Tag: community fellows

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Community Fellows, Summer 2023: Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center

The Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center is a hub for resources, education, community building, advocacy, and organizing for more resilient networks. A grassroots organization committed to addressing the barriers that are created by racial, social, and economic injustices, centering people of color and our allies by creating visibility and reclaiming power. One of our five focus areas is Community Safety and Prison Abolition; we will be looking for interns for our Queer Justice Committee. Queers for Justice committee made up of queer and trans, Black + Brown folks, and white allies. Members of our group have directly experienced the harmful impacts of the carceral system in our lives and intersecting communities. The committee addresses the disparity experienced by people of color through over-policing, the criminal justice system, and incarceration of LGBTQ+ identified people. Currently, we act as an advocate for incarcerated and systems impacted LGBTQ+ identified community members. We connect community members to legal resources; we provide moral support, political education and leadership development, and community connection to take action.

Project or Position Title: Queer for Justice Intern

Project or Position Description:

The ideal candidate would have or be interested in developing an anti-oppressive lens through multimedia learning experiences through a mix of supervised and self instructed activities, be required to work collaboratively within and amongst teams, self manage work assignments and activities, and be able to have good organizational skills, clear and effective written and verbal communication, be able to represent the organization in coalition and meeting spaces. The focus around the fellowship  work will be event planning for The Organization’s Annual event The Remembrance of Attica.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Increased knowledge of LGBTQ+ cultural competency
  • Bridging the gap within intersecting communities
  • Increased knowledge of the intersecting impacts of LGBTQ+ identity and race
  • Somatic awareness of personal bias
  • Engage community members who are affected by systems of oppression
  • Engage in community service providers
  • Engage with elected officials across the Mid Hudson valley
  • Learn the administrative aspects of community organizing
  • Learn an embodied facilitating style

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Be able to work independently
  • Be able to commit – primarily Monday to Friday and some weekends
  • Be able to work from an intersectional feminist lens framework.
  • Clear communication, with proficiency in virtual platforms:
    • Slack, Google platforms, and Zoom.
  • Sending email on behalf of the Organization.
  • Co-facilitate small groups.
  • Represent the Organization in coalition meetings. Note-taking, and Company email management.

Specific Skills/Experience Required for the Project: 

  • Be able to work independently.
  • Be able to commit to Primarily Monday to Friday and some weekends.
  • Be able to work from an intersectional feminist lens framework.
  • Clear communication, with proficiency in virtual platforms: Slack, Google platforms, and Zoom.

Mentorship Opportunities from Organization: 

The candidate would work on a 1:1 basis with the core community organizers using a relational model for community organizing and a human-based design approach to problem-solving.

Time Commitment:

  • Fellows should expect to be available during the organization’s work hours.
  • In some cases, fellows might be invited to participate in events over the weekend/ evenings.

Previous Engagement with Students:

“During the Fall semester of 2020. We had four interns part of our research team their work was around Voting information and Budget breakdowns across the Mid-Hudson Valley. One intern doing content for social media around social justice campaigns the Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center is fighting for.”

APPLY HERE!

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Community Fellows, Summer 2023: Finish Strong

Finish Strong Wellness Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that serves youth and young people in the City of Poughkeepsie. The goal of Finish Strong is to increase youth and young people’s physical, social and emotional well-being by creating supportive conditions that allow participants to build resiliency, self-determination, and achieve their full potential. All services provided are FREE to all our participants. Our program is built on The National Wellness Institute’s Six Dimensions of Wellness:

  • Physical: A healthy body through exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle choices.
  • Emotional: The ability to identify, express, and regulate feelings while being aware and respectful others feelings.
  • Social: Connecting and interacting with others, building healthy relationships, and contributing to our communities.
  • Intellectual: Engagement with the world through learning, problem-solving, creativity, and play.
  • Vocational: Mastery of skills, goal setting and achievement, and self-direction
  • Spiritual: Developing a positive racial and ethnic identity, and finding meaning and purpose in one’s life.

Location: 29 N. Hamilton Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Project or Position Title:

Educational Programming Intern

Project or Position Description:

The Community Fellow will work closely with Finish Strong to survey the work done by others in the areas of increasing youth’s social and emotional well-being and helping to strengthen resilience in afterschool programming for youth. The student will support the work of the Executive Director and take the lead from him with regard to the topics he would like us to pursue – using a participatory action research approach to our work . This could include developing a survey to share with the parents who bring their children to the program as a way to design programming that meets their needs and the needs of their children.

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Provide assistance with academic support
  • Provide assistance with emotional support
  • Develop and supervising arts and crafts activities
  • Develop a computer lab/ tech program

Specific Skills/Experience Required for the Project: 

  • Spanish language proficiency
  • Experience working with young people

Mentorship Opportunities from Organization: 

  • The creation of curricula to address the needs as identified by the Executive Director.
  • An introduction to qualitative research methods and participatory action research.
  • Mentorship in teaching approaches, the importance of instructional language and the creation of safe and inclusive learning environments.

Time Commitment:

  • Fellows should expect to be available during the organization’s work hours.
  • In some cases, fellows might be invited to participate in events over the weekend/ evenings.

APPLY HERE!

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Community Fellows, Summer 2023: ArlingtON PAR

Community Fellows, Summer 2023: ArlingtON PAR

Arlington Parters Against Racism is group of action-oriented anti-racist community members and parents in the Arlington Central School District dedicated to equity and institutional diversity. We amplify the voices, experiences, and needs of marginalized groups to ensure they are represented, understood, and responded to. Our focus is on race and racism. We intentionally center and support District members from marginalized racial groups. As we stand in solidarity with other groups organizing to support communities experiencing marginalization and oppression, we affirm our collective commitment to creating and maintaining a district in which all members can thrive.

Project or Position Title: Program Support

Project or Position Description:

The last two decades, racial diversity has significantly increased in the Arlington Central School District, the K-12 school district in which Vassar sits. Despite the district’s demographic changes, its policies, practices, and culture have for the most part remained stagnant. Moreover, recent interviews with district members, and studies of the district’s policies, practices, and culture, reveal persisting and deeply-embedded racism, bias, discrimination, and inequality that jeopardize institutional well-being, and the emotional, physical, and mental health of students, and their ability to thrive and strive for excellence. Arlington has been cited by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for disproportionately disciplining Black and Latino/a/x students. Students of color are frequent victims of racist physical and mental violence and speech, and administrators and educators of color are vulnerable to disciplinary action including dismissal.

ArlingtON PAR intends to offer educational and community engaged learning experiences for Vassar students to engage with ACSD’s students, faculty, administrators, initiatives, and entities, the Board of Education, a decision- and policy-making body that has enormous power and long lasting impact over the lives and futures of students. We join with the college and faculty to encourage, support, and facilitate Vassar students’ engagement outside of the classroom and college space. We hope to build a culture at Vassar where students are interested, invested, and committed in being more relational with local community members and to working on projects that benefit the local community. Students will have an opportunity to develop important skills and learn concrete tools that will serve them well. Not only will students be positioned to gain knowledge about the local K-12 district, but they will be supported in doing something about the issues they recognize.

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Educate students on the use of intergroup dialogue
  • Use intergroup dialogue, to engage with the ACSD community, including student equity teams, student organizations MBK and POCkets, and parent-teacher-administrator equity teams
  • Lead focus groups or discussions with high school students about equity work and the future of the district
  • Create and facilitate a joint intervention at the Board of Education with high school students
  • Strategize with student organizers from other local school districts
  • Draft equity-related policies for the district to consider adopting
  • Learn more about and engage in mobilizing, organizing, and building campaigns for action
  • Further develop critical reading, thinking, writing, discussion, debate, public speaking, collaboration, communication, research, community organizing, and advocacy skills

Specific Skills/Experience Required for the Project: 

  • An interest in public policy and education
  • Strong communication skills
  • Comfort in facilitating group discussions

Time Commitment:

  • Students should expect to be available during the organization’s work hours.
  • In some cases, fellows might be invited to participate in events over the weekend/ evenings.

APPLY HERE!

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Community Fellows, Summer 2023: DAY ONE Early Learning Community

Community Fellows, Summer 2023: DAY ONE Early Learning Community

DAY ONE Early Learning Community

DAY ONE Early Learning Community is a non-profit located in the city of Poughkeepsie. Our mission is dedicated to creating the best learning opportunities for young children in New York State by providing state-of-the-art training for early childhood teachers. As part of our ecosystem for building high quality early childhood education, we provide programs for parents to have access to knowledge, resources and respect for their hopes for their children and families.

Project or Position Title: Program Support (2 positions available)

Project or Position Description:

In addition to the general support of DAY ONE Early Learning Community, the Program Support position has the potential to work in the following areas:

School and Summer Camp Program

  • Work alongside lead teacher to support daily activities in the classroom with the children
  • Collaborate and support the work of community partners
  • Support literacy activities through arts and drama
  • Assist with administrative tasks 

Research and Curriculum Development

  • The student would build upon the research that Community-Engaged Learning students conducted in Spring 2023
  • Organize collected research forms into database
  • Continue to catalog the DAY ONE Children’s library
  • Link children’s book to the Teaching Apprenticeship Program curriculum
  • This is an opportunity to see a curriculum being developed and implemented, the essential aspects of organization and detail in curriculum
  • Learn more about DOELC and the local community!

There are also opportunities for the student to work on social media and marketing across platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Carry out lessons and activities related to literacy
  • Research topics around public policy and social justice through an early childhood education lens
  • Organize research through summaries, editing, formatting, and presentations
  • Actively participate in the summer camp program 
  • Administrative tasks such as supply management, attendance, etc.

Location: 70 Hooker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Specific Skills/Experience Required for the Project: 

  • An interest in early childhood education
  • Experience working with young children
  • Spanish language skills are a plus, but not required
  • Maturity, responsibility and reliability are important
  • Ability to adhere to confidentiality requirements
  • Ability to work both independently and with a team
  • Attention to detail
  • Attention to professional presentation

Mentorship Opportunities from Organization: 

The student will receive mentorship from staff at DAY ONE, in addition to mentorship from exposure to a large community project carried out by Poughkeepsie non-profits and stakeholders like the 35 Montgomery Community Coalition, the YOU, and the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet.

Time Commitment:

  • Fellows should expect to be available during the organization’s work hours.
  • The student will be encouraged to attend community events that might fall outside of traditional work hours.

Previous Community Fellow Experiences:

Students have previously participated in Community-Engaged Learning opportunities with Day One Early Learning Community in projects ranging from social media to curriculum development.

APPLY HERE!

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Community Fellows, Summer 2023: Celebrating the African Spirit

Community Fellows, Summer 2023: Celebrating the African Spirit

The mission of Celebrating the African Spirit (CAS) is to acknowledge, articulate, research and commemorate the lives of enslaved Africans in Poughkeepsie, New York. Our work is rooted in the reality that slavery existed in the MidHudson Region, and in Poughkeepsie from the earliest days, and enslaved adults and children were major contributors to the growth of what is now the City of Poughkeepsie and the Mid-Hudson Region. The works, language and traditions of Africans, both enslaved and free, are part of the legacy, which is American history, and should be taught to, and treasured by, all Americans. This lack of knowledge contributes to ongoing denial regarding the consequences of centuries of slavery, our violent and racist past, and the pervasiveness of racism and inequality in America today.

Project or Position Title: Community Outreach and Summer Youth Coordinator

Project or Position Description: 

The summer will be a busy time for CAS, bookended by Juneteenth and by Frederick Douglass Day in August. Yet the centerpiece of CAS’s summer work will again be our intensive Summer Youth Program. CAS recognizes the importance of educating others about Poughkeepsie’s history of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Last summer, we piloted a two-and-a-half-week program to learn with four Poughkeepsie high schoolers about these stories, and the voices that have gone unheard in our community.

This summer we plan to revise the program somewhat and to increase the number of high school students to between 8 and 12. Since 2021, CAS’s program has been built for students of the diverse Poughkeepsie community to learn more about where they come from and to find their voices through connecting current issues in their communities to longstanding histories.. By the end of this program, participants became grounded in historical research and work with local historians, graphic designers & printers to develop visual memorials – primarily posters – though we will consider expanding the possibilities for a final project. Students also develop practical skills, including graphic programming and design. At the end of the summer sessions, students will display their work and participate in our annual Frederick Douglass Day on July 29, 2023.

Summary of Duties and Responsibilities:

For the past two summers, CAS has been fortunate to have two Vassar summer Community Fellows each time, and they were critical to this program, assisting with outreach and the application forms, designing materials and co-designing the syllabus, and maintaining close relationships with the high school student participants. Now that we have a basic model in place, this summer’s CF will co-coordinate revising and implementing the process and being key to the functioning of the program and its many dimensions.

Last summer, students met in different locations, including the historic Clinton House in downtown Poughkeepsie, the Media Classroom of the Vassar library, and Vassar’s Loeb Art Center. The two-and-a-half-week program included multiple outside sessions with local community members, graphic designers, and artists. A real highlight was also our day-trip to New York City to visit the African Burial Ground and the Schomburg Center for Black Research and Culture.

Specific Skills/Experience Required for the Project: 

  • People skills, including experience with both K-12 and older generations of folks.
  • Comfortability and ease with a Black-led and centered, multiracial, multi-class, multi-generational community organization and priorities
  •  Communications, technical, and social media skills.
  • Artistic/design ability.
  • Punctuality, self-discipline, and acute awareness of how the Community Fellow will be modeling engagement, participation, and general behavior for the high school student participants throughout the duration of the program.

Other Requirements:

Ability to drive a car and gain permission from Vassar to borrow a Vassar vehicle would be a godsend for CAS, as there are student pick-ups and other local transportation needs.

Mentorship Opportunities from Organization:

CAS has learned a good deal from our past two summer intensives, including the importance of strong mentorship from the get-go. CAS members themselves pride themselves in being different models of adult leadership and community-minded involvement and learning throughout our lives. Vassar Community Fellow(s) will get a good sense of how to engage with different City of Poughkeepsie communities and will be able to turn to us for resources and counsel.

Time Commitment:

  • Fellows should expect to be available during the organization’s work hours.
  • Occasional weekend and evening hours for events, meetings.

APPLY HERE!