Ashley Newton-Deckrow is an AmeriCorps VISTA member, currently serving as the Northern Bedrock Capacity Builder VISTA with Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps. Ashley will complete her year of service on February 13, 2023. For the past 10 months Ashley has worked on two main projects for Northern Bedrock. The first is the Community Advisory Network which serves to build connections in the field of historic preservation. These connections could be with people who have a passion for historic preservation, those with a background in the hands-on aspect of historic preservation, or those who can offer supplies. The Community Advisory Network also connects historic building homeowners in Minnesota with people who have the knowledge to help them preserve their homes. Through Northern Bedrock, Ashley has worked with RETHOS, a 501c3 non-profit previously known as The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, to build this network for both organizations and the general public.
Ashley has also helped develop the Ambassador Program which would be another State or National AmeriCorps program run by Northern Bedrock. The program would place individuals throughout Minnesota at local historical societies, museums, and local governments where they have the opportunity to learn about historic preservation and also would help prepare historic preservation plans. Ashley developed a position description for this program as well as a learning module/lesson plan.
While working on the two main capacity-building projects, Ashley also helped build capacity for Northern Bedrock’s 2022 Field Season by developing Mid-Season and Full-Season Field Reports. These reports included information on the work done by the Northern Bedrock crews on historic sites and structures. She had to gather quantitative data that was provided by the crews to determine how much work was done, such as square feet of scraping and painting, cubic feet of masonry, and the number of cemetery monuments that were reset, cleaned, leveled, and edged.
The Eco3 AmeriCorps VISTA program supports 45 full-time VISTA positions that help eradicate poverty and build the capacity of the dozens of organizations they serve. Learn more about our program and browse open positions at https://www.ecolibrium3.org/eco3vista/
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