We envision communities where no one lives on the fringes -- where everyone has the resources they need to have agency over their lives and a sense of belonging.
Our Mission
Our mission is to dismantle structural poverty and spur economic mobility at a grassroots level.
Who
We recruit people who are experiencing poverty and living in or around Gainesville, FL to participate in our fellowship. We aim to build a diverse class of fellows from different areas and with different backgrounds. Diversity builds connections that might not have otherwise happened, as fellows find common ground and work together to advance their shared goals.
In short, our fellowship is intended for people experiencing poverty who have a vision for how they want to build a better world.
What
Community Spring provides people experiencing poverty with the space to recognize and learn to effectively use their individual and collective power. We pay people a fair wage to participate in nine-month fellowships that address the issues they identify as contributing to poverty in their communities.
When
Fellowships run from August to May every year.
Where
Community Spring’s work is focused in and around Gainesville, Florida. And there is certainly work to be done. Economic mobility in the United States is especially constricted in the Southeast. This concentrated lack of opportunity is reflected in Gainesville, with inter-generational poverty endemic on the east side of the city. Even in times of general prosperity, some economically isolated communities continue to experience Depression-era levels of poverty and unemployment. For example, in 2017 the national unemployment rate was 6.6%, but the Duval neighborhood of Gainesville had an unemployment rate of over 22%.
How
We hire fellows to work together during a nine-month period. They work 20 hours per week at a fair wage. At the start of each fellowship class, there is an initial orientation to establish the basic framework and expectations for the fellowship, followed by a dynamic, collaborative process of developing the work plan for the class. We want to give our fellows the space and support to identify the most significant problems in their communities and develop the solutions to those problems. To start, we guide conversations between fellows to find a broad area of focus for the class. Examples of focus areas could include access to housing, education, employment, food, public safety, green spaces, or healthcare. With the general focus agreed on, we work with the fellowship class to design and build out a work plan for the class as a whole as well as each individual fellow. As the work moves forward, we monitor and modify the individual and collective work plans and provide strategic guidance and support.