Community Alliance for Global Justice

Winter 2010 Internships

To apply, please send an email to Heather Day, with short answers to the following questions BY Jan 4. Please also indicate which of the below internships you are interested in.
-Why are you interested in an internship with CAGJ?
-What are your current life goals?
-Are there specific skills you want to use?
-Are there specific skills you want to develop?
Thank you!

All internships require a weekly commitment of a minimum of 3 – 5 hours. We seek persons who possess strong communication and organizational skills, who are enthusiastic about CAGJ’s mission, who are dependable, and follow-up without constant supervision.  Internships are unpaid.

Contact info:
Heather Day, hrd99[at]igc.org
www.seattleglobaljustice.org
206.405.4600

Trade Justice Intern: please check back soon

Food Justice Project: please check back soon

Membership Development Intern
CAGJ is a volunteer run organization that believes in the importance of leadership development. The aim of membership development is to recruit, involve, retain and build the leadership of CAGJ volunteers. The Membership Development interns work with the Director and Program Co-Chairs to achieve these goals, and maintains and improves membership and outreach systems.  Responsibilities may include:
o    Volunteer coordination: tracking and identifying organizational needs, and matching people to them; some event-specific coordination
o    Intern coordination: Solicit future interns via established programs and CAGJ website, help to match them with CAGJ programs, provide leadership for some interns
o    Tabling coordination: identify and help track public outreach opportunities, ensure there are volunteers and CAGJ outreach materials for each tabling event, seek ways to improve tabling
o    Organizing regular Community Meetings

An intern who is able to work with CAGJ for more than one quarter is preferred, but not required, for this position.

AGRA Watch:

AGRA Watch is one of the three projects that are part of the Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice. The purpose of AGRA Watch is to question and monitor the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations’ participation in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. AGRA Watch finds the current approach politically, environmentally, socially, and ethically problematic. AGRA Watch supports sustainable, socially responsible, and indigenous alternatives in Africa and works to connect these movements to those occurring in our local communities.

Interns work closely with a member of AGRA Watch, and devote between 10 and 20 hours a week to AGRA Watch. Interns are required to maintain communication with said AGRA Watch member, and provide periodic updates as to their progress throughout the duration of the internship. Attendance at AGRA Watch monthly meetings is strongly encouraged though not required. Interns ideally have interests and/or an understanding of sustainable agriculture, environmental sciences, international development, progressive philanthropy, social movements, social sciences, and/or African studies. Moreover, interns should be willing to learn more about AGRA Watch’s analysis and the issues we confront in our work.

Interns are encouraged to bring their specific interests and project designs to AGRA Watch’s organizing work. The following are sample projects for interns, however interns may work with their supervisor to develop a project that incorporates our needs, their interests, and the parameters of their internship.

We ask that interns able to commit to only one quarter contact us before January, if at all possible; this enables us to develop a plan and direction for the internship early in the academic quarter.

Research: Collect, summarize and post on website stories and articles about sustainable agriculture in Africa and/or interviews with organizations and AGRA Watch allies. This involves performing regular internet searches, writing brief (2-4 sentence) summaries, contacting AGRA Watch’s allies and contacts in Africa to collect brief stories or accounts about sustainable farming practices, and using website to post findings regularly. Catalogue and/or map sustainable alternatives discussed in archives of Food First’s AAGR newsletter.

Rapid Response Development:  Search for 1 hour per day for news pertaining to agriculture, Africa, Gates Foundation or other subjects of interest to AGRA Watch, for the purpose of providing AGRA Watch members an opportunity to respond through letters to the Editor, online forums, or other actions.  Add articles to database for future reference.  Forward articles of interest to AGRA Watch core, collaborate with AGRA Watch to develop a quick response to critical articles. Write up instructions for future interns on the process of the Rapid Response. Establish useful RSS feeds. Catalogue “form” responses which can be slightly altered depending on the article, but which quickly and concisely present AGRA Watch.

Organizational Technology: Assist AGRA Watch in developing effective social networking using ning, Google groups, etc. Help organize and plan film-discussion group.