Call for Applicants: 2025 Maintainers Impact Fellowship
The Maintainers is a global research and practice network focused in advancing maintenance, repair, and care. We convene interdisciplinary change-makers, researchers, practitioners, and every-day people who center maintenance, repair, and care and the myriad forms of labor, expertise, and infrastructure that sustain our human built world.
We are happy to present The 2025 Maintainers Impact Fellowship. This fellowship will start in January of 2025 and will advance the movement for maintenance thinking and action by uplifting individuals who are actively contributing to maintenance, repair, and care sectors within their communities. We are offering two $3,500 awards for two fellows to implement an impact project within a 3 month time frame (January 6 – April 7).
The Impact Fellowship aims to resource a fellow to lead, implement and complete an “Impact Project”. The impact project refers to an initiative led by the fellow that advances maintenance, repair, and/or care practices. This project should focus on addressing tangible challenges or opportunities within the fellow’s local context, with an emphasis on educating, amplifying or celebrating repair, maintenance and/or care. Fellows are encouraged to think creatively about how to implement their projects in ways that fosters change, enhance community resilience, and support equitable systems.
Examples include grassroots programs like organizing free educational events around maintenance, repair and or care, workshops, updating an existing repair or maintenance initiative, developing educational programs, evaluating and/or enhancing an existing initiative, leading a collective initiative to strengthen a care infrastructure.
We are additionally interested in supporting impact projects led by professionals in an institutional or organizational context involving implementing maintenance, repair, or care initiatives. Examples include creating policies or toolkits around maintenance, repair or care protocols in their organization, organizing workshops to educate around maintenance, repair or care, professional development sessions, creating a professional task force to address a maintenance challenge.
We ask that fellows document their work by taking photos, field notes, recordings and other materials that may be helpful to document how their project is developing and taking place in their locality. All fellows will have an exit interview that will close out the project with The Maintainers. The Maintainers will then use the information, documentation, and other materials provided by the fellow to create special toolkits, and communications campaigns to amplify the fellows work.
From January to April 2025, selected fellows will collaborate with The Maintainers to further our vision of a more caring and well-maintained world.
The 2025 Maintainers Movement Impact Fellowship is supported by VR (Ex) Change Network, an open community, connecting teams and individuals from around the world to strategize, innovate, collaborate, and accelerate the transition to sustainable systems of consumption and production. While the fellowship ends in April 2025, the fellow can remain involved in VR (Ex) Change, and participate in their community to explore critical themes and questions in achieving globally equitable and environmentally responsible systems of production and consumption. The fellow will also present their Impact Project to the VR (Ex) Change team.
The Maintainers are supported by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Siegel Family Endowment.
Goal of Fellowship
The goal of the 2025 Maintainers Movement Impact Fellowship is to amplify and support individuals that lead a project/effort that centers maintenance, repair, and or care within their communities. This fellowship aims to empower fellows by providing funding, mentorship, and visibility for their projects, allowing them to deepen their impact and contribute to a broader movement for sustainable and equitable infrastructure. It is also an opportunity to meaningfully engage with The Maintainers Network and gain global connections with other practitioners as well as exchange skills in resources.
Who Should Apply
We encourage applications from individuals whose maintenance, repair, and care initiatives have significantly impacted their local communities or institutions. Ideal candidates will possess practical experience addressing topics such as:
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Place-Based Initiatives and on-the-ground experience around maintenance, repair, and care:
Individuals involved in local repair and maintenance activities—such as repair cafes, care collectives, tool libraries, knowledge preservation, cultural curators, activist groups, and educational programming—aiming to strengthen infrastructure and promote equity. We additionally value initiatives led by professionals carrying out initiatives around the topics of maintenance, repair and care, including librarians, teachers, administrators, environmentalists, and educators.
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Maintenance, repair and care initiatives applied to an institution or organization:
This would include scholars connected to community initiatives, practitioners, and professionals that seek to implement maintenance, repair and care activities that are situated within an organization or institution . Relevant fields include urban planning, technology, design, consumption and sustainability, engineering, public health, and information sciences. Candidates in this area may focus on developing policy, curricula, workshops, forming institutional committees or action groups around maintenance and repair, or leading initiatives that promote sustainable and equitable systems of care and repair in their organization.
To get a sense about the types of projects The Maintainers has supported and partnered with in the past, here are a few examples:
- Repair cafes, fixer sessions, workshops, care collectives, and events.
- Manuals and guides on maintenance protocols in institutional settings such as information sciences and/or sustainability of public interest technology.
- Tool libraries and educational initiatives to teach maintenance and repair.
- Environmental education around preservation and maintenance of natural environments.
- Maintenance of built environments in urban or rural infrastructures.
- Initiatives to maintain and improve the upkeep of public spaces or environments.
- Initiatives that apply circular economy principles, such as degrowth, reuse, decarbonization, zero waste, and repair among others.
Accessibility
Global Perspectives:
Applicants from the Global South or those engaged in non-U.S.-based projects are encouraged to apply. We welcome candidates from various ethnicities, races, genders, and experiences, promoting intergenerational collaboration across career stages.
Language:
While we hope to increase the languages we operate in the future, at this point, we ask that fellows be comfortable with presenting their work in English given that this is the language that most team members share.
Broadband:
Because we are a digital global network, it is expected that you would be able to access WiFi for virtual meetings and email updates.
The Maintainers acknowledge that traditional recruitment practices often disproportionately affect marginalized individuals, including people of color, those from working-class backgrounds, senior citizens, women, and LGBTQIA individuals. We believe that movement building is most effective when informed by diverse lived experiences. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from individuals within these communities. This fellowship is open to both U.S.-based and international applicants, but fellows meetings with the Maintainers team will be typically held within regular 9 am – 5pm business hours (Eastern Standard Time).
How to Apply & Selection Process
Selection will be based on the submitted application that takes into account the fellows experience, the proposed impact project, and the interest and availability of the fellow to collaborate with The Maintainers network. The Maintainers team composed of our staff and our Steering Committee aims to identify two Fellows who represent various backgrounds, experiences, and geographic locations. No formal interviews will be conducted, but we may reach out for clarifications during the selection process.
Only one application per individual will be accepted. The form also requests brief responses regarding potential events, blog posts, and collaborative work you might pursue during the fellowship.
To apply, please submit your resume via the application form at the bottom of this web post, and also addressing several questions regarding your experience and your proposed “Impact Project”.
Core Responsibilities
1. Implement an “Impact” Project
You will present how you will work to begin or continue maintenance, repair, and/or care initiatives in your community. This can include special events, workshops, direct action, teach-ins, design sprints, a community maintenance or repair project, etc. Given that the project needs to be implemented within a 3 month period, please present a proposal with as much detail as possible so we understand you have the capacity to put the project in practice.
2. Participate in a Project Launch Call and an estimated 5 virtual meetings within the 3 months
Align on goals, expectations, and fellowship structure while receiving guidance and resources. Fellows will need to present a 1 or 2 page outline that will include the proposed activities, timeline, and budget during the 3 month period (at The Maintainers we honor the labor necessary to conduct impactful projects. The $3,500 budget can be used at your discretion for your or others labor, materials, space, etc.). Together we’ll review your submitted budget and intended use for the funds.
3. Document and Share Your Work
Capture photos, quotes, and insights from your projects for use in the Maintainers Toolkit and archive, detailing methodologies, values, and learnings of your work previously, and during these three months.
Every two weeks, we expect a brief project update that can be communicated via email or through a brief check-in call.
4. Present their impact project to the Maintainers Steering Committee, the VR (Ex) Change team, and other Maintainers Partners
Share your project and its impact, engaging in a collective feedback and mentorship process. We want to connect your projects to our global network as best as possible, and we’ll be able to support your work by better understanding your efforts.
5. Complete an Exit Interview
Discuss your experience in an exit interview that will serve as a case study for the Maintainers Toolkit, which will contribute to The Maintainers archive of sharing success stories of grassroots maintenance, repair and care initiatives. We will provide you questions that will be asked during this exit interview for your review and preparation prior to scheduling this exit interview. The purpose of this is for The Maintainers and our sponsor VR(ex)Change to best celebrate, advocate and capture data about sustainability, maintenance, repair and care efforts happening globally, and to be able to best connect you with further resources.
Important Dates
- Applications Open: October 21, 2024
- Applications Close: November 21, 2024
- Maintainers team to review: November 22 – December 13
- Notification to Applicants: December 15, 2024
- Fellowship Begins: January 6, 2025
- Fellowship Ends: April 7, 2025
Application Submission Deadline: November 21, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time.