Service Trip Builds Community

September 24, 2025

For the second straight year, 14 young people and nine coworkers from Mercy Home traveled to Clarksdale, Mississippi to help build houses for the Clarksdale Area Fuller Center for Housing, an organization that works to alleviate substandard housing. The organization is a local partner of the Georgia-based Fuller Center for Housing, which builds and repairs housing for people in need in U.S. and across the globe.  

Not only did the work present new challenges for some of our young people, but doing the work in near 100-degree temperatures posed another obstacle. 

“I helped around and provided motivation,” said Lawrence, a young man on the trip. “Even when it was hot, I told people we weren’t going to stop until it was finished.” 

Erick, a young person living at our Home, found that his strength was painting the wood because he grew up doing that with his dad. He said that while at times finding the motivation to continue in the heat was hard, he wanted to show his best effort. 

“I knew the sooner that we got done with the house, the sooner that people would be able to move into it,” Erick said. “They were trying to get moved in by Christmas. We helped a lot, and they were really excited about our work.” 

While the group was hard at work during the day, the nighttime offered a chance for the young people to learn about the culture of Mississippi. They met locals on walking tours of Clarksdale, took trips to blues venues and museums, and visited the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. 

Till, a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, was murdered while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. His death in 1955, and his mother’s insistence on an open-casket funeral, forced the country to face the brutality of racism and helped fuel the Civil Rights movement. 

“That was touching,” Dylon, one of the young men who volunteered said. “It was very emotional…I had heard about Emmett Till, but I had just heard pieces from my family. I didn’t know too much about it. Now, I know everything.” 

Some sites had more of a finished house while others had nothing at all. We paired [each] youth’s abilities with what the sites needed.

Francisca Sanchez Sarmiento, Youth Care Worker

For many of Mercy Home’s young people, these service trips offer an opportunity to expand their horizons by seeing life outside of Chicago. 

“It’s the same reason why kids don’t go to school 12 months out of the year,” said Sarah Kelley, a youth care worker at Mercy Home. “Summer is a break in the cadence of what you’re learning and an opportunity to learn in a different way. There’s so much growth from getting off campus and getting out of Mercy Home for a little bit, especially for a lot of youth who only know Chicago and have never been outside the city.”

While Mercy Home creates a structured environment with daily chores, expectations and routines, this trip allowed our young men to have more novel and unexpected learning experiences. Much of their day-to-day schedule was driven by the Fuller Center staff and our young people had to adjust their routines, adapt to an unfamiliar environment, and learn different tasks. Responding successfully to new challenges helped the youth build confidence while they built homes. 

“There are so many organic moments and lessons that come up from being on trips like this that they will think about for the rest of their lives,” Kelley said. “When something hard comes up, they can remember that they did this trip in Mississippi in the heat.” 

There’s so much growth from getting off campus and getting out of Mercy Home for a little bit, especially for a lot of youth who only know Chicago and have never been outside the city.

Sarah Kelly, Youth Care Worker

In addition to a sense of accomplishment, participants in the service trips also gain the reward that comes from helping others. For years, groups from Mercy Home have traveled to multiple states across the country to pitch in at organizations like the Fuller Center and with Habitat for Humanity. Several groups helped rebuild or repair housing in New Orleans following the devastation from Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. This year’s trip was the second to the Fuller Center in Mississippi by a group from Mercy Home. 

Prior to this summer’s trip, Kelley said that she didn’t know what to expect. She had heard stories from the youth who returned last year about how much closer their relationships and connections had become. 

“I was hoping that would happen again,” Kelley said. What she found over the course of the week was that not only did the individual youth bond with one another, but groups of youth from different living programs at the Home grew closer as programs as well. 

On one of the final nights of the trip, our young people participated in a talent show. Many danced, rapped, or sang in front of each other. 

“People you wouldn’t think would stand up in front of a group of people did it,” Sarmiento said. “It was indicative of how the week went as they got more comfortable.” 

The talent show showcased their growth over the week, and the artistic performances reflected their host city’s influence on them. 

“By the end of the week, there was this really cool shift in the dialogue,” Kelley said. “At the start of the trip, it was “Why Mississippi? Why Clarksdale? What are we doing here?” 

Kelley reported that their overall experience clearly left a positive impression. 

“They all came back saying we’re moving to Clarksdale in the van ride back.”