Green Light New Orleans Volunteer Guide

GREEN LIGHT NEW ORLEANS • A VOLUNTEER GUIDE

LEARN. SERVE. GROW.

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Volunteers play an invaluable role in helping Green Light implement its programs and reaching households directly at home.

Besides providing services to the community, Green Light New Orleans offers educational service modules for school and university groups. Our service modules give your students more insight into the unique way Green Light conducts environmental work for the community and how environmental work is linked to the social context of the city, to personal health, and to community building.

Your students benefit from a deeper service experience and the knowledge of how and why Green Light provides community services.

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MISSION AND VALUES

RAIN B PROG

S TA R T E

BACKY LE VEGETAB

S TA R T E

CFL PRO nce side Sub on Less ati uc Ed

S TA R T E D

Me nt al w el ln CO es 2 re s du cti on

RESILI

in a di

BARREL GRAM

ED 2 0 1 5

KYARD E GARDEN

ED 2012

Com mun ity b Fre uild ing sh foo da cce ss

OGRAM

D 2006

isaster

Improved health

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IENCE

t efi n be l cia n a tion c Fin u d y re g r Ene ection n n o C rce Resou

A FEW GREEN Established in 2007 as an environmental action project in response to hurricane Katrina.

16,000 600,000

27,000

VOLUNTEERS WORKED WITH GREEN LIGHT

ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTBULBS WERE PROVIDED

HOMES SERVED

LIGHT FACTS: FINANCIAL BENEFIT TO COMMUNITY

550 BACKYARD VEGETABLE GARDENS WERE BUILT

RAIN BARRELS WERE INSTALLED

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100

270,000,000

27,000,000

REDUCED THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE CITY BY

THE LIGHT BULB

Exchange incandescent light bulbs for energyefficient bulbs to help households reduce their carbon footprint and their electricity bill.

This program was Green Light’s first and is one of the largest direct-installation programs in the country. Your group will receive an orientation and training before visiting New Orleans homes. Volunteers meet and interact with New Orleans families while providing light bulbs, they track how many light bulbs they change, calculate the carbon and energy reduction for each house and educate service recipients on how to reduce a household’s energy footprint. Groups visit 3 homes in a half day and 5-6 homes in a full day.

Time slots: Half day or Full day Group size: between 2-6 volunteers preferred • Transportation: Passenger car, mini van or 15 passenger van per group required • Transportation: Passenger car, mini van • Donation: $200/half day, $400/full day per route • •

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BACKYARD VEGETABLE GARDEN

Spend the morning or afternoon working with a New Orleans household to construct a home vegetable garden.

Home gardens help eliminate the carbon emissions associated with the transportation of food, while also giving people access to fresh, healthy vegetables. Each household participating in the program will have attended Green Light’s “Intro to Organic Gardening” class. Your group will receive an orientation and training on how to build and plant the garden. Volunteer groups also learn about the basics of urban gardening, including soil issues in the city and planting techniques for small spaces. Your group will build a 4x4 garden bed including fresh soil, plants and seeds.

Time slots: One garden per day, approximately 4 hours • Group size: between 3-6 preferred • Transportation: Passenger car, mini van or 15 passenger van required • Donation: $400/garden •

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EDIBLE TEACHING GARDEN

Is your group interested in learning about permaculture and ecological gardening?

Interested in the history of Green Light New Orleans? Spend the morning in Green Light’s Edible Teaching Garden with Andreas Hoffmann, Green Light’s Founder and Executive Director. Andreas will discuss Green Light’s history and the organization’s expansion from exchanging light bulbs to building vegetable gardens and installing rain barrels. He’ll lead your group on a tour of the Edible Teaching Garden, highlighting unique plants and encourage you to taste everything from Malabar spinach to Moringa (the miracle tree). Andreas will discuss the importance of growing soil through composting and will explain the concept of “edible city.” Depending on the season, participants will help with a few garden tasks and learn by doing.

Time slot: Half day (morning or afternoon) • Group size: between 5 - 45 • Transportation: Transportation to the garden required • Donation: $400/half day •

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RAIN BARREL

The rain barrel program is the latest Green Light innovation in our series of programs that support individual households.

Green Light installs repurposed olive barrels which are equipped with a spigot, stand on pavers and are connected to a downspout. All of our rain barrels are painted by artists, but before they reach the art department, they must to be cleaned, lightly sanded, and primed. We use baking soda and vinegar to clean the barrels and water based primer for the base coat.

Preparing the barrels for the artists is done by volunteer groups and individual volunteers help with the installation.

Time slot: Half day or full day Group size: up to 10 volunteers • Transportation: Transportation to the Green Light office required • Donation: $200 • •

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PLANNING Our module system allows you to compile your schedule according to your needs.

Below are two sample schedules for a group volunteering with us for a full week and parts of the week. Each block is a module that you can move according to your needs. You can also decide how many days your group would like to volunteer. For instance you can decide to volunteer all week by choosing ten modules or you can volunteer for one morning and choose one module.

YOUR DAY Sample 1 MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

MORNING 9 AM– 1 PM

teaching at edible garden

install a backyard vegetable garden

install lightbulbs

install a backyard vegetable garden

install lightbulbs

AFTERNOON 1 PM– 5 PM

install light bulbs

install lightbulbs

install a backyard vegetable garden

prepare rain barrels

install lightbulbs

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

MORNING 9 AM– 1 PM

teaching at edible garden

install a backyard vegetable garden

AFTERNOON 1 PM– 5 PM

install lightbulbs

prepare rain barrels

Sample 2

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MAKE YOUR OW MODULES BACKYARD VEGGIE GARDEN TEACHING GARDEN ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS RAIN BARRELS

GRAND TOTAL

COST PER MODULE

$400

$400

$200

$200

DAY OF THE WEEK

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