Past AmeriCorps Members: Where Are They Now?

We have proudly hosted more than 20 AmeriCorps members over the last seven years, and they have played a critical role in our efforts to ensure that homeowners in need in our community can live independently in safe and healthy homes.   Friends of Rebuilding Together Twin Cities frequently ask us for updates on AmeriCorps alumni, and we thought we’d share an update on our most recent AmeriCorps alumni: Alina Stevenson, Jessie Livingston, and Kyle Swatfager.

Alina Stevenson – After successfully completing her first year of law school at the University of Oregon, Alina accepted a summer position at a nonprofit in Seattle called Legal Voice where she will be working on women’s issues in legislation, including revising and drafting bills so they include protections for women.

Jessie Livingston – Jessie is studying in Costa Rica, after spending a month and a half at an activist language school in Guatemala.  She is planning to head to Panama and then Nicaragua to continue her studies this semester and will spend the summer working at a camp in Northern California.

Kyle Swatfager – This past fall, Kyle joined the Rebuilding Together Twin Cities team as our Project Coordinator.  He is responsible for overseeing our Critical Repair projects from start to finish, including previewing projects, developing the scopes of work, determining volunteer and contracted labor needs, and working to ensure that projects are completed within budget and time constraints.  We are thrilled to have Kyle on our team!

Moving On: AmeriCorps Term of Service Ends

Rebuilding Together Twin Cities was incredibly fortunate to Alina Stevenson and Jessie Livingston serve as AmeriCorps Project Coordinators with us over the last year.  Their terms of service ended this month, and we would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

Alina was offered a substantial scholarship to attend law school at the University of Oregon where she will begin her studies this fall.  Jessie plans to stay in the Twin Cities to attend Augsburg College.

Alina wrote of her term of service, “As I step out of my AmeriCorps years and into my future law career I cannot imagine starting this career without the experience that I have received through AmeriCorps. The hard work, dedication to a cause, communication, leadership, and service skills I have learned are unmatched by anything else I could have done between college and law school. I am very excited to take these lessons into my future to allow me to be the best attorney I can possibly be.  I look back at myself two years ago graduating from college. I am a completely different person; I have grown so much from the experiences that AmeriCorps has afforded me. Some of them amazing, some of them harder than I could have imagined, all of them have created the person I am today.”

Thank you to Alina and Jessie for your hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm over the last year.  Best of luck with this next chapter of your lives!

AmeriCorps Members Make a Difference at the Safe and Healthy Homes Summit

This past week, two of our AmeriCorps members, Kyle and Alina, traveled to North Carolina to take part in the Safe and Healthy Housing Summit. They joined AmeriCorps members from Rebuilding Together affiliates from across the country for this four day summit in partnership with NeighborWorks that focused on training the members in the seven principles of safe and healthy homes. They learned how to better assess a home to create a work scope that can be reasonably accomplished, while impacting the home in sustainable ways. Much of the training was hands-on, and they learned how to do many of the repairs that are essential to safe and healthy homes. Alina spent her time insulating an attic and crawl space, ripping out carpet, and fixing gutters. Kyle spent his time learning how to replace soffits and gutters. It was a great learning experience. Thanks to Rebuilding Together of the Triangle for hosting this summit!

Welcome New AmeriCorps Members!

We are thrilled to welcome two new AmeriCorps Members: Alina Stevenson and Jessie Livingston!

Alina holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.  She recently completed a year of service through the AmeriCorps Vista program with Habitat for Humanity in Virginia, Minnesota.  Through that position, Alina gained experience working with homeowners, volunteers and donors.  Alina also works part-time as a gymnastics coach.

Jessie recently completed her studies at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois.  She brings a variety of experience to this position, including working as a preschool teacher, life guard and swim instructor and serving as a volunteer with both Habitat for Humanity and a dog shelter.

This is the sixth year that Rebuilding Together has been awarded an AmeriCorps grant through the Corporation for National and Community Service.  The goal of the AmeriCorps CapacityCorps program is to build the capacity of grassroots Rebuilding Together programs so they can be more sustainable, effective, and efficient in helping homeowners in need.  Welcome to the team Alina and Jessie!