ACCORD is a registered society which has been working with the tribal communities of Gudalur for the past 30 years. It acts as the organizational back-up and support for Adivasi Munnetra Sangam (AMS), an association of the four major tribal groups in Gudalur and Pandalur taluks with more than 20000 members.

ACCORD has done and continues to work in the fields of education as well as health care. The initiatives undertaken by ACCORD since its inception in these two fields eventually led to the establishment of Gudalur Adivasi Hospital under ASHWINI as well as Vidyodaya school, under VBVT.

ADIVASI INNOVATION HUB:

As ACCORD steps into the journey of implementing its vision of self-reliant villages and enabling the youth to develop micro enterprises, it is felt that a separate entity is required to implement this initiative from our past learnings. Hence, this proposed entity will include an Incubation centre – called ‘Adivasi Innovation Hub’ which will support the micro enterprises involving the Adivasi youth community, who are around 1/3rd of the tribal population in Gudalur and Pandalur taluks. The intent of the Hub is to enable micro-enterprises keeping in mind three values that Adivasis treasure most: an egalitarian society, a collective model and being one with nature.

Support:

AIH has a collaboration arrangement with Social Alpha. This Fellowship is funded by Social Alpha under its Rural Alpha initiative which intends to create value for rural communities through micro-entrepreneurship. The selected fellow will be hired on a contract basis with Social Alpha. However the fellow will be deputed fulltime to the Adivasi Innovation Hub project based at Gudalur and will be primarily responsible for achieving the Adivasi Innovation Hub’s objectives.

TENURE - 12 months. (Renewable /Extendable into a full time role)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Youth Mobilization

• Mobilize youth and community to explore ideas that could be developed and implemented into sustainable micro-enterprises.
• Create replicable micro-enterprise templates in a standardized format with guidance from ACCORD and Social Alpha teams
• Create awareness of relevant micro-enterprise templates. Promote self-employment and job-creation as a viable livelihood opportunity

2. Program Design & Implementation:

• Co-Develop Program Initiatives, creation of business models, templates and budgets for the enterprises and Project Outlines of the Hub
• Identify strategic opportunities and connections between the Hub and the community and prospect for ideas and initiatives for establishing viable micro-enterprises
• Developing and delivering training and capacity building activities as per the requirement of the community for specific outputs/deliverables

3. Communications:

• Managing communications by guiding and coordinating the work of all relevant community projects pertaining to the Hub with key stakeholders
• Organize community programs pertaining to the Hub with the assistance of community personnel.
• Create communication material for external and internal use

4. Operations:

• Managing project information to ensure that the project dashboards are up-to-date and contain accurate information and develop appropriate Progress Update Reports
• Work with the Hub’s management to identify issues impacting the Hub’s goals
• Explore value chain opportunities by working closely with the community and partners
• Undertake any other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Hub’s management

DESIRED CANDIDATE PROFILE:

• Minimum three years of experience in livelihood projects, youth/community mobilisation
• Existing youth member of the Adivasi community would be preferred
• Entrepreneurial mind-set, including ability to work independently, self-motivated, and propose and implement new interventions/ideas
• Experience in drafting proposals and reports
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint and Word
• Fluency in English and Tamil (Malayalam would be an added advantage)

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's/Master’s Degree (preferably in Social Sciences)
• Volunteering Experience in the Social Sector would be an added advantage

Please email your resume with a covering note to opportunities@justchangeindia.com