PSYDEH Field Corps Trainers (m/f), Hidalgo, Central Mexico

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Psicología y Derechos Humanos PSYDEH (Psychology and Human Rights) seeks 1 ideally 2 exceptional Spanish or bi-lingual English/Spanish volunteers, we’re open to couples, for the role(s) of field corps trainers in the rural, mountainous Otomí-Tepehua region of Hidalgo, central Mexico.

These individuals will train a new majority-indigenous women team we build-one Corps coordinator, two professional coaches, four community organizers-based in the areas in which they work to partner with PSYDEH's indigenous women partners and their own Network of organizations . The in-person positions require a minimum commitment of 6 months full-time work. The starting date is flexible, but ideally as soon as possible.

About PSYDEH

PSYDEH is an award-winning Mexican grassroots, non-profit organization based in Hidalgo, Mexico with national and international reach. Our needed work links women leader training and citizen education with human rights-based community organizing and local-led, high impact project production (community-led development). Our goal is to empower Mexican women and their indigenous communities to lead the bottom-up, sustainable development of their own marginalized areas.

Main objectives of the Role

1. Train Corps to do the same with indigenous women partners and their network on site.

a) Train, coach, and organize Corps members to live and work pursuant to PSYDEH’s novel leadership values in the four targeted municipalities.

b) Co-stand up the new "Casa Siempre Viva", named after the Network’s regional organization, operating as a safe space for the women partners and Corps in which to work and train.

2. Empower Corps-supported indigenous women partners to be the leaders and entrepreneurs they are..

a) Support successful individual participation in upcoming social enterprise initiatives .

b) Support their organizations to develop, plan, launch and finish their own micro-impact projects .

3. Strengthen resilient rural and indigenous communities. Co-create plan and methods for necessary interventions needed to support the Corps to:

a) Execute workshop series on demanded subjects, e.g., using local resources to, among other things, strengthen food security during the pandemic.

b) Provide basic psychological and legal assistance to local communities.

c) Facilitate delivery of COVID-19 episode series with trustworthy information in Spanish and indigenous languages to women and their communities.

d) Invite local feedback on concrete, data-based needs (and their solutions) organized around the 2030 Sustainability Development Agenda’s 17 goals, i.e., updating women’s own unprecedented development agenda .

Primary Responsibilities

• Co-create your own work plan to meet these responsibilities.
• Train Corps on the leadership values and their discipline practices they need to deploy daily to maximize the chance of success achieving target impacts for each of the abovestated objectives.
• Co-stand up "Casa Siempre Viva"
• Back-stop support for the Corps as needed.
• Facilitate a generative feedback loop between indigenous women partners and their communities, Corps members and PSYDEH.

Essential Criteria

• Degree in the humanities, social/hard sciences and/or minimum 1 year of experience in the fields of Social Services, Human Service, Psychology or Education (paid or voluntary roles).
• Understanding of, experience with, the popular education model, ideally in rural, vulnerable communities, even better with women in said areas, e.g., if you know and appreciate that which is outlined in Parker Palmer’s To Know as we are Known , we might be a great fit. Interest in, ability to, act as servant-leader within multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams.
• Fluent in Spanish language and a minimum of conversational English skills
• Minimum age of 21 years
• Knowledge and experience of living in rural, developing world, i.e., periodic losses of electricity, phone signal, hot water, internet.
• Adventurous, can-do, wanting to be part of something bigger than self mindset. Indeed, if you (1) value authenticity; (2) prize communication and question thinking; (3) support learning and change; (4) encourage creativity; (5) foster collaboration, especially when strategizing, innovating and problem solving; (6) promote mentoring and capacity building in the context of (7) work that speaks to transformation; and (8) value process-active listening, analyzing, adapting when needed, and decisiveness in the pursuit of getting stuff done, we must talk.
• Accept that PSYDEH will cover your basic housing, basic food for essentials only, work-related transportation, wifi only. Any other costs would need to be covered through creative fundraising led by volunteer, supported by PSYDEH.

Desirable Criteria

• Cultural openness with basic knowledge of rural Mexico/Latin America, even better rural indigenous groups and their unique challenges.
• Experience working in a community background
• Valid international driving license, with willingness to drive in rural Mexico

What you will gain

• Play a leading role in building-by-applying PSYDEH’s novel model for empowering bottom-up, women-oriented, community-led development.
• Learn what and how to empower citizens to learn and live leadership values , a method for forging the relationships needed to drive community-led development from the bottom-up.
• Make a sustainable impact with indigenous women in their marginalized communities through education, community organizing and local problem solving..
• Learn up close from the women partners and their communities about Mexican indigenous culture and community life in rural Mexico.
• Live in the culturally rich Otomí-Tepehua region located in the extraordinary Sierra Madre mountains of eastern Mexico.

Collaborating with PSYDEH

We prefer the concept of "collaborator" over "volunteer" because PSYDEH, operating as a start-up, needs professionals willing and able to invest what is needed to make a win-win impact, for themselves, our organization and local partners. Most of our staff are collaborators, 100% donate at least some of their time.

As a past collaborator states:

"If you are looking for an experience that gives you a chance to understand and collaborate on the challenging, first-hand work necessary to change the rural rurality in Mexico, I could not recommend an experience more highly."

Please send us what you think we should know about why we should work with you for this one-of-a-kind opportunity, including a mandatory CV and letter of motivation, to carmen.grab@psydeh.com.