Internship

In September 2017 I started an internship with Facing Homelessness, a super tiny nonprofit headquartered in the university district not far from the College of Built Environments. With only three staff members, the two Sara(h)’s and Rex, they have served the growing community of people living outside in our city with unwavering tenacity. I have been regularly taken aback by their relentless focus on positive solutions and incremental steps to improve people’s lives.

I have been fortunate to work alongside these inspiring people on a unique approach to ending homelessness. The BLOCK Project builds tiny homes that are totally off grid. They have solar panels and a battery unit to power the home, a composting toilet, and a 1,500 gallon water collection cistern. The BLOCK home is built in a residential backyard and a neighbor currently living unsheltered is invited to join the new community welcoming them home. 

I have been developing systems, processes and best practices to help Facing Homelessness scale the project by nearly 5,000% over the next five years. I have also been involved in content creation for a large scale fundraiser coming up at the end of March 2018. 

The experience of working with a nonprofit in the housing sector has been extremely valuable to my personal and career development!