We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. You can complete the application here. A typical start would be August of each year, but occasionally we have openings at other times.

We’re recruiting women of faith and married couples to live out a calling of service through our Dorothy Day Fellowship Program. Fellows commit for 2 years to do work with the Lydia’s House community including birth accompaniment, benefits navigation, transportation, deep listening, meal planning, food preparation, religious education and child enrichment,  thus living out the corporal works of mercy in a setting of encounter and solidarity with families experiencing homelessness. Fellows live a life of prayer and contemplation coupled with action and advocacy. You can complete the application here.

We’re recruiting for:

The duration of each position is 24 months. Compensation includes:

  • A monthly living stipend
  • Wellness funding for counseling, spiritual direction, and retreats
  • Connection to the larger Catholic Worker and Christian social justice movement through gatherings and shared experiences
  • Community meals
  • Structures for accountability, prayer and reflection
  • Professional development funding and opportunities for learning
  • Health Insurance via Ohio Medicaid
  • Housing and utilities adjacent to or within walking distance of shelter
  • A monthly bus pass
  • A program grant to create and implement new programming
  • Reduced tuition at Xavier University for duration of fellowship

Each living space can accommodate a single woman or a married couple. The positions are full time and require night and weekend work. Women of color are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. You can complete the application here.

Questions? Email Maryellen@stlydiashouse.org

Other options:

If you’d like to explore a commitment to us but feel you could only offer a year please apply through our partners at  Mercy Volunteers, and Brethren Volunteers. Both make placements to Lydia’s House and provide additional support. Mercy volunteers live in a house very close to ours and Brethren volunteers live on site at Lydia’s House.

If you’re over age 55 and would like to make a commitment that isn’t live in you could also work with us through Ignatian Volunteer corps,

Finally, we have had part time arrangements where a fellow keeps a “day job” but lives in community with us and supports us on evening and weekends. We’d be open to this conversation.

 

 

Reflections From Former Fellows: 

“As my confidence in relationships with others grew, my independence and reliance on myself grew too. It took courage to decide to move far away and follow my passions, but it took an even greater effort to show up every day willing to give it my all. On the day of the Lydia’s House Once Upon a Child free shop, I felt my hard work pay off. Being able to organize and plan for the event with confidence felt great! However, I felt like I had grown most as a community member and advocate when I was able to talk with each woman that attended about the importance of the day as they thought about the need for fall and winter clothing.” – Savannah

“Lydia’s House was an incubator of knowledge and wisdom in my life…. I loved learning people’s stories with depth and complexity and seeing the progress as they worked on things and grew. I watched their growth and also noticed growth within myself as I was able to take time to work on myself.” – Stephanie

“Lydia’s House has become a family to me over the past year. A place where women support women to be our authentic selves, to heal, to set and achieve goals, and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves – a real community…. Life here is chaotic, full and beautiful.” – Elisa

“I came to Lydia’s House after working at an emergency overnight shelter for a year. At the shelter, I sat behind a physical and metaphorical desk and created many barriers between myself and the people I ‘served.’ At Lydia’s House, I learned the incredible, soul-healing value of breaking down that wall. I learned how a community serves itself and each member of it’s extended family, creating something holy and radical, rather than a business transaction. Weeding and scrubbing side-by-side reoriented my former ideas of status, slowly chipping away at my false internalized notions of what makes a person valuable (spoiler alert: we all are). The time I spent investing in home and love as a live-in advocate continues to guide my actions, reminds me why I continue to build relationships with those I once would have built a wall around, and why I fight for justice so that we have a society that doesn’t build walls at all.” – Rachel