Does your watershed council have planning or capacity-building projects that have been put on hold because of a lack of staffing? Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps Program might be your answer to getting those projects completed.

The RARE AmeriCorps Program offers the perfect opportunity for watershed councils across the state to bring a skilled graduate level participant to their organization.  The RARE Program is an AmeriCorps Program administered through the University of Oregon’s Community Service Center.  Unlike most AmeriCorps Programs, the RARE Program focuses its efforts on organizations who serve rural Oregon.

Since its founding 19 years ago, RARE AmeriCorps has made over 400 successful placements with community organizations across rural Oregon, and more than thirty of those have been with watershed councils.  In fact, the RARE AmeriCorps Program got its start in 1994 working with the McKenzie Watershed Council on a number of citizen involvement and water quality monitoring projects.

This year, the RARE AmeriCorps Program is working with Umatilla Basin Watershed Council (UBWC).   Joshua Allen, the RARE participant placed with the UBWC, is taking on the role as a liaison between UBWC and the general public.  Specifically, Mr. Allen is developing educational material for youth ages 12-18 relating to watershed function and fisheries, presenting such material to local classrooms, organizing field trips, and developing newsletters for education and outreach purposes to the community, etc.

To partner with the RARE AmeriCorps Program, each participating organization provides $20,000 of the $28,000 needed to place, train and support a full-time RARE participant.  In exchange, each organization receives a skilled RARE AmeriCorps participant 11 months (1,700 hours) of service.

Community pre-applications for a 2013-2014 placement are due by 5:00 PM, April 15, 2013.  Applications that demonstrate a clear need for a RARE AmeriCorps participant, a high probability of implementing successful projects, the ability to support a participant and a clear manageable work program are most likely to be invited to participate.  Not all organizations who submit a pre-application will be invited to submit a full application.

For more information about RARE, please visit our web site at:  http://csc.uoregon.edu/rare