Posted: September 08, 2011

Tulane University's Center for Public Service is soliciting AmeriCorps VISTAs to work with local agencies, including Puentes New Orleans, Inc. Puentes is a Latino community development organization that works to promote social change through policy research, advocacy, and civic engagement in the areas of education, housing, and criminal justice. In addition, Puentes strives to make communities more immigrant-friendly by strengthening the values of diversity and tolerance in Louisiana.

LatiNola, a program of Puentes, is a city-wide civic engagement and cultural awareness program aimed at increasing volunteerism and civic participation among the city's Latinos. LatiNola has several components: the LatiNola Youth Leadership Council (LYLC); LatiNola Votes, a voter registration campaign; the Welcoming Louisiana Campaign, aimed at making our community more immigrant-friendly; service learning, community events, and outreach. The AmeriCorps VISTA will support the overall implementation of LatiNola and all of its components.

Assignment Period: Nov 2011 – Oct 2012 ; 32 hours per week

Duties: – Support the LatiNola Program Manager in planning and organizing all LatiNola’s events, including community fairs, outreach, festivals, and all other events for LatiNola’s campaigns and projects – Coordinate logistics of events; create plan of action – Assist in giving presentations on LatiNola and related events to students, organizations, and the community – Recruit, retain, select, and coordinate volunteers; build a database; organize committees; provide orientation sessions and information packages to volunteers – Build relationships across communities and agencies to strengthen LatiNola network and partnerships – Assist with outreach, advertising, and marketing activities and preparation of related documents – Point of contact for organizations, partners, volunteers, service learning students and faculty, and the public; provide general information on LatiNola and related activities, campaigns, and events – Seek, follow up on, and secure sponsors – Provide weekly updates to staff of activities related to upcoming events – Perform other tasks related to LatiNola’s daily activities

Essential skills: – Computer proficiency – Strong organizational and leadership skills – Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to communicate at all levels – Spanish language preferred – Basic translation skills

Applications may be submitted at https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?fromSearch=true&id=3636 and must be received by SEPTEMBER 16, 2011. Please specify Puentes as your agency of interest. For more information, contact Michael Pizzolato at mpizzola@tulane.edu or visit cps.tulane.edu.