Gig: Turning Housing Needs into Action: An Ounce of Prevention Data Dashboard.
UNC Charlotte Gig Training Program
Campus Internship
Closes on Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Job Description
Affordable Housing For the Carolinas (AHFTC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2024 with a mission to help Carolina residents overcome barriers to affordable housing and increase their quality of life. We serve communities in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties in North Carolina and York and Chester counties in South Carolina, with a focus on households with limited incomes, older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, and families facing housing instability. Our Ounce of Prevention program helps residents preserve their homes through home inspections, essential repairs, accessibility modifications, aging in place assessments, and homeowner education. Our Beyond The Bricks: Nourish program strengthens food access through food distributions, fresh food options, homebound deliveries, and gardening and nutrition education. We also support community leadership and advocacy through our Community Leadership Academy and Community Voices initiative. Led by Founding Executive Director Mary Hunter, a licensed North Carolina home inspector, AHFTC works with volunteers, contractors, neighborhood leaders, and community partners to address needs identified by residents. As our organization grows, we offer students meaningful opportunities to apply technical skills to real challenges in affordable housing preservation and nonprofit operations. Our guiding belief is simple: Stability Starts at Home.
The Project
The Housing Preservation Data and Dashboard Intern will develop a practical tracking and reporting tool for Affordable Housing For the Carolinas’ Ounce of Prevention program, which helps residents preserve their homes through inspections, essential repairs, accessibility modifications, and aging in place services.
Working with the Executive Director, the student will translate program reporting needs into a standardized project tracker and interactive dashboard using Excel or Google Sheets. The tool will help AHFTC summarize household needs, service locations by county, project status, funding sources, and estimated and actual costs. It will support program planning, board updates, and grant reporting.
The project will be limited to 40 total hours and will include:
Reviewing existing records and identifying key reporting needs with the Executive Director.
Developing consistent data fields and organizing a limited sample of records using household IDs without personally identifying information.
Building a dashboard with formulas, charts, and filters to summarize service demand, completed activities, and project spending.
Testing calculations and dashboard functions, identifying missing information, and incorporating supervisor feedback.
Creating a reusable reporting template and a brief user guide, then presenting the completed tool and training AHFTC staff to maintain it.
The student will gain practical experience in data organization, spreadsheet development, data visualization, quality assurance, and communicating findings to nonprofit leadership. All core work can be completed remotely, with regular virtual check ins and milestone reviews.
The final deliverables will include a functioning project tracker, an interactive dashboard, a reporting template, and maintenance instructions. The scope will focus on one program and a manageable sample of records to ensure completion within the allotted hours.
Learning Experience
The student will gain direct experience applying technical skills to a real operational need within a nonprofit housing organization. Through developing a tracking tool and dashboard for the Ounce of Prevention program, the student will learn to translate stakeholder needs into data fields, organize and validate records, build spreadsheet formulas, and create charts and filters that support planning and reporting.
The project will strengthen the student’s analytical thinking, problem solving, project management, and professional communication skills. Regular meetings with the Executive Director will provide mentorship, constructive feedback, and insight into affordable housing preservation, aging in place services, and nonprofit accountability. The student will also practice responsible data handling by working with records that exclude personally identifying information.
By testing the tool, preparing user instructions, and presenting results to organizational leadership, the student will gain experience carrying a project from initial requirements through completion and handoff. The finished project will provide a concrete accomplishment for the student’s resume, with the opportunity to develop a portfolio example using approved, anonymized or demonstration data.
Outcomes
By the end of the 40 hour project, the student is expected to deliver:
A standardized program tracker: An Excel or Google Sheets tool with clearly defined fields for household ID, county, service needs, project status, funding source, and estimated and actual costs.
An interactive dashboard: Charts, formulas, and filters that summarize service demand, completed inspections, repairs and modifications, and project spending.
An organized sample dataset: A limited set of program records entered consistently, with missing information flagged and personally identifying information excluded.
A tested reporting tool: Calculations and dashboard functions checked against sample records, with revisions completed based on supervisor feedback.
A reusable reporting template: A concise summary that AHFTC can update for board meetings, program reviews, and grant reporting.
Documentation and staff training: A brief user guide and virtual presentation explaining how to enter records, refresh reports, and maintain the tool.
These outcomes will give AHFTC a practical foundation for consistent program reporting while demonstrating the student’s ability to complete and communicate a technical project.
UNC Charlotte Gig Training Program