Volunteer Coordinator (poverty)

COMMUNITY PARTNER

CARE (Community Asset & Resource Enterprise Partnership)

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

The student will help conduct individual interviews with people coming to CARE, with an emphasis on the people we serve, for the purpose of identifying volunteers and potential leaders.  During these interviews, the intern will explore individual backgrounds; interests, concerns about community issues and encourage participation in volunteer and planned change activities. The student will provide information about CARE and our efforts to strengthen leadership in order to address health, wellness and other issues.  If the individual is interested, the student will help support them in leadership development activities.

Population served

CARE Partnership is a multi-dimensional organization that provides a safety net for 17,000+ people per year–people struggling to survive–people who make hard choices between hunger, housing, health and child care. CARE provides: pre-natal, pediatric, family planning and dental services for the uninsured; programs and mentors for youth from at risk environments; food, holiday and other emergency assistance; adult life skills and leadership training; and community enrichment activities.  

Community need/impact

A primary issue that will be addressed is the relative lack of a cadre of primary leaders.  Existing community leaders are spread too thin to address the multiple issues that challenge individuals and families. 

Our goal is to engage individuals in problem solving, prevention activities that draw upon their strengths and the strengths of others and partnerships to address the serious issues that are brought to our door every day:  poverty, lack of access to medical care, school failure, development delay, delinquency, homelessness, abuse, neglect, violence, substance abuse, mental illness, loss of employment, etc.

Within time, leaders who are grounded in the values of democratic, collaborative, planned civic action to improve specific aspects of the community’s health status will evolve.  We anticipate observable changes in health conditions, health behaviors within high risk groups and health care resources to be accessible and used well.   Possible examples of such changes might be new health resources available to the community, specific changes in the way health care providers work with local people (policies, procedures, philosophy), and positive changes in health behavior norms of the community, reduction of unhealthy environmental conditions and so on.

We expect a number of new and stronger health focused institutional associations/alliances that are capable of addressing new, emerging health concerns/issues.  Less easily measured, but very significant is the development of a community attitude that civic action can produce visible, important benefits to local neighborhoods if people work together in a disciplined manner.  Replacement of the “What’s the use of trying” attitude with “Yes, we can” is our ultimate goal.