MLF is excited to announce the position of Property Beautification Intern.
The Property Beautification Team leads in the general upkeep of the landscape at Community First! Village, a 51-acre master-planned community that provides affordable, permanent housing, and a supportive community for the chronically homeless in Travis County. This internship will come with the benefit of learning from a team with over 70 years of groundskeeping and landscaping combined experience. This summer internship will include aspects of maintaining a property, design, installation, maintenance, and supportive aspects such as irrigation, pest control, and weed control. This will be done all while having fun and enjoying getting to build relationships with the neighbors that live and work here!
This is a part-time, non-exempt internship position working within the Grounds & Facilities Department and reporting to the Property Beautification Manager. Due to the nature and requirements of the internship, hours are flexible to fit needs, but include 10-20 hours Monday-Friday. Some nights and weekends may be required. The Property Beautification Intern work will be performed at Community First! Village located at 9301 Hog Eye Road, Austin, TX 78724.
Download Job Description PDF • Posted 3/27/24
Founded in 1998, Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF) is a Christian social outreach ministry that empowers communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. The organization’s innovative Community First! Village is the country’s largest master planned development designed specifically for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness, and has become a national model replicated by other organizations in different cities. With the support of tens of thousands of volunteers and more than 6.5 million meals served through its Truck Ministry, MLF has also grown to become the largest prepared feeding program to the homeless in Central Texas and has spawned similar food truck programs across the country.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Assistance with upkeep of the property include, but is not limited to:
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- Proper plant maintenance
- Investigating and diagnosing issues seen around the property
- Working with both neighbors and volunteers to complete projects of all sizes around the property
- Hosting volunteers up to 4 days a week
- Installations of plants and/or hardscaping
- Organization and upkeep of all department specific tools, equipment, and spaces
- Assistance with Greenhouse, both upkeep and usage
- Design of areas to be landscaped, both currently existing and those to be landscaped in the future
- Other Duties & Responsibilities as needed
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Principles:
- MLF is a faith-based organization whose ideals and philosophy come directly from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As an organization, we strive to reflect this precept in our communications, both internally and externally.
- Commitment to serving those who have experienced homelessness and personal alignment with MLF’s vision, mission, core values, and goals.
- Currently pursuing a degree in Landscape and/or Horticulture
- Effective communicator in fast paced environment
- Willingness to learn
- Desire to get dirty in and be out in all weather conditions
- Basic design and plant knowledge
- An interest/desire to work with volunteers up to 4 days a week
- Ability to work with heavy equipment and/or power tools a plus, but not a requirement
- Work can be fast paced at times and may require extreme communication and a need to hustle
- Must have a valid driver’s license
Learning Opportunities
- Central Texas plants and their proper care
- Design aspects, as well as how to properly adjust those according to the maintenance that can be done with our neighbors
- Knowledge of Groundskeeping and Landscaping
- Property maintenance and management and how to look ahead
- Irrigation
Program Information
- Estimated length of program: 6 – 10 weeks beginning Summer 2024
Work Environment & Physical Demands:
- Must be able to lift 50 lbs.
- Must be able to work outside in all weather conditions
- Ability to stand, walk, or bend for extended periods
Our Purpose & Vision
We empower communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless.
Goals
- Transform the way people view the stereotype of those who find themselves homeless
- To reconnect the homeless to self, family, and community
- Help the chronically homeless rediscover and utilize their God-given talents to do purposeful work
- To connect human to human, heart to heart through the fellowship of food and hospitality
- Inspire people to give abundantly and offer their best first
Core Beliefs
The vision is supported by core beliefs, all focused around our understanding that homelessness is the result of a profound catastrophic loss of family:
- God, infinitely prefect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in His own blessed life
- By virtue of being created by God in His image, we are all called to live in community and relationship with Him through each other
- The family is the original cell of social life
- You shall love your neighbor as yourself
- All members of the human family are equal in dignity
- The Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it. Gen.2:15
Our Mission
We provide food and clothing, cultivate community and promote dignity to our homeless brothers and sisters in need.
Core Values
MLF is committed to fostering a culture that prioritizes relational connection. We believe there is opportunity in every aspect of our work to be relational in a highly transactional world. In this culture, transactions are means to relational ends, not the other way around.
This begins with the countercultural love poured out by Jesus Christ and grows as imperfect individuals strive to show this love to each other human-to-human, heart-to-heart.
Each individual’s openness to the journey of their own personal growth is essential in building our relational culture, and we believe this culture flourishes as we each continuously strive to more fully embody these four core values:
- Faith: We define Faith as the foundational belief that our world and all our work belong to God. This allows us to engage our work with joy and lightheartedness, knowing that we are not ultimately in control.
- Humility: We define Humility as rightly viewing oneself as a single piece of a grander story. This humility leads to a view of oneself that is neither too high nor too low.
- Generous Spirit: We define a Generous Spirit as a readiness to give more grace, mercy, and hospitality than is necessary or expected. This posture allows us to see others for who they are, not what they do.
- Integrity: We define Integrity as a wholehearted commitment to doing right by God, ourselves, and others. This wholeheartedness shows itself in consistently choosing honesty, responsibility and ownership in all actions and decisions.
MLF is a faith-based organization with its ideals and philosophy coming directly from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.
MLF is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Personnel are chosen based on ability without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, genetics, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation in accordance with federal and state law.
Learn more
Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF) is a social outreach ministry that has been empowering communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless since 1998. But that’s just our elevator pitch. Here are a few places to start if you want to get to know us better:
About MLF >
Our Leadership Team >
Media Coverage >
Community First! Village >
other ways to get involved
There are so many different ways to join us and help us empower communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless.
