Frontier Housing believes that everyone should have a safe, decent, and affordable place to live in the communities they love.  Our goal is to make that happen in Central Appalachia by serving families and individuals with a wide variety of housing products, including new construction, repairs, rental units, and homeownership and credit counseling services.  We are committed to making our services available to everyone in our service area regardless of race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability or other status.

We are seeking a VISTA volunteer to begin in winter of 2023 to further our Race, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) work.  This is the second year of this VISTA project and the new VISTA will partner with our current VISTA member, continuing to learn about race and housing in our service area.  The position will have the opportunity to conduct interviews, search for original documents, and present findings in a variety of settings.

Goals for the year of service include:

• Conducting original research to answer these and other questions about our service area:
  
  • Why are homeownership rates lower among minority populations?
  • What impact did red-lining have in our communities?
  • What was the source of generational wealth in our communities, and were there certain eras when that wealth was aggregated?
  • Why is minority housing concentrated in certain areas?
  • Was housing that is predominately occupied by minorities built at a substandard level?
• Mapping and comparing patterns of racial diversity and economic distress in our service area
• Continuing to develop a history of discriminatory housing practices in our serviced area based on original research including:
  
  • Oral histories from residents
  • Investigating city records
  • Exploring other source documents
  • Utilizing previously researched sources
• Presenting the work to at least 20 community groups in our service area
• Creating an end-of-year document that describes work accomplished and goals for the continuation of the project

Successful candidates are likely to:

• Have very strong research and writing skills (research writing sample is required)
• Relate well to people from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds
• Enjoy learning, with the capacity to do so quickly
• Work well as part of a team
• Be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
• Have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in sociology, history, or similar field