Internships for Spring 2008

Development Coordinator Internship

The Development Intern will work with the TMC Development Department on expanding the Thomas Merton Center in the areas of fundraising, event coordination, research, and grant writing.  The intern will acquire direct, hands-on work experience while developing interpersonal skills that will enable this person to work with diverse populations.

The Development intern would be expected to work during normal business hours roughly three days a week. You should be a self-starter, capable of working in a consensus-based environment, and proficient with computers and all other office equipment.  This is an excellent opportunity for someone who is seeking a career in non-profit development or management, event coordinating and grant writing.

Administrative Internship

At the Merton Center, as with any organization, there are many daily office tasks to be taken care of that ensure its continued operation. The Administrative Intern will work with the TMC Administrative/Volunteer Director on day-to-day operations at the Merton Center office, including membership maintenance and attending to standard office procedures. Duties will include data entry, simple correspondence, bulk mailing preparation, web calendar updates and receptionist tasks. The intern will be expected to work during normal business hours several days a week. This is an excellent opportunity to experience what must happen on a daily basis “behind the scenes” to support the work of activists engaged in various campaigns.

Book 'Em Internships

Book 'Em is a 100% volunteer collective that collects and mails books to prisoners across the country. Interns would start out by getting trained on the basic functions of Book 'Em.  Alongside our core volunteers, they work at our weekly packing sessions and attend our

monthly meetings. In addition, we are looking for interns who are able to work very well independently to fill the following positions:

Carpentry: repairing old and building new bookshelves in our donation library.  Other volunteers will help you gather donated materials and help you with the construction—we need your expertise and experience!

Creative Fundraising: exploring new ways to bring in money. Past and current projects have included tabling at community events, organizing benefit events, coordinating online book sales and donation jars, keeping in touch with past donors, pursuing media coverage, selling prisoner art, researching and writing grants and much, much more.

Community Partnerships: building connections with other community organizations. Your projects could include connecting with religious groups that can bring in volunteers, setting up a volunteer exchange with another volunteer group, tabling at community events, distributing information from other groups to prisoners, and getting us plugged into area volunteer networks.

Librarian: hunker down on the "day to day" aspects of keeping Book 'Em running: routinely (re)organize and re-stock the donation library shelves, work with volunteers on mailing boxes of books to prison libraries, solicit quality donations from book stores and libraries, manage outflow of “junk” books, and more.

FedUp! Internships

FedUp! is the Pittsburgh chapter of the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) dedicated to upholding the rights of prisoners through providing resources and support, exposing injustices and building relationships with people in prison and their advocates. We are looking for interns to fill the following four positions:

StopMax Conference Coordinator:  On May 30 –June 1, 2008, there will be a National Stopmax Campaign Conference (www.stopmax.org). We are collaborating with grassroots organizations across the country to abolish solitary confinement and torture in U.S. prisons. FedUp! is planning events February   through May to build momentum to get people to this conference. We are looking for an intern to help with these events and coordinate people to go to Philadelphia. Five-month commitment (until after the conference). Ten hours a week.

 

Media Mediator: FedUp! is trying hard to get the word out about what is really going on behind those prison walls. It’s hard for people to care if they don’t know what’s going on. We are looking for an intern to turn information received from prisoners into press releases as well as work with grassroots groups around the state on getting the word out about abuse in prisons. Also, this internship would involve coordinating our new radio segment called “2.4 Million and Rising.” Starting this winter we aim to collaborate with Rust Belt Radio in producing two minutes and 40 seconds of air time by people incarcerated. This would involve collecting the stories of people incarcerated, editing them and facilitating their recording. No radio experience necessary. Five to 10 hours a week. Flexible four-month commitment desired.

 

Resource Guide Compiler: HRC FedUp! compiles and distributes lots of resources to people inside and outside of prison. We wish to update the VA resource guide this winter. Want to help? C’mon it’s important. People really need to know what resources are out there. Lots of looking stuff up and making phone calls and typing on the computer. Ten hours a week. Or more! Two-month commitment. We hope to have it done before the end of February.

 

Web site: Take a look for yourself: our Web site doesn’t look really cool! But it can with your help. Your terms. Your time.

Haiti Solidarity Committee

HSC raises awareness about Haiti, acts in solidarity with local Haitians and supports two organizations that benefit Haiti: Fonkoze, Haiti’s alternative bank for the organized poor (microcredit), and Partners in Progress, support for peasant associations working on sustainable development in rural Haiti.

Duties include creating and maintaining a database of supporters, preparing mailings, writing articles about Haiti for The NewPeople (monthly publication of the Thomas Merton Center) and doing outreach. While hours are flexible, the intern would be expected to schedule office hours during regular business hours. The intern would also be encouraged to attend the monthly HSC meeting which would take place on a weekend. The intern would be supervised by an organizer with HSC but would be expected to work very well independently. More info on HSC: www.thomasmertoncenter.org/hsc    

Save Our Transit

Save Our Transit is an ad hoc grassroots advocacy group that has been fighting for six years for a dedicated, predictable and reliable source of public funding for public transit locally as well as statewide. 

Duties include research, grant writing (possibly), updating the website, networking and doing outreach to other organizations and bus riders. The intern would also have the opportunity to develop media skills such as giving interviews, writing press releases and designing fliers. The intern would be expected to attend and help facilitate monthly meetings, organize events such as pickets, rallies, marches, bus trips, letter writing campaigns and to update SOT membership on current transit events. An SOT organizer would act as a supervisor but the intern would be expected to work very well independently. More info on SOT: http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/saveourtransit/index.asp  

New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice (NVP)

Reproductive Justice is the complete physical, emotional, spiritual, political, economic, environmental and social well-being of women and girls; it is our right to have children, our right not to have children and our right to parent the children we have or may have. NVP is deeply committed to building a local movement for reproductive justice and we intend to elevate the powerful voices of women of color on human rights, social justice, reproductive oppression and the totality of our experiences as women of color. We primarily serve young women of color ages 12-35 and we are the only social justice and human rights activist organization for women of color, led by women of color, and about women of color. Internships are available in all parts of our organization and very flexible regarding hours and ability to work remotely - although most of our meetings and events are on evenings or weekends. For more info on New Voices Pittsburgh, visit www.myspace.com/newvoicespgh or email newvoicespgh@gmail.com.  

TMC Membership Committee Intern

The Membership Committee Intern works with members of the Thomas Merton Center membership committee to retain current members, motivating them to support the various TMC activities and committees and working to expand the membership of the TMC, which is our main source of income. Duties include calling lapsed members and working on solicitation of new members; tabling at community events; networking and trying to involve members in activities; attending membership meetings, taking minutes and sending them to members of the committee; and updating committee members on intern activities and administrative tasks and correspondence.

Demilitarize Pittsburgh Internship

Demilitarize Pittsburgh aims to expose and confront corporations that are profiting from war and that put greater value in corporate greed over human need. Duties include helping the campaign to research the contracts and practices of local corporations; produce educational materials; organize events, including forums, video screenings, classroom presentations, lectures, street protest and direct action; and, coordinate direct community education and outreach, such as leafletting, tabling, and door-to-door canvassing. Other responsibilities could be helping with fundraising, media coordination and event publicity. The intern would be expected to attend meetings, work with TMC staff and campaign volunteers and also help to maintain the project's website. Excellent opportunity for an intern to develop communications, organizing and, to the extent they are desired, computer graphics and web-related skills. For more info on Demilitarize Pittsburgh, visit http://www.demilitarizepittsburgh.org.

In Sisterhood: The Women’s Movement in Pittsburgh

The project will use videotaped oral histories to document efforts to improve opportunities for women during the second half of the 20^th century, highlighting the involvement of grassroots activists from southwestern Pennsylvania. Duties will include working with archival records, a record keeping system that includes information about interviewees, interviewers, tape and transcripts, general assistance to the project.  Must be able to work independently, be familiar with Work and Excel, have experience with digital video.  Knowledge of women's issues a plus.  For additional information contact Pat Ulbrich at 412-512-0900 or pmulbrich@yahoo.com