Various (poverty)

COMMUNITY PARTNER

St. Vincent de Paul

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

We will actually have several positions for 2012.

1) Volunteer Services Intern
2) Special Ministries Intern
3) Success Story Specialist
4) Intake Interviewer Program intern (2 positions available)

1)Volunteer Services intern. (Mike Korte) This position is within the Volunteer Services department, an integral part of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Volunteer Services partners with literally every other department within the Society. The intern's role will be in helping to schedule both individuals and groups for volunteer opportunities. Our departments connects volunteers to serve in a variety of areas including but not limited to, thrift stores, dining rooms, kitchen, food bank, medical/dental clinic, warehouse, transitional housing, ministries to the homeless, and various administration positions. We strive to match potential volunteers to areas that fit their particular strengths and interests.
In addition to setting up volunteer opportunities, our intern will also assist in creating and giving a more thorough volunteer orientation to our volunteers. Some comfort with public speaking to small groups would be great.
2) Special Ministries Intern. (Jackie Solares) Be part of helping families working with eviction prevention. We screen them for eligibility, set up appointments, collect paperwork for files, and help many families get past a crisis with a financial boost. We also help with utility bills. The intern would also be retrieving messages and responding to calls for our medical loan closet. This position would help at needs family obtain free loans of medical equipments including wheelchairs, crutches, and walkers.
3) Success Story Specialist. (Blase Bova) Capture our success stories: research, contact, and interview formerly homeless clients.
This intern will conduct a four stage project to create vivid success stories from among the homeless people St. Vincent de Paul has helped get back on their feet. These stories will be used on our web site, in blog and social media marketing, at community events, and as marketing for a cause-aligned tee shirt social enterprise.
a. Using our database, research which formerly homeless job program clients have received certain assistance, had success, and are reachable by email.
b. Send an email to all these clients, offering them an incentive to respond to us and to come in to tell us their story.
c. Arrange interviews with those who respond, and shoot video and still photos while interviewing them to capture their success story.
d. Edit, layout, and organize the video, photos, and text so that the stories are ready to use. We will post the stories on our website and blog,encourage our supporters to virally market them via Facebook and Twitter, and create clothing tags from the photos and summarized text, to help market tee shirts St. Vincent sells to support our homeless programs.
4) Intake Interview Program Intern.  (Danielle Ricketts)  This position would help us with our intake interviews conducted Mon-Thurs nights, as well as our distribution on Friday. Intake interviews allow our clients to get help with their needs, from rental/utility assistance, vouchers for personal items, and referrals to outside conferences. Distribution is four Fridays out of the month, clients get to redeem their vouchers for items they received during intake. The intern will also be in charge of volunteer recruitment within the Intake Program, and getting them trained properly on how to do them. There may also be opportunities to develop the intakes further as we receive new donations and think of more opportunities that we can provide. This position is a great way to get to know our clients more personally. Intern should be comfortable talking with clients and using the information they get through interviews and applying it to the programs we offer.

Population served

We serve several different at need populations.  We are able to assist many of the working poor families through out medical/dental clinic, our dining rooms, and our food bank.  It is critical to help these working poor families get the support they need to get by on a day to day basis. 

Community need/impact

Interns will assist us with a variety of services and ministries that we offer to the community.  Programs include services for the homeless, medical and dental care for the working poor, charity dining rooms, thrift stores, a transitional housing shelter and general assistance for individuals in need.

St. Vincent de Paul offers a variety of services to help those in need.  Those that need simple assistance on a daily basis are able to receive hot meals, toiletries, and showers.  Those that need some further help can receive it through our job opportunity program, our medical/dental clinic, and our St. Vincent de Paul church conferences.  We are able to balance our efforts in order to provide immediate assistance when needed as well as help those look for sustainable solutions to the challenges they are facing.