News
Community Bridge Builder
Do you
- Approach the world with curiosity, enthusiasm, empathy and fun?
- Love to bring people together to create inclusive community?
- Dig deep to understand a challenge and think outside the box to solve it?
- Enjoy both supporting others behind the scenes and shining in the spotlight yourself?
- Have superb communication skills?
LOV-Dane is looking for a person who answers yes to these questions! This position will support individuals with a variety of disabilities as they explore their gifts and dreams, set manageable goals, and build the skills and connections to achieve them.
The right candidate will believe in and delight in our members; be a good listener, teacher, and salesperson; have experience breaking long-term goals into manageable pieces; be highly organized and self directed; enjoy being creative with a team; anticipate and address challenges with patience and empathy; be flexible; have the ability to respond to diverse needs and styles.
The Bridge Builder will
- Build relationships with project members (individuals with disabilities), their families and close supporters
- Support project members as they find their own voices and motivations and make clear personal choices
- Work with project members not for them by teaching the skills needed to fade assistance as individuals become more independent
- Facilitate authentic relationships between members and others
- Actively seek out community connections (clubs, churches, service groups, employment) with and for project members and help build relationships between LOV-Dane and other community organizations
- Help project members design and maintain organizational systems that will increase their independence at home, work, or the community
This position is full time, annual pay is $27,000-$31,000 (based on experience) and benefits are included. A drivers license and vehicle with car insurance are essential for frequent travel around Madison and Dane County.
Living Our Visions, Inc. (LOV-Dane) is a grassroots organization of individuals with disabilities and their families or other community members. LOV is committed to building fulfilling, community-centered lives for all citizens. LOV is not an agency or program but an organization in which members and others can mobilize their strengths and gifts to enrich the lives of people with disabilities and strengthen the civic life of the community as a whole. By focusing on the assets of people with disabilities, LOV is committed to altering the perception that the primary role of people with disabilities is as clients and receivers.
Learn more about us at: www.lovdane.org
Please submit a cover letter, resume and responses to the following questions by noon (12pm) on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 to employment@lovdane.org
1. How are you involved in your community? What have been the most rewarding parts of your involvement?
2. What experiences have you had supporting people with disabilities? What draws you to this life path?
3. Several of the members of this project are reluctant to try new things and meet new people. How would you help them move forward?
4. Describe your experiences teaching someone a new skill and supporting him or her to become more independent.
5. Creative use of technology is a critical part of becoming independent for many of the people you will be working with. Describe your experience/comfort with utilizing technological tools such as smartphones, tables and web-based tools.
6. This job requires a lot of self-direction and flexibility. What experience have you had working independently and balancing multiple priorities and projects?
LOV-Dane is in the process of hiring a second Bridge Builder to support our loved ones with disabilities. Please help us spread the word!
Application deadline is Friday, August 16 at 4pm.
Do you
- Approach the world with curiosity, enthusiasm, empathy and fun?
- Love to bring people together to create inclusive community?
- Dig deep to understand a challenge and think outside the box to solve it?
- Enjoy both supporting others behind the scenes and shining in the spotlight yourself?
- Have superb communication skills?
LOV-Dane is looking for a person who answers yes to these questions! This position will support individuals with a variety of disabilities as they explore their gifts and dreams, set manageable goals, and build the skills and connections to achieve them.
The right candidate will believe in and delight in our members; be a good listener, teacher, and salesperson; have experience breaking long-term goals into manageable pieces; be highly organized and self directed; enjoy being creative with a team; anticipate and address challenges with patience and empathy; be flexible; have the ability to respond to diverse needs and styles.
Please check out our website (lovdane.org) for all of the details about how to apply.
Amanda Bell is one of three nominees for National Organizer of the Year!
Please go tohttp://www.facebook.com/grassrootssolutions and cast your vote for Amanda right now.
Really, this vote is for Living Our Visions and the families and people with disabilities who built LOV from the ground up and continue to build it every day. It's also a deserving high-five to asset-based, relational community organizing. A positive approach in some darker times.
Anyone, anywhere, can vote. Really? Yup. Borders don't exist in Facebook.
If your friends want to know why they should vote for her, read the below nomination note.
Don't have Facebook? It's super simple and will take two-minutes to set up. Just go to Facebook.com, set up an account and then go to http://www.facebook.com/grassrootssolutions and cast your vote!
And please encourage your friends or family members that care about community, inclusion, and the power of assets, to do the same.
Amanda Bell picked up the phone and developed a taste for coffee. She spent two years in coffee shops listening deeply to those that didn't hang up on her. She empowered those families to "use what they have to get what they don't have", mobilizing their gifts and relationships and those of the greater community to create meaningful lives brimming with friends, contributions and choices. Knowing the service system and government funding are forever stressed, Amanda asked families, "What would the good life look like for your child? We'll go from there." Families who know isolation answered a "community-centered life." For them that included creating a community building non-profit they named Living Our Visions-Dane (LOV). These families have created a web of relational support and family-designed projects they pool their own money to fund, to meet needs.
Knowing that people with disabilities have limited access to genuine relationships in community groups, Amanda and LOV imagined and created a Citizen Connector group to act as a bridge. Citizen Connectors are well connected, community folk who open their rolodexes to support LOV's vision and meet regularly for coffee. Need a horse, astrologist, free baked goods and a meeting with a government official in two days? Citizen Connectors will likely make that happen in 10 minutes or less. And they'll be smiling. That's organizing done right.
LOV members are also spearheading a "Get Your Vote On" project that includes leaders with cognitive disabilities reaching out to their peers around Wisconsin's new Voter ID law.
Amanda listens deeply and focuses on assets versus deficits at both a global and individual level. The eight families that started LOV-Dane in a living room, have built themselves into a 30-family strong organization. It's not easy or clean, but it is the roots of grass and sustainable if I've ever smelled it.
LOV-Dane (Living Our Visions) is hiring for a part-time Community Connector!
By Stefanie Primm, 2011-12-07
LOV-Dane Bridge Builder Position
Do you have a passion for building a strong and inclusive community? Do you enjoy bringing people together?
LOV-Dane (Living Our Visions, Inc.) is a grassroots group of community members including individuals with disabilities and their families who are working together to find the good life. We are looking for an energetic, creative person to increase the civic engagement of a group of individuals with disabilities by assisting them to join community groups and associations. The right candidate will be active in the Dane County community, be a deep listener, and be comfortable talking to just about anyone!
Check out our website for more information: www.lovdane.org