Program Assistant- Housing and Energy VISTA

Our Housing Center, which will host the Americorps VISTA, is dedicated to transforming narratives surrounding housing and community development, as well as creating and expanding affordable housing options for both ownership and rental. The VISTA will spend time supporting Medici Road’s Housing Center with the build out of MR Renew. Over the next 3 years, this program will support nonprofits that serve low- and middle-income urban communities to make significant energy efficient upgrades to buildings they own to reduce operating costs. The VISTA will also support the housing center by actively involving stakeholders of MR Renew, including the communities and other parties affected by the programs of the Housing Center. Our approach is a five-step process that places residents in the neighborhoods we serve, and MR Renew program participants at its core. The core five steps of design thinking are iterative and non-sequential, making them adjustable to community needs. “Empathize", it is an opportunity for the VISTA to gather information from the community to understand their needs. During this community engagement phase, VISTA is encouraged to observe, listen and learn from residents. Next, “Define” phase, where root causes and issues are explored. The VISTA, along with the team, will aim to ask the right questions and explore ideas that may not have been discussed previously. The purpose of this step is to get clear before moving to designing programs. The next steps, “ Ideate”, “Prototype” and “Test”, are all about getting feedback from residents and testing the ideas. We expect the VISTA to learn the design thinking process and be able to use that approach in their future work. We also hope that with the support of the VISTA, we can maximize community reach so that more people will be a part of and have their voices heard in the process.