Tag: homeless

Spring Orientation Sessions for New Residents

Occupy Madison still has openings!

There is NO APPLICATION PROCESS.  All you need to do is show up!  The process is:

    1. Attend Orientation 1 (11am)
    2. Attend Orientation 2 (1 am)
    3. Decide if this is something you want to do.  If so, attend 2 General Membership meetings to become a member.
    4. Once you attend one GMM, you can start earning hours.  Please note, the two orientations and 1 GMM can be completed in one weekend.
    5. Earn 100 hours of sweat equity by attending meetings, work days, craft making sessions, woodshop hours, free store hours or gift shop hours.
    6. After 100 hours you decide which village you want to live in and start attending their residents meetings.
    7. After 160 hours you can move into the village if accepted.

If you want to be put on the mailing list to get notifications of the meetings, email admin@occupymadisoninc.com

Our process is a bit unusual in that there is no screening and no application.  This is community living and the biggest thing to decide is if you want to live in a village with many residents in a shared community.  Your hut is your private space, but the kitchen, showers, laundry, bathrooms, etc are all shared space and you are expected to contribute both to your village as well as the organization as a whole.

Living in our villages is free!  You just need to participate in village activities, governance of the organization and helping to raise funds to keep the villages going.

We will be doing 3 more orientations on the following dates o the 1st and 3rd Saturday’s :

    • 11am Session 1 and 1pm Session 2 at 201 S. Stoughton Rd
      • April 4 & 18
      • May 16
    • General Membership Meeting – 6pm at 1901 Aberg Ave
      • April 5 & 19
      • May 3 and 17

We will not have orientations in June, July or August but will resume in the fall if we have openings.

How to become a member/resident of Occupy Madison

Are you currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness?  Are you interested in living in a tiny house village?   If you are – here’s what you need to do!

Become a member.  Show up to two general membership meetings and express interest in becoming a member.  General membership meetings are the first Sunday of the month and we have been hold special GMMs to make the process go faster, the meetings are at 6pm at 1901 Aberg Ave.  Upcoming meetings are all at 6pm at 1901 Aberg Ave.

    • November 2nd
    • November 16th
    • December 7th
    • December 21st
    • January 17th
    • January 31st

Make sure to have an email address you can provide to the organization so you get notificaitons.

Show up to two orientations.  We hold two orientation meetings two times a month.  Orientations are at 201 S. Stoughton Rd. at 11am (1st orientation)and 1pm (2nd orientation)

Earn sweat equity hours.  You need 160 hours to be able to move into a house.  When you earn 500 hours you are eligible to become a steward and get a wooden house instead of a conestoga hut.

Get voted in to a village.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us at admin@occupymadisoninc.com

Now accepting volunteers!

We aren’t quite ready to start building houses, but we get closer and closer every day!  We know that is what most of our volunteers want to do and we’ll let you know when we are ready!

Meanwhile, we still need volunteers for a variety of other things including:

    • Helping with store shifts (Tuesday and Thursday 6pm – 8pm or Saturday and Sunday 10am – 2pm at 304 N. Third St.)
    • Helping with hanging drywall (Most Monday – Thursday 4pm – 8pm at 201 S. Stoughton Rd.)
    • Help with fundraising!!!

You can see the calendar for any of these events.  Or, to volunteer you can sign up by clicking on the button on the right hand part of your screen (on a computer) or at the bottom (if on a phone)

or this button to have us contact you!

Or just email us at occupymadisoninc@gmail.com and let us know what you are interested in!

 

Update from 1901 Aberg Ave. – Village 2

Spring is here and the village is in bloom!

Village residents have been busy helping with our third village, getting ready to accept new residents and helping with the store and our upcoming plant sale.

Last fall we nearly completed the last items on our list for the redevelopment of the village.  Well, except for the new wooden houses, which we will begin building in the fall when it gets too cold for outside renovations at the third village.

We spent time finishing up the landscaping, planting trees and cleaning up around the village.

We continue to enjoy  the savings in electricity with the new solar in place!

Residents are excited to finish renovations on Village 3 this summer so we can start building the wooden tiny houses for the fall. These houses will replace the conestoga huts and give them more living space!  We will then use the conestoga huts for the residents at the 3rd village until we build the larger houses.

Update from 304 N Third St. – Village 1

For the past few months, the 304 Village has been busy!

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 – 8 there are shop shifts where residents can come and make items for the store.

These are also the store hours so residents and volunteers have been busy training residents from Village 2 (1901 Aberg Ave) to learn how to work in the store.

You can stop by the store Tuesday and Thursday 6pm – 8pm or Saturday’s and Sunday’s 10 – 2 and we should be open!

And of course, we have also been BUSY BUSY BUSY planting, transplanting, watering and tending to our plants for our upcoming plant sale!

Please stop by our plant Sale on Saturday, May 3rd 10am-4pm for food, music, plants, tiny house tours and more!  And if you miss the plant sale, for the next month or so, you can stop by during store hours and purchase plants for your flower or vegetable garden!

Occupy Madison celebrates 10 year anniversary of 1st Village

Can you believe it has been 10 years?

Join us to celebrate and raise funds for our third village!

Sunday, November 3rd

    • 10am – noon – Join us at 304 N Third Street to see the very first village!
    • noon – 2pm – Join us at 1901 Aberg Ave. to see the 2nd village!
    • 2pm – 5pm – Join us at 201 S. Stoughton Rd. to see the home of the 3rd village and our new place to build houses!

At each of the villages you can take a tour, meet the residents, purchase items made by our residents and enjoy a scavenger hunt of sorts!

To donate:

Send a check to
Occupy Madison Inc.
304 N Third St.
Madison WI 53704
Or donate on line through PayPal (smaller monthly donations are particularly appreciated!)

 

To volunteer:

Leave your information here!