Fellowship ProgramASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION Location: RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Sponsor/host: DESIGN CORPS Start Date: August, 2010 Applications Due: June 1, 2010 Please see application form at http://www.designcorps.org/opportunities/fellowship-program. Please submit samples of design work for the design positions. Simple Xeroxes or prints of your design work, stapled together, provide all the evidence needed. Please be sure to put your name on every page. We cannot return materials provided. RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACTIVITIES Design Corps' goal is to address local needs with model solutions and to use these models as transferable knowledge to help similar challenges on a national scale. The organization’s goal is to provide each Fellow with a broad range of skills to enable each person to advance their career and personal goals. There are three Design Corps Fellowship positions available. Two require experience and/or education in architecture. One requires experience and/or education in business administration. Evidence of a commitment to community service (including attending the Structures for Inclusion conferences or the Design Corps Summer Studio) is a plus for all three positions. These positions are funded through AmeriCorps, (the domestic Peace Corps program,) and provides a living stipend which is set by the national office of VISTA of $10,400/year, as well as health insurance, and a $5,000 education award for completing the full year of service. For details on the VISTA program: http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp In general the Fellow is responsible for coordinating one or two community-based projects. During the year, the Fellow will have experiences in the general field to develop their own career path. They will learn specific community service tools such as grant writing, measuring results, coalition building, volunteer coordination, community organizing, and budget planning. Members will use their education and new skills to empower farmworkers through participatory decision making The local needs addressed will be assisting farmworkers through better housing, financial security, and stronger community. These are addressed through (1) creating a demonstration housing and garden program through a model public/private partnership (2) supplementing family income through micro-businesses and business management of small business start-ups through a partnering local open-air market. The following provides more specifics about each of these main activities:
POSITIONS 1 & 2: HOUSING AND GARDENING Background on Need Migrant farmworkers typically reside in home-base communities in the winter and move north during the spring and summer. The Eastern migrant stream runs from Florida to New England and includes approximately 1.1 million farmworkers. The total number of migrant and seasonal workers in the United States is estimated to be 4 to 5 million. (Data based on Housing Assistance Council's (HAC) report: Abundant Fields, Meager Shelter, 2000) The need this project addresses is profound and difficult to solve. North Carolina is home to the 5th largest farmworker population in the United States, most of which is concentrated in the area targeted by this proposal. Median individual earnings are the lowest of all wage and salary workers in the U.S. (between $2500 and $5000 in the Southeast). According to the most recent data, over sixty-one percent of farmworkers are living in poverty. The model program will be a demonstration targeted at employer-owned decrepit housing, in particular, older "mobile homes." Farmer owned housing constitutes 55 percent of all the units given that there are approximately 232,522 migrant farmworker housing units in the Eastern migrant stream area and that 63 percent of those are the types of units that mobile leased units may replace, that means that 146,489 current units are mobile homes, apartments, or hotels. Of those 146,489 units, the Design Corps-designed units would be targeted at the 55 percent that are employer-owned, leaving a potential market of 80,569 units in the Eastern migrant stream area. The unit itself was designed by Design Corps with the input of the Farmworker Advisory Network, FAN, who has written a recommended code for farmworker housing. The unit meets these recommendations. A second design will be produced over the year for the next version of the demonstration program. POSITIONS 1 AND 2 MEMBER ACTIVITIES: 1. MIGRANT FARMWORKER HOUSING
2. SUSTAINABLE GARDEN
3. ADMINISTRATION
POSITION 3: FARMWORKERS FINANCIAL SECURITY Background on Need North Carolina is home to the fifth largest farmworker population in the U.S. with more than 10,000 living in the area targeted by this project (Sampson, Harnett and Johnston Counties located in central North Carolina). According to a recent study (Quandt, Arcury et al, Public Health Reports, November-December 2004) almost half of this population (47.1%) is suffering from food insecurity. Food insecurity is caused by insufficient access to healthy and nutritious food as well as economic hardship. The supply is adequate in summer months when farmworkers have steady incomes. It is during the winter, fall and early spring, that income is scarce, family budgets stretched, and the struggle to survive is common. Farmworkers need the means to produce, preserve and store food for these lean months. They also need training in ways to produce, market, and sell products, which can supplement their incomes and provide an escape from low-income, seasonal employment. In response, as a means to increase income and provide better financial security and thus better food security, a market for small business incubation has been built. This income opportunity is being coupled with business classes held in Spanish. The Market was funded by a USDA grant and has two major focuses: It enables farm workers to learn skills in marketing and sales so that they can gain financial self-sufficiency and relieve their dependence on low-paying seasonal work. The Market has been constructed and will be a center for commerce and community exchange. It will provide the venue to sell produce from the Market and also allow for farmworker participants to realize the skills they have learned in the business classes offered. The Market is designed to accommodate multiple vendor set-ups and provide shade during the hot summer months for both the vendors and the patrons. It will provide ample space for multiple business set-ups and will create a center for community and cultural exchange. POSITION 3 MEMBER ACTIVITIES 1. SMALL BUSINESSES START UP
2. FARMWORKER FLEA MARKET
3. MARKET COORDINATION
4. HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
5. ADMINISTRATION
Follow professional standards. |
Application |
