The goal of the UUCSJ Experiential Internship Equity Fund is to support experiential learning opportunities in support of faithful justice organizing. We will provide support to UU-affiliated organizations interested in hosting learning interns but who don’t have the budget to pay a fair wage. Too often, we’ve seen organizations offer low or unpaid internships, often placing the learning opportunity out of reach for all but the most advantaged. UUCSJ believes, despite the temporary staffing nature of interns, they too deserve a fair wage. To that end, UUCSJ is offering stipends of $1,000 a month per intern for up to 3 months per calendar year.
Why is this an experiential internship fund?
An experiential education framework does not require travel, meeting new people, or hearing something new. All these things might happen in an experiential education experience, but they are not necessary. All that is required for an experience to be experiential is reflection, and reflection is how we align our actions with our values. To that end, UUCSJ invites interns to use our resource, the Experiential Reflection Guide, to support in their reflection, understanding, and learning. In addition to using this guide, it is our hope that interns are offered opportunities to reflect on their experiences with their supervisors, managers, peers, or colleagues.
Eligibility
Organizations are invited to apply for this funding if they and/or their internship programs possess the following criteria:
- Be UU-affiliated or UU-adjacent
- Provide interns with engaging justice-related tasks for a minimum of two months
- Internships should be intentionally experiential, engaged and reflective in nature
- Agree to provide direct support to interns in the form of regular check-ins with their supervisor to speak about their learning, as well as any personal, spiritual, activism, and/or professional goals. For more information, review our FAQs below.
Important Details
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Application Information
The application has a rolling deadline, and incomplete applications cannot be considered. If your organization needs support in completing any of the sections, please contact UUCSJ.
Availability of Funds
UUCSJ has a limited amount of funding for this program and thus not all qualifying requests may be funded during each fiscal year.
Awarding
Organizations may only receive this funding for one intern per fiscal year (July to June); however, they are encouraged to use this funding to leverage additional fundraising as desired. First stipends can be distributed as early as July 2024, depending on the date the application was submitted. Please allow for up to two weeks after submission for applications to be reviewed and final decisions to be made.
Payout
Interns will be paid $1,000 each, per month, for a maximum of three months. UUCSJ will need to be in direct communication with interns receiving the funding in order to facilitate payments.
Intern Selection and Equity
UUCSJ does not have any requirements around intern selection. Unless your work serves a national or global base, and if your interns haven’t already been selected, we encourage partners to recruit interns that are in close geographic proximity to your office or primary constituency. UUCSJ has an expectation of equity within your internship program. If you’re offering other internship positions from other funding sources, all interns should receive the same stipends unless there are fundamental differences in the job description or skills required.
Ongoing Communication
If an organization is selected for the funding, they are expected to remain in communication with UUCSJ for updates as well as participate in short feedback surveys throughout the payout period.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the internship need to occur during a certain time of year? No. Organizations are eligible for this funding at any time; however, UUCSJ is only available to offer these funds to a single organization once per year due to our own capacity limits.
Can the money be paid to current/ existing interns? Yes! You’re free to award the funding to an existing intern; however, the parameters around the amount of funding, payout, and timeframe cannot change.
Will UUCSJ recruit interns for us? No. In the past UUCSJ conducted a national search for interns. Over time we learned that organizations are better served by finding interns through local and regional networks. Economic, equity, and environmental impacts are also mitigated by organization-led internship discernment.
What is the difference between an internship program and temporary work? The major difference between an internship and part-time work is the level of learning and engagement typically involved in internships. An internship is explicitly an experiential learning opportunity. Internship job descriptions are written less like an actual job description and more like a “You are invited to come learn with us about how to practice ___” invitation. It’s important that interns are not assigned to do work without supervision. They should have regular check-ins with their supervisor to speak about their learning, as well as any personal, spiritual, activism, and/or professional goals. Internship supervision requires spaciousness for attending to the growth and development of the person doing the work included in the internship. This is good practice for leadership, too!
Questions? Contact Deva Jones, Senior Associate for Justice Education at djones@uucsj.org
