Site Partner: HandMade in America

Available:  September 1, 2007

Deadline:  June 8, 2007

Decision:  July 6, 2007

Contact:  bryan@designcorps.org

Job Description:

COMMUNITY NEED:

In order to promote economic development, raise incomes, and sustain population of the town through cultural tourism, Hayesville residents are developing a historic park and preserving historic assets. The project is the relocation of a pioneer village, consisting of a number of structures that have been collected and reconstructed on a site in Clay County by a local family. The family is donating the collection of structures to the, provided they can be relocated to another site. The CCHAC has secured land adjacent to the County Historical Museum in Hayesville and is raising funds to plan the site, secure, move and relocate the structures, and provide the site amenities and needed supporting facilities to utilize the site for tourists and school visits.

FELLOW’S ROLE:

The Fellow will be guided in their work by HandMade in America, a recognized national leader in using cultural tourism as a tool for economic development. Hayesville, through the Clay County Community Revitalization Association (CCCRA) has been working with the HandMade Small Towns Program since 1996. The HandMade program stresses the concept of partnerships to build civic engagement. The projects and activities created and supported by these community groups attest to the community involvement in the past, are witnessed in present activities and is a harbinger of future engagement and cooperation.

Working with Hayesville, the greater Clay County community, and the CCCRA membership of over 15, the Fellow will follow a participatory design and decision making process to collect historic information about local culture in order to have the new cultural complex reflects local history.  By relocating a historic pioneer village, the Fellow will promote economic development, raise incomes, and sustain population of the town through cultural tourism, consisting of a number of structures that have been collected and reconstructed on a site in Clay County by a local family. Member will produce the plans based on historic precedents, and coordinate volunteer and professional efforts to fund raise and re-construct the buildings at the new site.

TARGET RESULTS:

• Technical assistance will be provided to the community in planning, design, and grant writing for the park and buildings use.
• Design and planning services will assist community to shape their physical environment.
• Participatory design will yield one complete designs and one project budgets suitable for grant applications
• Two grants applications made for project funding
• Community will be empowered through training and meetings with the means to participate and share in identifying challenges, visions, and responses.
• Residents will participate in decision making
• Residents benefit from re-shaped physical environment
• Assets identified and preserved, both physical and cultural
• Community will be trained in skills (visioning, design, participatory decision making) to effect change in their physical environment
• Community activated in seeing their visions and plans reach tangible built results
• Positive impact on physical environment in realized design that makes use of local assets.

QUALIFICATIONS:

The ideal candidate will have:

• A degree in architecture, historic preservation, landscape architecture, or planning.
• Experience/study in construction, urban design, urban policy, community service, non-profit or non-governmental organizations is a plus but not required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to work with diverse groups, and the demonstrated capacity to move between cultures, disciplines, and professions.
• Highly organized and motivated.