Kleiwerks Volunteer Opportunities in:
Asheville, North Carolina
El Cerrito, California

Ashevillage Institute (AVI) Interns and Volunteers

What is AVI?
Located in a neighborhood a few blocks from downtown Asheville, NC, the Ashevillage Institute (AVI) is a (newly emerging) urban education center and living laboratory dedicated to sustainable solutions in action.

Interns and Volunteers at AVI
Starting in March and running through mid-November, we offer day to day volunteer opportunities for locals. If you are coming from out of town, our volunteer positions range from two weeks to one year. We are especially interested in working with people who are available for several months, if not the whole season, for the following positions:

3 Sustainability center interns
1 Permaculture practitioner

The few volunteer positions we have are for people who want to work hard on a worthwhile project and who have a significant skill-set to bring with them. In exchange for your full-time participation, we’re offering you a place to camp, access to the season’s events, a close working and living relationship with experienced Kleiwerks International staff, and a full immersion at AVI.

If you are interested in applying for one of these positions:
1. Read the following information carefully, to throughly understand our goals, process, and living situation;
2. Read the individual position descriptions carefully and let us know which you are most suited for and interested in. Here are the links to the specific descriptions:
Sustainability center interns
Permaculture practitioner

3. Copy the survey at the bottom of this page, paste it into an e-mail, fill it out and e-mail it to us at AVI@kleiwerks.org.
We will keep you posted on selections, which will be a rolling process.

What we're looking for
Description of Work and Living Conditions
ALL volunteers need to be prepared for some variation as far as whom you work with, and what you are doing. There will be times when we’re in a regular smaller group rhythm, and other times when everyone needs to focus on something unexpected. The season will vary between highly coordinated to more casual. With this said…

We are looking for skillful self-starters who can keep busy at tasks, without needing lots of attention. We want people who ask questions readily, give feedback about what is or is not working, and are generally willing to be patient and flexible, while taking responsibility for their own learning paths. This is our first season and we’ll be living and working together as a close-knit team. We appreciate eager, open, uplifting attitudes.

Volunteers need to be experienced with, and into working an average of 35-40 hours per week. The main schedule will be Tuesday thru Saturday, with variations depending on AVI’s calendar of events, breaks, and so on.

The work will be moderate to heavy, varying from grunt to glamorous. Sometimes the work will be monotonous; at other times you will be learning a whole new skill-set.

We want to invest our energy, cultivating relationships with folks who are dedicated to making a positive difference in the world by continuing to be involved with the sustainability movement. As the summer progresses and your skills develop, we will support your growth as a project facilitator, teacher, and/or activist, and expect that you’d step into such roles for which you have a natural propensity/potential.

Volunteers will also be expected to actively partake in the collective living situation. There will be no ‘hired’ help. This means everyone needs to partake in preparing meals, shopping, preserving food (through fermentation, which you’ll undoubtedly learn!), cleaning house, emptying the compost, and so on. You get the picture, but if you don’t, please don’t bother contacting us.

Life at AVI is family-style. Those of us starting AVI have a lot of experience living collectively, communicating with love and honesty, and enjoying life. We have a big network of friends in Asheville and are fairly social. We are queer-friendly, appreciate diversity, and are open to all kinds of folks. We will be hosting community meetings, workshops, occasional parties, and hopefully enough downtime to balance everything that’s going on. We want to live and work with others who easily compliment this scene.

PLEASE NOTE: We are not interested in volunteers who tend to drink or smoke on a regular basis; ‘regular’ meaning much more than once a week. We love having fun, and tend to often, but we’re just not comfortable with regular use of substances.

Kleiwerks commitments
We need to be clear from the get-go that this is not a formal workshop situation, although there will be a few formal workshops happening while you are with us, in which you are welcome to participate. Our main intention of hosting volunteers this season is to focus on accomplishing our project goals. With this said, we are excited about working with dedicated individuals who are hard working and passionate about what’s happening at AVI. It’s our general nature to “teach,” so there will no doubt be lots of learning, but again, we are intentionally not arranging this season as a major “teaching season” because we need to focus on getting the job done. If you are cool with this, then let’s talk!

Our dedication is to accomplishing our goals while creating a healthy, happy working and learning environment.

Group size
Including our five volunteers, AVI’s core team will be about 10 people, or so. AVI will be hosting ongoing community work parties, formal workshops, and many guests/visitors. Therefore, volunteers will be working in various group sizes, from one-on-one, to a few, to larger group scenarios.

Living Conditions
The Katuah Bioregion is a temperate rainforest. This means that we are in a very rainy, moist climate. You need to come prepared for wet conditions by bringing an appropriate tent, fly and rain tarp, as well as attitude. We do have our fair share of sunshine, but need to highlight the degree of ‘wetness’ so you know what you’re getting into.

AVI is a living collective, and life is pretty close. The house and facilities will be shared. Private space will be limited. In exchange for your full-time participation you will be given a place to pitch your tent, and access to a shared bathroom and kitchen. Meals will not always, but often be prepared and eaten together. Food is mostly organic, often salvaged, sometimes wild, and often pretty delicious! We tend to be meat-eaters who are happy to accommodate vegetarians.

You will be expected to actively partake in all of the above, as well as the general care of AVI. Besides it being a public community center, it will be your home.

SURVEY
Please copy this survey, paste it into an email, fill it out and send the completed copy to us at AVI@kleiwerks.org.

Please indicate which position you are interested in.

1) Name, age, ancestry and contact info including address, email & phone number? Please include any personal details you are comfortable sharing that you believe might make you more interesting to us.
2) Why do you want to join Kleiwerks? What do you find most appealing or exciting about it? What are your other main options for what you will do this summer?
3) What is your experience in working as part of a team? What do you find most rewarding about it, and what most challenging?
4) What do you hope to get out of this position?
5) Please describe your skill set. What do you most pride yourself on? What skills or background do you have that might benefit Kleiwerks?
6) What are some of your life’s passions? What are your favorite things to do?
7) How do you envision taking what you learn and integrating it into your life following this experience? It is our hope that participants contribute to the larger movement, whether you go on to teach others, work on a professional level, or other ways you might choose to work in this field.
8) What kinds of foods do you tend to eat? Do you have any dietary restrictions? All food is shared and we prepare lunch together during the work week. AVI is an omnivorous kitchen happy to accomodate vegetarians.
9) Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?
10) Please include your resume &/or 2professional references and 1 personal reference.

To support AVI
AVI is administered by Kleiwerks International. 100% tax-deductible donations can be made by credit card through PayPal from our Support Us page, or checks can be sent to: Kleiwerks International c/o 82 Buchanan Ave., Asheville, NC 28801. Write AVI in the memo line.

To find out more about volunteer positions at AVI, please contact us at: AVI@kleiwerks.org.

Back to Main Page | Back to Top

Stay tuned for updates and new workshop information.