2020 Global Justice Summer Internship Opportunities

Location: El Paso, TX

Mission: In a Gospel spirit of service and solidarity, we accompany the migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region through hospitality, advocacy, and education. We place ourselves among these poor so as to live our faith and transform our understanding of what constitutes more just relationships between peoples, countries, and economies.

Internship Description: *DO NOT COMPLETE THE APPLICATION ON THEIR WEBSITE* Interns help with all aspects of operating several houses of hospitality for migrants and refugees. This may include welcoming and orienting new guests, preparing and serving meals, sorting donations, doing laundry, keeping records, and simply being present and spending time with the people we serve, who are mostly migrants and refugees from Central America and Mexico.

• Specific Skills Needed: Volunteers must be at least 20 years old. Spanish ability is preferred but not strictly required; however, volunteers with little Spanish should know that most of our guests are monolingual Spanish speakers, and should be prepared to embrace the challenges of not being able to communicate easily.
• Number of Intern Placements: 2
• Internship Time Frame: May 25 – August 3, 2020 (10 weeks total)
• Housing and Transportation: Interns are housed at an Annunciation House hospitality center in community with other volunteers. Meals and basic toiletries are provided. Interns with a valid drivers license may have access to shared house vehicles.

IMPORTANT: To be considered for this internship, all prospective interns must also complete a secondary application, which will be shared after your initial application from this website has been submitted. 

Location: Boston, MA

BIJAN’s (pronounced “beyond”) Mission: We are a network of faith communities, individuals and other activist groups working to reduce the escalating harm of our immigration system in the current political context.

We are volunteer-powered, and receive professional support from organizations including the Jewish Community Relations Council and Episcopal City Mission, and we work closely with immigrant communities and immigrant-led organizations to support those impacted by our racist immigration system.

We provide accompaniment, which can include support in court or at ICE check-ins, legal referrals, fundraising for bond or legal fees, letters of support from the community, rides for families to visit loved ones in detention, and logistical assistance with paperwork or bond payments. We also help with housing, transportation, and other immediate needs of people released on bond who have no other resources in the community.

Internship Description: Potential areas of work include bond fund administration and logistical support, court accompaniment coordination, and supporting family members of those detained

• Specific Skills Needed: Proven willingness and ability to work through obstacles and Spanish conversational ability
• Number of Intern Placements: 1
• Internship Time Frame: At least 8 weeks, flexible start/ end dates
• Housing and Transportation: No

From BIJAN: Since BIJAN does not have its own office space, the intern would sit at the office of the Jewish Community Relations Council in downtown Boston alongside their supervisor.

Location: Millbrook, New York

Engaging People in Change (EPIC) is a leadership program for high school students in rural Dutchess County, New York. We are a closely-knit, ever-evolving, heart-centered group of young leaders, learners, and advocates.

The first pillar of EPIC is the weekly Friday-night meetings, in which EPIC members learn to facilitate meetings, set agendas, provide translation, speak publicly, express themselves, engage critically across difference, and seek social justice. The second pillar is our on-going engagement with the community and region: EPIC members both attend and give workshops and trainings and partner with many local organizations on various projects. Our third pillar is our long-term case management for EPIC members and their families. We guide applications to enrichment programs, tracking students throughout their college application process and beyond, and serve as a liaison between the students, their families, the schools, and the social services they may access. We also offer assistance with the legal and social process to obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) for undocumented teens.

We meet at Grace Church in Millbrook and offer transportation for students living in the Pine Plains, Millerton, Amenia, Dover Plains, and Millbrook areas. We are a diverse and bilingual (English/Spanish) group. The majority of our students come from immigrant families; approximately one third of our students are currently undocumented, and two thirds have undocumented parents.

Internship Description: Run around rural Dutchess County with us for the summer! We will be changing lives, eating too much popcorn, writing a book, and being our silly selves.

Drive 15 passenger van and car to provide transportation to students. Work with seniors on college essays. Visit local farms and meet prospective students and/or parents. Conduct facilitation trainings for sophomores. Assist program staff with on-boarding new students for the upcoming school year. Assist with writing reports and compiling resource lists. Transcribe and translate student work (if bilingual). Lead trips to visit nearby colleges. Lead a camping trip in an actual tent. Represent EPIC at area networking meetings for non-profits and religious communities. Proofread students’ autobiographies. Paint a mural. The possibilities are endless.

• Specific Skills Needed: Must be age 21 at the beginning of the internship. Must have a valid, unsuspended U.S. driver’s license and feel confident about driving. We prefer to work with interns who speak Spanish.
• Number of Intern Placements: 1
• Internship Time Frame: Monday, June 15 through Friday, August 14, 2020.
• Housing and Transportation: If interns choose to use EPIC housing, they will contribute $150/week for the 9-week internship. There is very little public transportation. Interns can take the Dutchess Loop Bus into Poughkeepsie, and from Poughkeepsie to other towns. Interns will use one of our vehicles for job purposes. Interns who can arrive with their own cars are ideal, and they will be reimbursed for gas for internship related travel.

From EPIC: You should think about why working with youth matters to you. If you are applying to this because we are immigration focused, you should have clarity on WHY you want to serve immigrant students and how your own identity relates to that. Read something in LatCrit — latcrit.org. If you are not a fluent Spanish speaker you should be prepared to explain how you will handle that. The majority of our students do communicate in English, but often prefer Spanish, and so while you can complete your responsibilities in English, you will need to be able to feel confident and not self-conscious in a multi-lingual environment.

Additional Resources: Learn more about EPIC through this guide (created for Vassar students for the school year NOT summer internships) and an example intern writing project.

Location: New York State – Poughkeepsie, Riverhead, Liberty, or Lyons

Rural & Migrant Ministry works for the creation of a just, rural New York State through: Nurturing leadership; Standing with the disenfranchised, especially farmworkers and rural workers; and, Changing unjust systems and structures.

Internship Options: Below are some of the current internship options but more internships are possible! Check here in late January on our website for a full list as new internship positions may be created to meed needs and opportunities.

Rural & Migrant Ministry offers summer positions in the following areas:

• Working with the Youth Arts Group, a group of teens in the Hudson Valley of NY that work for social justice through the arts. Summer intern assists with end of year educational trip, summer art projects (no art experience required), and mentorship.
• Working with the Youth Economic Group in the Catskills area of NY that similarly work for social justice, but through their original designs on the t-shirts and bags they produce and sell in their cooperative silkscreen business.
• Coordinating Summer Leadership Program (2 week day program) for kids, typically ages 8-13, in either the Finger Lakes or on Long Island offices and assisting with other educational programs on site.
• Outreach to farmworker and rural families and assistance with educational programs such as ESL classes, Know Your Rights Clinics, and other workshops in our Rural Worker Education Centers in the Finger Lakes or Long Island.
• Administration in the main office in the Hudson Valley, including special event planning, data entry, grant writing, communications, and research.

Specific Skills Needed: Drivers license required for all locations; For Riverhead and Lyons locations, Spanish proficiency strongly preferred

• Number of Intern Placements: 2
• Internship Time Frame: June 3 – August 15, 2019 (tentative, to be confirmed)
• Additional Stipend: Interns receive an additional stipend.
• Housing and Transportation: Free room and board can be provided for the intern. Rural & Migrant Ministry has at least one vehicle in each office that interns can share. Public transportation is minimal because they are located in a rural area.

Additional Resources: We will be updating information on this website in late January with exact positions, dates, and other details. Let us know if you have any questions in the meantime! 

Location: throughout the state of Florida

The mission of UUJF is to promote justice, equity, and compassion in public policy, guided by our faith tradition and working with public interest groups and interfaith partners who work for the common good.

Internship Description: Interns would spend 8 weeks of their internship in Orlando, FL and 4 weeks of it in Panama City, FL.

Orlando
Internships are in support of four low-income communities (three historic Black communities and one Latino community) working on a Community Climate Action Plan. The planning process began in October 2019.

Interns’ roles in Orlando in Summer 2020 will include:

• Assist with Technical Support for Community Partners: Assist established Work Groups in low income communities to draft their content for the Community Climate Action Plan Draft for Roundtable 2, including (or linking to) any maps, diagrams, or other documents as needed.
• Assist with Event Planning and Support for Roundtable 2: This will be a World Café for residents and other stakeholders to provide feedback on the plan.
• Feedback compilation from community draft review meetings

Panama City
Internships are in support of two projects that are underway in 3 historic Black communities: (1) The formation of a Public Health Work Group to address post Hurricane Michael indoor air quality in homes, schools and workplaces in three historic Black communities. (2) A Serious Games disaster simulation for the community to identify resilience gaps, with a Community Decision-Makers Response Panel to address the gaps identified; and to discuss potential solutions.

Interns’ roles in Panama City in Summer 2020 will include:

• Technical Support for Community Partners:
  • Assist committees in Black churches to prepare their contributions to the Public HealthWork Group Kick-off and the Serious Games disaster simulation.
• Event Planning and Support for the Public Health Work Group Kickoff Meeting and the Serious Games disaster simulation

Specific Skills Needed: Valid drivers’ license and have the ability to use GPS for directions, strong writing and communication skills, willingness to learn how to speak to people with different backgrounds, general willingness to learn, and willingness to work door to door and in community groups in underserved communities

Other Valued Skills: Functional use of Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), collaborative tools (Zoom, Google Drive), and Facebook; Spanish proficiency, familiarity with the FULCRUM Mobile data collection app, qualitative and/or quantitative data cleansing experience, mapping skills (Google Maps, CARTO, QGIS), social media amplification

Interns with coursework or degrees in these fields would be extremely helpful: Public Health (field data gathering and analysis experience is a plus), Social Entrepreneurship, Landscape Architecture/Horticulture/Permaculture/Aeroponics, Municipal Planning, Environmental and Social Justice, Engineering (mechanical and civil), Communications

• Number of Intern Placements: 2
• Internship Time Frame: 8 weeks in Orlando (May 15 – July 15) and 4 weeks in Panama City (July 15 – August 15)
• Housing and Transportation: To be determined

Additional Resources: Click here to review additional information for the UU Justice Florida internship placement

Location: Cambridge, MA

UUSC advances human rights and social justice around the world, partnering with those who confront unjust power structures and mobilizing to challenge oppressive policies. Our work is grounded in the belief that all people have inherent power and dignity.

Learn more about UUSC from their website!

Internship Description: The Strategic Communications unit of UUSC is seeking a qualified candidate for a creative communications role. In this position, you will have the ability to lead production of engaging content (social media graphics, illustrations, infographics, brochures, flyers, etc.) that amplify UUSC’s partner organizations and our values/mission. This role will work closely with the Associate Director of Strategic Communications, Digital Strategist for Mobilization and Engagement, and the Associate for Communications and Research. All content created will live across various web platforms, social media channels, and will be shared across our membership. Candidates should be able to craft a story and integrate strong content into meaningful graphics.

• Specific Skills Needed: Interest with social justice work – Experience with graphic design – Knowledgeable on Adobe Creative Suite Software. – Good writing skills and story-telling skills – Currently enrolled in a college or university – Able to dedicate 15-20 hours per week to graphic design work for UUSC – Software requirements: Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, LightRoom, Illustrator – Experience with motion graphics and animation strongly preferred, but not mandatory
• Number of Intern Placements: 1
• Internship Time Frame: 12 weeks
• Housing and Transportation: Not provided

From UUSC: UUSC will provide a laptop computer and relevant software for intern. Prospective interns will be required to share examples of their graphic design work. 

Location: New York, New York

The Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office promotes the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all, as reflected in the United Nations Charter. Through targeted education, advocacy, and outreach, we engage Unitarian Universalists in support of international cooperation and the work of the UN.

Learn more about the UU-UNO from their website!

Internship Description: Our internship program provides young people an exciting opportunity to learn about the United Nations and to work in support of its efforts to eradicate injustice and promote human rights around the world. Interns working at the UU-UNO conduct research, build partnerships within the UN and NGO community, work on our communications, and develop resources. Throughout the year, we engage interns as active participants and collaborators in our work. Their contributions contribute significantly to our LGBTQ/SOGI Human Rights, Women’s Initiative on Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights, Racial Justice, Climate Justice, and (new!) Migration Justice programs.

• Specific Skills Needed: Must be fluent in English; demonstrated interest in international affairs; strong writing and communication skills; must be motivated and responsible, and capable of managing a variety of assignments; comfortable taking responsibility for program advocacy and thinking strategically
• Number of Intern Placements: 2
• Internship Time Frame: At least 8 weeks, flexible start/ end dates
• Housing and Transportation: Not provided; NYC subways and buses will get you most places (monthly pass = $121)

From UU-UNO: Each intern will get a UN grounds pass allowing them access to meetings and conferences inside United Nations Headquarters. In consultation with the UU-UNO Director, interns are expected to attend meetings and lift up Unitarian Universalist values and concerns through asking questions and networking with presenters and other participants. Interns work with the Director to design programs that advance UU-UNO initiatives both at the United Nations and within Unitarian Universalism in the U.S. and Canada.

Additional Resources: Visit Summer Intern: UU United Nations Office for more information.