Neighborhood Organizing Intern - Serving the City Program
Note: This paid internship is funded by the Serving the City Internships program and is available only to students at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill who will be enrolled throughout the duration of the internship. Students enrolled in other schools at Fordham or who will graduate or transfer before the internship end date are not eligible.
Neighborhood Organizing Intern - Serving the City
Hours per week: 15
Format: Most work will be done in-person at our office in Harlem (and sometimes off-site at in-person events!), with flexibility to work remotely sometimes when needed. A MetroCard will be provided for travel.
Start Date: week of October 2, 2023
End Date: week of December 11, 2023 (note: depending on our needs and if it’s a good fit, there is a possibility of extending this internship beyond December)
About OHI: The Open Hearts Initiative builds community support for housing and services for homeless New Yorkers by organizing housed community residents to advocate for housing justice in their own backyards. We connect communities, homeless New Yorkers, and service providers to create welcoming environments rooted in empathy, compassion, and respect in order to build strong and integrated neighborhoods.
Our work involves coordinating material resources for people experiencing homelessness, supporting needed transitional and permanent housing in our own neighborhoods by speaking with our neighbors and at community meetings, and pushing for legislative solutions at the city and state levels that advance housing justice. And most of all, it involves building relationships across housing status by connecting with and supporting our homeless neighbors in any way we can.
As OHI grows, we’re looking for a motivated intern to help us expand our capacity to provide technical assistance to communities welcoming homeless neighbors and advocating for housing justice.
The Neighborhood Organizing Intern will assist the team with a variety of projects and tasks that span the range of OHI’s work. They will report to the Director of Organizing and will work closely with our Advocacy Coordinator/Neighborhood Organizer and our other Neighborhood Organizing Intern.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Your responsibilities will depend on your interests and skills and OHI’s needs at a given time, but they may include:
- Communicating with volunteers and supporting the work of our chapters
- Managing the intake process for new volunteers
- Tracking news related to homelessness and housing
- Developing written resources for the “Guides” section on our website
- Building and strengthening connections with neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, including by attending and helping to organize monthly “Homelessness: Learning from Experience” meetings
- Creating content for OHI’s newsletter, website, and social media
- Helping to plan and project-manage events
- Attending and taking notes on City Council, Community Board, and chapter meetings
QUALIFICATIONS
An applicant for this position should have:
- A passion for housing justice and welcoming homeless neighbors
- Excellent writing and communication skills
- Extremely strong organizational and project management skills
- Comfort interacting with a wide range of people, getting on the phone to make a call, and showing up somewhere new and introducing yourself
- A willingness to bring a racial justice lens to this work
- (Ideal but not required) An interest in policy and local politics
- (Ideal but not required) Proficiency in Spanish
To Apply: Please email a resume and cover letter to Sara Newman at info@openheartsinitiative.org. We will review applications on a rolling basis, but are looking for someone to start in the next few weeks–so we recommend applying soon! If you’re not sure how to approach the application, check out this link with tips and guidelines for applying.