The Diocese of Southern Ohio has been awarded four full-time VISTA positions to build the strengths of two breakthrough projects to help low-income urban neighborhoods improve their nutrition, health, and economic stability.
After a week of training in late June, the VISTAs will start their year of service on July 1. Please ask interested people to apply immediately via the links below, as all the paperwork finalizing the appointment of VISTAs needs to be in by the first week in May.
Three positions are with the award-winning Franklinton Gardens allied with St. John's, Columbus, and one will serve with Transformations CDC's innovative Latino community development initiative in Cincinnati's East Price Hill, a collaboration of the Church of Our Saviour and the Diocese's Ministerio Latino. This announcement gives an overview of both projects with links to the online position descriptions and application.
VISTA, started during the late 1960's War on Poverty, is the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps and the branch of AmeriCorps that builds the capacity of communities to overcome poverty. The Diocese's VISTAs will be part of the statewide ShareCorps team of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. ShareCorps has won nationwide recognition as one of the most effective anti-poverty initiatives in the entire country.
VISTA members serve for a stipend of $946 a month and receive health care coverage. They qualify for student loan forbearance while serving and can elect to receive an education award of $5,500 on completion of their term. The education award can be applied to past student loans or used for future qualifying educational expenses within ten years.
Franklinton Gardens is a community urban farming initiative that began in 2007 as a single plot community garden, and has grown to encompass seven garden sites in Franklinton, an impoverished urban Appalachian neighborhood of Columbus. Franklinton Gardens exists to create a more just and peaceable community by helping to provide neighborhood access to fresh produce, by creating beauty through productive re-purposing of vacant spaces, and by establishing garden-based venues for community interaction.
Franklinton Gardens grew over 5,000 lbs. of produce in 2012, and distributed nearly all of it throughout Franklinton via their weekday farm stand and a farmers market in Franklinton, and through area food pantries. All of the gardens are organic and based on principles of permaculture. FG's team hope to exponentially increase produce production numbers in 2013, and expand to multiple food pantries, community meals, and restaurants throughout the neighborhood.
Transformations CDC is a Cincinnati non-profit created by the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour to find ways out of oppressive poverty, strengthen families and households, and nurture and support children. Immigrants in Cincinnati's Price Hill endure crushing poverty, depression, limited capacity to help their children succeed in school, and the constant risk of violent robbery on payday. The VISTA will aid Transformations to set up partnerships so that immigrant families can participate in community gardening, form their own team of health promoters to address depression and addiction, build support for Transformations' homework club and early childhood program, organize financial literacy programs, and foster use of banks to reduce vulnerability to theft
Here is an overview with links to the Diocese's four VISTA positions. Applications must be submitted online through the AmeriCorps site (you'll see how by going to the links).
* Food production and knowledge expansion: Help Franklinton Gardens achieve year-round farming by recruiting volunteer farm labor and by researching and teaching improved farming practice to the organization.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=48699&fromSearch=true * Coordinator of Produce Distribution: help FG staff develop strategies to distribute produce to food pantries, community meals and market outlets within Franklinton.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=48700&fromSearch=true * Community Food Education: Help develop nutritional and gardening-based educational programming that is intended to encourage healthy food choices for Franklinton residents.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=48701&fromSearch=true * Transformations CDC Community Organizer: Equip immigrant families in a tough neighborhood to regain physical and mental health, lay the foundation for their children's success in school, and reduce their vulnerability to theft.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=48659&fromSearch=true
COCL Best Practices Conference
