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, called for workers to become scholars, and scholars to become workers. Thus, the Joshua Group and the Harrisburg Catholic Worker have created a summer program that gives college students opportunities to work at the Joshua Group’s summer camp and the Harrisburg Catholic Worker’s urban farm (Mama Mary Farm) and providing space for study, round table discussions on the Catholic Worker’s 90-year history, and the philosophy and economic theory of the Catholic Worker and associated movements, and hands-on experiments to make a better world for us and our neighbors–a “new society in the shell of the old,” as Peter Maurin said. The discussions will focus on Cooperative Economics (Worker-Owned Cooperatives, Credit Unions and Community Land Trusts) as alternative institutions to help neighborhoods thrive.
This program also offers a private bedroom in an apartment in Allison Hill with a shared kitchen and bathroom that is owned by The Joshua Group.
To apply, email a cover letter and resume to [email protected].