Volunteer Opportunity – The Rich Coast Project

The Rich Coast Project uses storytelling, digital archiving and interdisciplinary research to protect cultural heritage and land ownership.

Mission and History
The Rich Coast Project aims to explore the impact of Costa Rican conservation policy on land tenure and livelihoods for native Afro-descendent communities of Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast. Our goal is to coordinate community storytelling, digital archiving, and legal research to connect local experience to national and international law, promoting local cultural and legal empowerment, generating conversation about rights in conflict (i.e. environment vs development), and creating linkages to influence better policy.

The Project began as a research project of Katherine Beck while a law student at Northeastern University. It became a Massachusetts nonprofit in April 2013, and received 501c3 status through fiscal sponsorship with Fractured Atlas in September 2013. We have developed partnerships with Northeastern University School of Law’s Social Justice Program, the Archival Studies Program at Simmons College, and the Center for Digital Storytelling. In Costa Rica, we are advised by several local advocates and attorneys, and are working with residents and artists to develop our programming. Harvard Law Library’s Kyle Courtney is also an advisor to the project.

Objectives
The project will work with local advocates to produce a collective memory of the area and its people through the use of community storytelling and social-engaged artistic projects. This process will be supported by the development of a digital community archive populated by the documents and photographs of local residents, as well as video portraits produced through our community storytelling campaign. We are also coordinating legal research at law schools in the Boston area to unpack the comlicated forces at play, explore novel issues of international law, and create resources that promote understanding and generate conversation about emerging problems.

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We are currently in fundraising and development stages, and will be sending a small team to Costa Rica in early January to work with local activists and artists to spearhead a community storytelling project. We are recruiting student volunteers to contribute to the organization’s development and ongoing research initiatives.

If you are interested in learning more, visit the project’s website at www.therichcoastproject.org. To get involved as a student volunteer, contact us at therichcoastproject@gmail.com.

Please also consider supporting our fundraising campaign, liking us on Facebook, and telling your networks about our work!

Indiegogo Campaign:  http://igg.me/at/therichcoastproject/x/3254971
Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/TheRichCoastProject
Newsletter / Mailing list:  http://eepurl.com/FQTFb