Philadelphia Social Justice Internship

OVERVIEW

Through the VU/CRS Partnership Internship for Advocacy students will learn about and work on advocacy campaigns, awareness-raising efforts, and community mobilization around global social justice issues. Drawing on resources developed through the CRS University program and Catholics Confront Global Poverty Initiative, students will design promotional and advocacy campaigns for use by the Villanova CRS Ambassadors, a student group on campus promoting an engagement with the work of Catholic Relief Services. Currently the central themes of the CRS Ambassadors are migration, climate change, and human trafficking.

SOCIAL JUSTICE CONNECTION

The student will gain exposure to global advocacy and partnerships, migration issues, climate change, etc.

POSSIBLE WORK ASSIGNMENTS

The intern will work from the VU/CRS Partnership office at Villanova in developing advocacy resources, and as possible work with the CRS Regional Office for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in Media, PA; the CRS headquarters in Baltimore, MD; and the CRS Advocacy Office in Washington, DC

CRS Partnership at Villanova Website

OVERVIEW

The Augustinian Defenders of the Rights of the Poor (ADROP) was founded in 2004 by Jack Deegan, O.S.A.  Fr. Deegan brought leaders, service providers, and volunteers together to assess the needs of the poor in South Philadelphia and began to match those needs with known resources.  Since that time our 150 volunteers and leaders have affected the lives of over 1,000 families living in the South Philadelphia Area.

SOCIAL JUSTICE CONNECTION

The work will focus on a number of social justice issues.  The focus can be tailored to suit the interest of the intern.  The ministries of ADROP mainly circle around immigration, mass incarceration, and access to health care.

POSSIBLE WORK ASSIGNMENTS

The intern will have the opportunity to take on a number of administrative tasks around the office (mainly for the clinic) and prepare and post on social media accounts. As ADROP works with the Annunciation community, it might be helpful to have a student organize volunteers or ESL sessions. The most suitable intern is someone who is  particularly interested in one of our specific ministries, can handle administrative and social media tasks, and will be able to be flexible in taking on a project or finding a way that they could center their experience around their interests.

ADROP's Website

At CCATE, our internships, virtual and/or in person, center around the strengths, skills, and areas of interest of students who come to work with us. Two of the main requirements we have for our interns are motivation and initiative, especially in the current context of virtual communication and online operations.

SOCIAL JUSTICE CONNECTION

Stated in CCATE's mission is the goal to "develop and empower the Latinx community through the promotion of culture, art, work training, and education" (CCATE, 2020).  CCATE is composed of and operated by the community that it aims to impact. Community insights and assets are valuable inputs for the organization as members are the masters and curators of creative solutions. They believe that the lack of hierarchical structure at CCATE enables everyone to be a leader. This is rooted in the understanding that every member of the organization has something to offer and is a valuable addition to the team.

POSSIBLE WORK ASSIGNMENTS

For internships at CCATE, we have three areas of focus, each of which is supervised by a CCATE staff member. While interns will interact regularly with all CCATE staff, they will work most directly with the staff member assigned to their area.

Below are the three areas with examples of different projects and programs, as well as skills and/or interests associated with each. Important to note is that many activities, tasks and programs fall under more than one area of focus, so choosing one particular area does not exclude exposure to or work in the other areas. Related skills and interests associated with each area are not requisites, but skills we imagine students will further develop during their internships.

Communications and Outreach, supervised by Obed Arango

Examples of work in this area include:

• Website (content development, website maintenance, content translation into Spanish)
  
• Storytelling through social media (Monthly newsletter, blog, etc.)
  
• High School Immigration podcast and media
  
• Virtual fundraising
  

Related skills or interests:

• Communication skills in Spanish, writing in Spanish a plus
  
• Knowledge of platforms or technologies for extending outreach and communication
  
• Film/video, media, journalism
  

Programs and Administration, supervised by Charlotte Stone

Examples of work in this area include:

• Teaching a class or tutoring students
  
• Tracking donations and sending donor letters
  
• Researching and planning curriculum for a summer program
  

Related skills or interests:

• Teaching or content development skills
  
• Expertise in specific content areas
  
• Working with youth and families
  

Research and Strategic Planning, supervised by Holly Link

Examples of work in this area include:

• Administrative work related to strategic planning
  
• Online research (reading and synthesizing existing research and participatory research methods)
  
• Data collection and compilation
  

Related skills or interests:

• Strong writing skills
  
• Qualitative and community-based participatory research
  

CCATE’s Website

Students may propose another internship which would be reviewed for approval by the program coordinators. One to two spots in the PASJI program have been reserved for this purpose.

Any internship should provide the opportunity to do social justice work in the greater Philadelphia area.

To search for social justice internships, students may wish to consult Handshake and consider the suggested Peace and Justice search criteria.  

Tips on Searching on Handshake are found in this document. 

Students may then present a proposal for inclusion in the summer program with their own internship. 

Other locations where previous PASJI Students have interned:

• Nationalities Services Center: https://nscphila.org/how-you-can-help/get-involved/volunteer

• Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS): https://www.hias.org/who/career-and-internship-opportunities

• Student Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia: https://www.srehup.org/

• Bethel AME : https://www.bethelardmore.org/

• Mitzvah Circle Foundation: https://mitzvahcircle.org/

• PHL Justice for Girls and Women: https://www.phillyjusticeproject.org/

• House of Grace Catholic Worker
  • https://www.catholicworker.org/communities/houses/pa-philadelphia-house-of-grace-cw.html
  • If you are interested in working with House of Grace, please contact Will Stehl or Kate Giancatarino for more information.