West Virginia Mine Wars Museum Archives Capacity Building VISTA Summer Associate-AmeriCorps

Position Title:  Archives Collections Capacity Summer Associate – VISTA Summer Associate

Conservation Legacy Program: Stewards Individual Placement

Site Location: 

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

112 Mate Street, Matewan, WV 25678

Terms of Service:

• Start Date: 6/1/2026
• End Date: 8/9/2026
• AmeriCorps Slot Classification: 300 hours (Minimum-Time)

Purpose:

• Coal's legacy shaped long-term economic disruption and persistent poverty across southern West Virginia. Strengthening archives access supports education and civic participation by making local history more available to schools and community members. It also supports heritage tourism and research interest in the region by improving the Museum's ability to share credible, well-organized historical materials.
• The project leaves behind standardized tools and documented workflows that staff and volunteers can use to process new donations, keep digital files organized, and respond to education/research requests more efficiently—without needing specialized archival training.

 
Description of Duties:

The Summer Associate will focus on capacity-building activities that produce internal planning resources, documentation tools, and community engagement materials. Duties may include compiling labor market research summaries, developing workforce resource inventories, creating community asset maps, organizing environmental data sets, drafting partnership coordination frameworks, designing planning templates and resource guides, and assisting with public-facing informational workshops, outreach campaigns, or site observations. Activities are designed to strengthen host organizations’ capacity, guide long-term workforce and environmental program development, provide tangible connections between planning tools and community needs, and support measurable outcomes in workforce access, environmental stewardship, and community engagement.

The Summer Associate will build the Museum's archiving and digitization capacity by helping staff implement a consistent workflow for archival intake, basic arrangement/description, and digitization tracking. Duties include organizing and inventorying materials, establishing standardized file naming and folder structure, creating simple metadata guidelines, maintaining a digitization/processing log, and drafting clear checklists/templates staff and volunteers can reuse. The role may include limited reference support (pulling items for staff requests), but is primarily focused on creating sustainable systems and documentation.

 
Qualifications:

• Car recommended;
• Desired education level: Some College
• Language requirement: English
• United States citizen, United States national, or a lawful permanent resident alien
• At least 17 years of age
• Has received a high school diploma or equivalency certificate; or has not dropped out of elementary or secondary school to enroll as an AmeriCorps participant, and agrees to obtain a high school diploma or its equivalent prior to using the education award
• Agrees to provide information to establish eligibility and to complete a National Service Criminal History Check.

Physical Requirements:

Conservation Legacy is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to perform essential functions. Some positions may require periodic overnight travel, non-traditional hours, ability to move across varied terrain, use program-specific tools and a range of technology on an infrequent or frequent basis. Exerting up to 25 pounds of force occasionally to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. Ability to safely drive an organizational vehicle may also be required for some positions. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager.

Time Requirements:

• Typically, this position is expected to serve full-time, 35-40 hours per week, but exact service schedules may vary. A half hour lunch break will not be counted towards AmeriCorps service
• Permits working at another job during off hours 

Orientation and Training:

• Member will receive an orientation that includes training on AmeriCorps prohibited and unallowable activities.
• Member will receive a Virtual Member Orientation (VMO) from VISTA on their first day of service. 

Benefits:

• Segal AmeriCorps Education Award of $1,565.08
• Living Allowance of $957.46 (taxable) every other week.
• Healthcare Coverage if Eligible
• Childcare Coverage if Eligible
• Loan forbearance if Eligible
• Interest Payments if Eligible
• Recreational Opportunities
• Professional Development Opportunities

Evaluation and Reporting:

As an AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate, performance will be evaluated on whether the Summer Associate has completed the required number of hours, whether the Summer Associate has satisfactorily completed assignments, and if the Summer Associate has met other performance criteria that were clearly communicated at the beginning of the term of service.

Reporting requirements include, but are not limited to, bi-weekly timesheets and accomplishment tracking.

Supervisor Name and Contact Information:

Erin Adams

eadams@conservationlegacy.org

330 Harper Park Drive

Beckley, WV 25801

(304) 860-0578

Host Organization Contact:

Thomas Jude
thomas@wvminewars.org
(304) 382-5476

Conservation Legacy is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodations due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager.