VolunteerMatch

Dreamfuel is a non profit investing in youth, families, and communities recovering from a natural disaster or war. Through our network of volunteers, vocational youth centers, and innovations in emergency housing, infrastructure, and alternative energies, Dreamfuel is helping to create strong sustainable communities that provide stability, equality, and opportunity for families and youth recovering from disaster. Dreamfuel also seeks to educate and assist municipalities and local governments in the use of alternative energy technologies, sustainable building and land use practices, and in the improvement of emergency response and emergency communication plans and facilities.

They are not mere facts and figures, they are uprooted men, women and children that are searching to find their former sense of home in Southern Mississippi. They know loss, in the last three and a half years they have weathered it well with love and humility. They are the working class, teachers, police, commercial fishermen, cooks, waiters, construction workers... couples, single parents, grandparents, students, and disabled. Most are on fixed incomes, and nearly all in some form of temporary housing they can no longer afford to call home. With the forced removal of MEMA cottages from Waveland and Bay St. Louis, and the simultaneous end of rental assistance, March 2009 is threatening to be a disaster in itself. However, with the return of one of the most experienced non-profits to pioneer Mississippi's early road recovery, and in cooperative effort with thousands of volunteers from across the country we aim to address the immediate and long-term housing requirements of this flailing region. In in the process of planting and stabilizing these families through home ownership & education, we believe that negative social and economic patterns will also be improved. Through the innovative use of MEMA cottages, alternative energies, social services, volunteerism, and intelligent community design, we are creating a role-model community of sustainable housing solutions.