With Who: Community Solutions
Dates: Summer 2020
Location: Partially remote; Partially on-site in an office (New York City or Los Angeles)
Position Description: (This is a paid internship.) This summer will mark one year of operationalizing a strategy to answer a burning question: “What does it take to end veteran homelessness in a large metropolitan community, with diverse groups of providers and geographies facing the most challenging and complex aspects of this problem?”. BFZ has demonstrated that it is possible to end homelessnes in small and mid-sized communities. We must test, study, and learn what it takes to do the same in a big city. This priority for this internship will be to capture this learning to inform our strategy moving forward and to spread emerging best practice.
The intern of our dreams is organized, but not rigid–– a “get stuff done” kind of person who can work out a plan of action quickly in the face of ambiguity and changing information (this environment offers a lot of both).
Clear and actionable qualitative data should be your bread and butter. Why? Because you’ll be helping to ensure that emerging key practices being tested by large cities working to end veteran homelessness are captured clearly and communicated in writing to internal and external audiences. Having a detail-oriented, thorough and fast paced approach to writing and capturing qualitative information and effectively communicating results will be the name of the game for this position.
The intern will work part time on this project, 20 hours per week, starting in early June through mid-August. If the intern’s school does not provide a stipend for internships, then CS will compensate her/him at a minimum wage rate. The intern will have access to multiple training and educational opportunities throughout the summer.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Develop and execute a process to capture strategy-wide learning, working with the Strategy Lead and Improvement Advisors assigned to Large City communities.
- Analyze and write up “bright spots” (emerging strong practices) from communities working to end veteran homelessness as part of this strategy
- Facilitate learning and reflection sessions, one-on-one inquiries or other information gathering practices
- Support and assist in the discovery of key learnings from work with Large City communities working to end veteran homelessness
- Communicate and synthesize actionable insights in the form of written content to be publicized in various levels of the Community Solutions network:
- Create accessible, public-facing reports, releases and blogs
- Co-design and write data briefs
- With Large City information, support the development and design of publications created and disseminated by the Communications Team.
- Work closely with the Communications Team to publicize information and ideas externally
Skills Needed:
- Emerging understanding and comfort with systems and macro-level thinking
- An excellent, fast writer with growing comfort in boiling down complicated ideas into clear, accessible language
- Possesses a journalistic mindset – able to find, research/interview, and report out on new subjects and tailor the product with a specific reader or audience in mind
- Demonstrated passion for equity, justice, and solving complex social problems
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
- Highly organized and attentive to detail
- Ability to work independently and self-manage to achieve goals while being a strong team player
- Non-traditional candidates welcome. Convince us you have what it takes!
Trainings and educational opportunities offered during internship:
- Direct connection and learning opportunities through work with the Improvement Advisors supporting the Large City Strategy
- Organization-wide orientation for summer interns
- Community Solutions’ Core Competencies Training
- Lunch meetings with CS employees, paid for by Community Solutions, to learn about the employees’ roles within the organization, the projects/programs they oversee, and how their work contributes to CS’ mission
- Bi-weekly Executive Team virtual lunches to connect with senior leadership
- Participation in team meetings and all-staff meetings
- Regular check-ins with supervisor for feedback and guidance
Work Environment:
- Work location will fluctuate between on-site work in an office (NYC or LA) and remote work from the home
- Candidate should expect and be prepared for using video conferencing to connect with and learn from colleagues, and to accomplish tasks as assigned.
Application Deadline: Applications close on May 15th, 2020 at 3:00 pm
Apply (or request more information): Apply today! See more internship description information, or submit your application via the CofC Handshake Portal.