JVC works in inner city neighborhoods and rural communities in about 36 different cities throughout the U.S.[1] JVC works with the homeless, abused women and children, immigrants and refugees, the mentally ill, people with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, the elderly, children, and on behalf of other marginalized groups.

In 1956, Jesuits from the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus and the Sisters of Saint Ann formed a partnership to open the Copper Valley School—a boarding school for Native Alaskan children—near Glennallen, Alaska.

St. Ann Sister George Edmond went to the East Coast and persuaded five students to teach at Copper Valley.

Bishop Gleeson formed a team of lay volunteers, mostly engineering students from Gonzaga University.

The religious, the students and volunteers faced much adversity in constructing the school, including working in temperatures of seventy-below-zero during the Alaska winter.

[3] Morris recruited volunteers at Catholic colleges all over the United States, telling students that JVC was twice as old as the Peace Corps and ten times more rewarding.

[3] In the 1960s, Jesuit Volunteers branched out of Alaska and into the Pacific Northwest, serving Native Americans as well as marginalized populations in the inner cities, with the support of the Society of Jesus.

Jesuit volunteers make a commitment to the JVC program and to their service placements to strive to live these four values.

[3] JVC is guided by the principles of Ignatian spirituality—named for St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits.

[17] Many JVs work for justice, Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, for the greater glory of God.

JV community houses are often located in low-income neighborhoods, aiming to expose JVs to the daily realities of living on the margins of society.

[3] In Washington, D.C., former JVs, progressive adult Catholics, and others meet for faith-sharing groups and potluck dinners.

[18] Former Jesuit Volunteers or FJVs use the phrase "ruined for life" to describe their time of service with JVC.