Hogs and Kisses is a micro-sanctuary that opened its barn doors in Charlottesville in 2021. This year, Madison House is partnering with the farm to give UVA students an opportunity to volunteer with the seven pigs, five rabbits, and two turkeys! Click to learn more about Hogs & Kisses and the volunteer experience.
Madison House’s Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope (CASH) program works to train and coordinate student-volunteers to provide free tax preparation for low- and moderate-income community members…This year marks 15 years since the launch of the C’ville Tax Aid Coalition — a partnership including Madison House and the University of Virginia Community Credit Union that is coordinated by the United Way of Greater Charlottesville. Since its inception in 2007, the Coalition has generated over $35 million in direct economic impact for the Charlottesville area community.
As a first year at the University of Virginia (UVA), Chelsea Li (CLAS ‘20) wanted to soak up all the opportunities that the University had to offer. She found herself exploring new clubs and classes and was especially eager to be in the community. “In high school,” she said, “I felt as if I was missing a lot of the learning that happens outside the classroom.” This desire to stretch her curiosity across disciplines and interests, along with an intrinsic desire to uplift those around her, was what first brought Chelsea to Madison House.
The House has long been a place where students can come to find or rediscover themselves and their place within the community. This held true for Paige, who shared that “it gives me peace of mind knowing that I am a good swimmer but that's not what defines me. There's so much more to life, like helping others. My time at Madison House has allowed me to see that.”
Kruse, from Ridgeland, Mississippi, is a fourth-year student in the McIntire School of Commerce. She initially got involved in the program because of her prior experience in advocacy work.
“Ultimately, the goal of the program is for students to learn about environmental science through a native lens,” Kruse said. “Maelee Hearington, another UVA student, and I wrote the curriculum to focus on science, social activism and social justice. We also provide additional resources like workbooks, markers, easels and notebooks.”
Most Madison House volunteering programs have been unable to operate as normal for nearly a year now. In-person volunteering continues to be suspended, however, three of the almost 40 Madison House Medical Services programs — Rounding with Heart, Pediatric Genetic Counseling and Spanish Interpretation — have found creative ways to overcome these limitations and continue to execute the Madison House mission of serving the needs of the Charlottesville community through virtual means.
Madison House is the volunteer center for students at the University of Virginia. Its volunteers and partners have demonstrated great vision and resilience in the face of this global crisis, leading the pivot to virtual volunteering, and developing innovative approaches towards meeting the critical needs of our shared communities. Our programs continue to provide critical mental health support services, remote tax prep for low-income families, safe virtual tutoring for the most at-risk students in local public schools, and virtual support to UVA nurses and medical staff.
Dana Palmer, a nurse in UVA Health’s cardiac care unit, certainly had her hands full. After COVID-19 struck, Palmer’s unit was left shorthanded when University of Virginia student volunteers from Madison House – the independent, nonprofit volunteer center for UVA students – were no longer able to coordinate rounding, a task they had helped conduct since 2015 through the cardiac care unit’s Rounding With Heart program.
Eli Ratzlaff is a recent graduate from UVA (CLAS '20) who majored in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law with a minor in History. While at UVA, Eli volunteered with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as an Immigration Intern. He also volunteered at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank as a food box packer for seniors and had a brief tenure as a tutor for elementary school children through Madison House.
“We’re looking at helping people maximize their income because they can do a lot with that tax return or the money they save,” said Ravi Respeto, president and CEO of the local United Way. “One of our goals is to promote financial stability. The money they can get back, the money they can save by not paying to have their taxes done, is money they can spend on rent or food or pay bills or fix a car.”
Called Cville Tax Aid, the program partners with IRS-trained University of Virginia student volunteers through the Madison House Creating Assets, Savings and Hope program, otherwise known as CASH.
In recent years, UVA has expanded programs and pathways for incorporating community service into student experience. Some opportunities have grown out of Madison House, the independent student volunteer center – supporting Stephenson’s and other writing courses, for example. The provost’s office and Center for Teaching Excellence are also highly involved.
My grandfather served in the Navy and then as a police officer for many years, and from an early age, he instilled in me a sense of service and benevolence that I have always carried with me. He inspired me to join the University Judiciary Committee in my first semester at UVA, and I ended up enjoying the job so much that I wanted to find new ways to give back to the University Community. I joined a Madison House program and became a peer advisor, and everything else just spiraled from that.
Julia Larsen (CLAS '21) and Heath Yancey (CLAS '22) are Peer Health Educators who organized the annual Fourth Year 5K. Despite being virtual this year, this UVA tradition raised around $3,000 for the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation and benefited community members that were profoundly impacted by the pandemic. Julia is a Spanish and Biology major and a member of APO, a medical scribe with the UVA Emergency Department, and a pen pal to assisted living residents. Heath is a Neuroscience major and a volunteer on the UVA Hospital Acute Pediatrics floor.
Photographs were selected as representative of the various public service work in which University students engage throughout the year—from Alternative Spring Break trips to volunteering with Madison House programs to community-based research projects abroad—we are excited to showcase and celebrate the partnerships between the University, the local community, and beyond.
In 2011, she founded the UVa Arts Mentors Program utilizing undergraduates to provide experiences in drama, music and other arts for local elementary school students they otherwise may not get.
“She was starting the [Arts Mentors] program because she knew not all students in Charlottesville were able to have the opportunities her kids were having and she wanted to level the playing field a bit,” Caldwell recalled. “What started 10 years ago as a small fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants program is now a well-established Madison House volunteer opportunity.”
During the fall semester, University of Virginia students and their counterparts at Ghent University in Belgium took part in a virtual, non-credit course, “Resilience in the Face of Complexity, Uncertainty, and Injustice.”
Madison House, the independent, nonprofit volunteer center for UVA students, partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the Presidential Precinct to host the course, which entailed Zoom meetings and accompanying coursework. The course was part of the International Visitor Leadership Program, an 80-year-old initiative to promote cross-cultural relationships and further U.S. foreign policy goals.
She’s also been participating in Madison House’s Creating Assets, Savings & Hope, or CASH, program as a volunteer income tax assistant since her first year, which she said she enjoys for the opportunity to be directly involved with the greater Charlottesville community.
“CASH helps me recognize the magnitude and privilege of being a student, while recognizing the importance of remembering my background. No matter what professional role I have when I’m older, I will continue to represent underrepresented groups and advocate for them,” she said.
Madison House hospital volunteer shifts and late-night study sessions at Clemons Library are typical elements of a pre-health student’s life at the University. However, COVID-19 has restricted access to the key professional and social experiences that define the pre-health journey at the University. Although shadowing opportunities and clinical volunteering experiences are scarce, many University premed students have adapted to the current climate and have pursued their passion for medicine in unique ways.
The Presidential Precinct, in partnership with Meridian International Center, the U.S. Department of State, and Madison House at the University of Virginia, is proud to announce a brand new virtual exchange opportunity between Belgian university students and students at the University of Virginia.
Core participants include eight Belgian student leaders, some of whom traveled to Charlottesville for the March 2018 “Promoting Youth Leadership through Intercultural and Interfaith Relations” International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project. Participating University of Virginia students were selected through a competitive application process implemented by Madison House.
Mikaela Richardson (CLAS '22) and Caroline Hallowell (CLAS '21) started the Hoos Helping Initiative along with Dr. Rose Cole, Madison House's Director of Community Engagement.
The program was created in response to courses moving online last spring. Hoos Helping matches UVA students to community partners, such as youth workers and educators, to provide completely virtual assistance.
When Shapiro got to UVA, he was scrolling through the website of Madison House – the independent, nonprofit volunteer center for UVA students – looking for volunteering opportunities when he came across HELP Line.
HELP Line is a free and confidential telephone hotline serving UVA and the surrounding area. It is a student-run and student-operated empathetic listening and referral hotline, staffed entirely by anonymous UVA student volunteers.
“I thought, ‘This has got to be the coolest thing ever,’” Shapiro said.
The Cville Education Equity collaborated with Youth-Nex, Madison House, and the Equity Center offers resources for teachers and families across the Charlottesville area. The website offers anti-racist curriculum for teachers, virtual education help for families, and food resources for those experiencing food insecurity.
“Basically, we were all having a conversation about how to help area youth and families at this time," UVA Equity Center Director of Community Research Sherica Jones-Lewis said.
The strong community that exists among the University’s students would be nothing without the support of the broader Charlottesville community. For that reason, Madison House directors and student volunteers have remained dedicated to serving the people of Charlottesville and supporting them through the most difficult times of the pandemic. Although Madison House’s volunteer services will function very differently than in previous years, many efforts will continue virtually in order to strengthen the Charlottesville community.
“Our programs will focus almost exclusively on virtual volunteering,” said Rose Cole, Madison House director of community engagement, in an email to The Cavalier Daily. “There will be some exceptions made for in-person volunteering based on community needs — focused only on medical services, food insecurity and food justice and support for essential workers — but we can’t begin in-person volunteering until we know how safe it will be.”
Madison House remains dedicated to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and protecting the health and safety of our student volunteers, staff, faculty, and Charlottesville community partners and neighbors. Our goal is to especially keep the Charlottesville community safe from harm. With this in mind, the Madison House building will be closed for the fall 2020 semester. The following guidelines have been put in place until further notice…
"We have players all over Virginia, all over the East Coast, in New York and Boston," he said. "We have people out on the West Coast, in Oregon and California and one player from England, so it has really kind of become a big thing."
Not only is the game bringing together family and friends but it also benefiting Charlottesville-area charities like Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, Madison House and the Legal Aid Justice Center.
"There's so many great organizations already established in Charlottesville, we thought we could help them along and all those donations would go to a big cause," said White.
