Experience a fulfilling, life-changing summer job!

Every summer, thousands of youth come together around the country to attend a mission trip with Catholic HEART Workcamp, the largest Catholic summer service organization in the United States. Each camp is staffed by nine college-aged servant leaders who oversee the logistics of the camp.

Being on staff with CHWC is not your ordinary summer job! CHWC staff members travel around the country, experience the wonder of God’s love shown through the adult and teen campers, local agencies, residents and fellow staff members.

CHWC prefers staff members to be 21 years or older. If there are not enough 21 year olds who apply, 20 year olds will be considered for staff positions. Everyone who applies will be notified by a letter one way or another.

  • PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION BELOW PRIOR TO APPLYING. February 15th is the application deadline.
  • Questions? Please contact [email protected] for more information.

Requirements to apply for CHWC staff

  • A video of yourself! It should introduce yourself and explain why you want to be a staff member. If you need help with some ideas, you can check out these superb examples below. When you have finished recording your video, upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and make sure you have the direct link; there will be a spot on the application for it. Make sure the video is set to Public so that we are able to .
    Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3 | Example 4 | Example 5
  • Three references. One must be from your parish priest or youth minister. You can give this link to them to fill out:
  • An application questionnaire
    • You are welcome to take a look at the questions you have to answer before you start the application process. You can also simply download the Word Doc and complete the questions, then upload the document to your online application when prompted.
    • A photo of yourself! There is a spot on the application for you to upload a current photo of yourself. If you need an example, take a look at the radiant John Boyle.
  • Consent for CHWC to do an FBI National Background Check (click for more info) and be trained in the VIRTUS program “Protecting God’s Children”. This will be completed after the hiring process.
  • Provide your own transportation to the first city and last city of your tour.
  • Be available for training. Staff members for full-summer teams and A-Teams will arrive in Orlando the week before the first day of their tour. B-Teams will arrive in a specified city the week before their first day of camp.

Benefits of being on staff

  • Opportunity to be used by God to make a difference in the life of teenagers and adults
  • Grow closer to God by sacrificing, serving, and giving in ways you never have before
  • Create close friendships with other staff members
  • Travel the country
  • Get paid! Staff members’ pay begins at $500.00 per camp week and increases with responsibilities. Half of the weekly pay is given for “off-weeks.”
  • Food and lodging are paid for while traveling from camp to camp.

Characteristics of our staff members

  • Individuals who are more driven by a belief in a vision and by being challenged as a servant than by financial compensation. *For staff members, this is a 24 hour 7 day a week mission camp experience.*
  • Person of prayer focused on doing God’s will.
  • Twenty-one years or older. *If enough 21 year olds do not apply, 20 year olds will be considered for staff positions.*
  • Weekly participation in the Mass and Eucharist
  • Holds a healthy emotional and spiritual disposition
  • Looking for opportunities to grow in his/her Catholic faith
  • Fun and pleasant personality
  • Personable and approachable to youth
  • Hard worker without complaining
  • Positive attitude who can also encourage, affirm and uplift others
  • Flexible, adaptable and patient
  • Pleasant companion in long distance traveling and respectful in close sleeping quarters
  • Good driving record: no DUIs. *An FBI National Background Check will be done on all applicants.*

Staff behavior while on tour

  • Relating to workcampers of the opposite sex
    • Due to the sensitive nature of sexual misconduct in today’s climate, and out of concern for the safety and privacy of all involved, we require that all staff members take reasonable caution in relating to the opposite sex. Staff members should never find themselves alone with a camper, especially a member of the opposite sex. Conversations should always take place within the context of a group of people in community. For your own protection, never take someone out of eyesight of other people. It is easy for young, impressionable teenagers to misunderstand staff members gestures of friendship. Grounds for dismissal will be accusations or concerns from a Youth Leader, Workcamp Manager, Team Captain, Director, or Steve Walker.
  • Staff sleeping quarters
    • For the sake of privacy, we require male and female staff members to have their own separate sleeping quarters.
      No smoking on school grounds or in any staff vehicles
  • No drinking of alcohol anytime
    • There is a no-tolerance rule for alcohol/drug use, whether it’s before/during/after your daily responsibilities, or while traveling from camp to camp.
  • Staff romance and close friendships
    • Being on the road for long periods of time creates opportunities for forming deep and meaningful friendships. As a team, you will be in a tight community in which closeness and intimacy with each other may occur. For many staff members, sharing with other staff members is a highlight of their time on tour. However, sometimes two staff members will “click” and a close bond develops. Exclusive one-on-one friendships are to be avoided for the good of the overall team chemistry. Any romance, physical contact or “dating” per say should be avoided. The appropriate time for developing an involved dating relationship is after your tour.
  • Attendance of the staff morning and evening meetings
    • Each staff person must attend all meetings in the mornings and evenings, unless a situation is previously discussed with the team captain.

Each team needs staff members for the following positions:

General Responsibilities

  • Write checks, keep team finances, book hotels for travel nights, keep tabs on camp credit card.
  • Organize the unpacking and packing of the Enterprise truck.
  • Ensure the vans and Enterprise truck are cleaned up.
  • Assist the camp manager when needed.
  • Help manager with registration/check-in.
  • Oversee staff meetings and adult meetings alongside camp Director.
  • Make sure Mass preparation is being taken care of.
  • Troubleshoot with unhappy participating adults.
  • Run errands when needed.
  • Be aware of potential problems before they arrive.
  • Be an example of someone that “goes the extra mile”.
  • Make sure the spirit of prayer is omnipresent.
  • Keep back stage clean and organized.
  • Make sure everything is set up for morning and evening programs.
  • Make sure program area is cleaned every evening.

Responsibilities with staff

  • Oversee staff and make sure all tasks are being done and are done correctly.
  • Clarify who is doing “what” and “when” with team. Confirm roles and responsibilities.
  • Affirm, recognize and encourage team members for their work.
  • Address any issues that arise with staff members, whether that may be exhibiting low job performance, poor effort, negative attitude or head butting with other staffers.
  • Be a buffer, go-between and liaison between Camp Manager and Director. If a problem arises with staff, team captain will step in and try to resolve issue.
  • Help decide with the director to change roles of team members if work is not getting done right, too slow, or not at all.
  • Recognize you are a support system for the rest of your team, but you must also be the stern leader who lays down the law when necessary.
  • Administering discipline when needed and deal with conflict and challenges.
  • Promote team bonding and avoid the forming of cliques.
  • Deal with interpersonal team differences, conflict and “power plays”.
  • Keep the big picture in mind…this is all for GOD.

General Responsibilities

  • Knowledgable with sound and lighting equipment
    • Mixer, intelligent lights, LED lights, spotlights, microphones, projector, laptop, etc.
  • Familiar with (or eager to learn!) computer programs used in daily programs
    • Premiere Pro, ProPresenter, Picasa, Photoshop; basic photo & video editing
  • Knowledgeable with using digital cameras, video cameras, and their settings.
  • Able to delegate tasks to Media Assistant and make sure tasks are executed accurately or are taught if necessary.
  • Good with time management and self-motivation to complete tasks on time and in accordance with daily/weekly schedule.
  • Able to comfortably work with various musicians to properly mix sound
  • Assist with unpacking the Enterprise truck and cargo van.

Before the first day of each camp

  • Set up a media table for your home base for the week.
  • Organize and set up mixer, lights, projector, laptop, microphones, and other media equipment
  • Ensure program area is safe by taping down wires, putting up caution tape where necessary, etc.
  • Oversee construction of all equipment that involves any type of media.
  • Get all cameras and video cameras ready, including batteries charged

Morning & Night Programs

  • Maintaining a clean program area, which may include clearing out trash from the seating area
  • Delegating the Media Assistant or another staff member to assist with recording program activities
  • Ensuring cameras are ready to go at all times and have charged batteries
  • Testing all necessary microphones ahead of time in preparation for the needs of that programs’ activities.
  • Adapt lighting to appropriate program activities (i.e. fun and enticing for upbeat music/games, gentle for reflective prayers/talks)
  • Play music as campers enter and leave the program areas

During the Day

  • Organize worksites routes for the daily photo runs (in conjunction with Media Assistant)
  • Educate staffers on proper camera and video camera shots for photo runs
  • Create slideshows for evening programs
  • Be available to provide any media needs for skit rehearsals, talk run-throughs, and musician soundchecks

Summary Video

  • Make a summary video compiling video footage from the worksites and the morning and evening programs collected by the media assistant. Must be finished for the closing Friday morning program. The summary video should be between 20-28 minutes.

Merchandise (Media Assistant)

  • Responsible for retrieving CHWC giveaway T-shirts for each youth group
  • Set up a merchandise table with material and signs provided
  • Organize merchandise and find a safe place to store boxes
  • Maintain a clean table and attractive display
  • Handle all merchandise money and credit card transactions
  • Turn in all money to the Team Captain every evening
  • Keep tabs on inventory and contact home office for reorder

Day before camp begins

  • Help un-load Enterprise truck
  • Lay down tarp or blankets underneath tools so you don’t damage the floor
  • Take all tools to tool supply room
  • Organize tools by grouping all like tools together
  • Make numbers for each team and arrange them on the floor
  • Using the work orders from the Camp Manager, make a pile of tools for each team on their team number
  • If any team needs a tool that you don’t have, you must go to Home Depot/Lowes/etc. and purchase the necessary tools before the first workday

Before campers leave for worksites

  • Be in tool room before morning program ends
  • Hand out tools, ladders and any other materials when the teams arrive
  • Help teams attach ladders to vans
  • Make sure tools and supplies are distributed for each team with their team name and number on them

During the Day

  • Be available to drive tools/supplies/ladders out to site as needed by teams
  • Travel to worksites that requested a Trouble Shooter or shared a problem that needed the attention of someone from home base (school) to see
  • Travel to worksites to give encouragement to participants at worksites
  • Be back at the school at 2:00pm to greet the teams when they arrive at 3pm and be prepared to take each teams’ work report/supply request form
  • Check up on groups about the progress of their projects
  • Make a list of all tools and supplies needed for the next workday
  • Check over list of requested supplies/tools with Camp Manager to check whether it should be purchased or not. We do not always grant every request

At Night

  • Using the list, lay out the tools on each teams’ numbered square. the tools
  • Purchase tools and supplies requested on work report and supply request form at Home Depot or local hardware store. See Team Captain for credit card
  • Make sure all the teams have what they need before the workday

Final work day

  • Be available in tool room to receive the returned tools from each team
  • Organize and clean up tools that are returned
  • Throw all damaged tools away. Do not pack them up and bring them to the next camp
  • Clean and double check tool room to make sure it is left spotless
  • Help load up the Enterprise truck

General Responsibilities

  • Prepare and serve the food in a timely manner. Serving on time is very important to make sure everyone has enough time to eat before program.
  • Handle the food and meals with appropriate safety measures.
  • Make sure everyone had an opportunity to eat before serving seconds; do not forget about the adults!
  • Keep ice water available at all times
  • Ensure the kitchen and cafeteria remains clean and organized while working. Most schools are very particular about their kitchen; we want to leave it cleaner than when we found it so we will be invited back.
  • Clean the eating area again after free time; campers like to hang out in the cafeteria and can make a mess. Sometimes a youth group that volunteers will assist with this.
  • Assist and organize the break-coordinators. They will make sandwiches for lunches two days during the week (during dinner time) and pick up their work team’s lunches each morning
  • Clean up the kitchen and cafeteria as needed. This includes wrapping eft-over food, wiping tables, emptying trash, sweep/mopping floors.
  • The Kitchen Manager will delegate tasks and work collaboratively with Kitchen Assistants and Associate Staff to create a productive and enjoyable working environment.

Saturday before camp

  • Unpack and organize kitchen
  • Shop at Sam’s Club for food and other supplies needed (according to shopping list). You will sometimes make runs to Sam’s during the week as needed.
  • Sysco will deliver food Friday or Saturday. The second delivery is usually on Tuesday. Check that you received everything on the order form. We suggest you organize the refrigerator and freezer by serving days.

BREAKFAST

  • Prepare and set-up breakfast. Service a continental breakfast each morning of camp.
    • Continental breakfast: juice, cereal, muffins, bagels, danish, donuts, fruit
  • Sysco will deliver food for two hot breakfasts (Tuesday and Thursday). These are in addition to the continental breakfast.
  • Prepare coffee the night before. It takes about 1 hour to brew and adults WILL come as early as they can for coffee. Use the timer!
  • Set up lunch items for break-coordinators to pick up after morning program.

DINNER

  • Set-up, prepare and serve dinner according to the menu. Maintain the serving line and eating area throughout dinner.
  • Leftover food needs to be wrapped and stored properly. Set aside food for donations.
  • Wipe tables, empty trash, sweep/mop floors as needed.

END OF CAMP

  • Donate any left-over food to local agencies, such as shelters, nursing homes, food banks, etc.
  • Organize and pack inventory.
  • Leave the kitchen cleaner than when you arrived; wipe all surfaces, sweep and mop the kitchen and cafeteria, etc.

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