Community Alliance for Global Justice Internships

To apply for an internship, please send an email to Heather Day, with short answers to the following questions.  Applications for internships are open at this time, and we will accept new interns starting in Sept 2011.  Applicants who are not students can apply at any time. Please  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 contact_us@seattleglobaljustice.org
www.seattleglobaljustice.org
206.405.4600

Fall 2011 Internships (& ongoing)

FAIR TRADE FOR THE HOLIDAYS INTERN

CAGJ fundraises every holiday season through the sale of Fair Trade foods and crafts.  Help the Director of CAGJ to coordinate this program by choosing & ordering items, developing marketing tools, and planning a Holiday Party.

SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN
Assist in developing and implementing a social media strategy utilizing CAGJ’s Facebook, Twitter, blog accounts , website, video ETC!  Intern will help core CAGJ activists to maintain and update CAGJ’s WordPress based website.  Developing a training and strategy for interfacing with CAGJ’s new online database may also be a component of this internship.

AGRA WATCH INTERNSHIPS
Background: AGRA Watch is a grassroots, Seattle-based project of Community Alliance for Global Justice that challenges the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s problematic agricultural development programs in Africa, including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In contrast, AGRA Watch supports African-initiated programs rooted in agroecological and indigenous farming practices, social equity, and food sovereignty – the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems.

The Gates Foundation and AGRA claim to be “pro-poor” and “pro-environment,” but their approach is closely aligned with the profit-driven agendas of transnational corporations such as Monsanto, as well as foreign policy actors like USAID. These programs take advantage of global food and climate crises to promote the high-tech, market-based, industrial model of agricultural development pioneered by the first Green Revolution, with the addition of GMOs. The Green Revolution model has been ecologically and socially devastating, as it has degraded the environment and forced millions of indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers, the majority of them women, off their land into urban slums. In spite of short-term increases in crop yields, the number of hungry people worldwide has increased dramatically. The solution to hunger and poverty will not be found in a new Green Revolution linked to biotechnology and big agribusiness.

African communities, farmers, consumers, and civil society organizations already have locally-adapted solutions to the problems they face. AGRA Watch works in solidarity with these groups to resist undemocratic, unaccountable projects pushed from the outside and to build food systems based on sustainability, community and health.

1 – AGRA WATCH RESEARCH INTERNSHIP
Students will work as a core member of the AGRA Watch committee to conduct activist research to challenge the problematic agricultural development model being pushed by the Gates Foundation while building the movement for food sovereignty in the US and Africa. This position will receive considerable support from the committee and its co-chairs, but requires someone self-directed who is able to work both independently and collaboratively.  We are are looking for senior students or graduate students in African Studies, Economics, Political Science, Anthropology, Sustainable Development etc.

Suggested availability:   5– 8 hours/week, two quarters.  It is hard to dig deeply into research in less than two quarters.

2 – AGRA WATCH CONFERENCE INTERNSHIP: Work as assistant to the chair of the conference planning sub-committee to organize a Fall 2012 national conference in Seattle. This conference will serve as a local and national forum to challenge the problematic agricultural development model being pushed by the Gates Foundation while building the movement for food sovereignty in the US, Africa, and around the world. Interns will be responsible for coordinating and tracking the activities of the committee.

Duties may include convening and attending meetings, taking notes and posting them to relevant listservs, following up on task assignments to ensure progress, establishing timelines, coordinating volunteers, liaising with speakers, soliciting co-sponsorships, maintaining the budget, working with local and national ally organizations, publicity work, and assisting in every aspect of event planning. Fall interns will be additionally responsible for tasks specific to logistical support for the the conference.  Minimum two quarter commitment required minimum 8 hours/week up to 15 hours/week..  Must be able to attend evening meetings.

3 – AGRA WATCH ORGANIZER & SUPPORT INTERNSHIP
Students will work as a core member of AGRA Watch to challenge the problematic agricultural development model being pushed by the Gates Foundation while building the movement for food sovereignty in the US and Africa. Interns will play an active role in coordinating and tracking the activities of the committee. Tasks may include convening and attending meetings, taking notes and posting them to relevant listservs, following up on task assignments to ensure progress, establishing timelines, coordinating volunteers, liaising with speakers, soliciting co-sponsorships, researching venues, maintaining the budget, working with local and national partner organizations, publicity work and outreach, and assisting in every aspect of event planning. This position will receive considerable support from the committee and its co-chairs, but requires someone self-directed who is able to work both independently and collaboratively.

FOOD JUSTICE PROJECT INTERNS

CAGJ’s Food Justice Project is currently seeking interns for fall quarter.  Interns support FJP in many ways, including:
*Teach-Outs are field-trips and work-parties with local food sites to support them through organizing volunteers and education.  Interns will create a web-page documenting all of CAGJ’s Teach-Out sites, including a possible survey of participants, photos, and volunteers’ reflections. Other possible activities:
*Outreach to build support for our activities and organizing
*Development of a Community Education project focusing on educating and involving the community in learning more about food justice and food sovereignty.

Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice

CAGJ’s Food Justice Project is currently seeking interns for Fall 2011 to help with the publication of the second edition of “Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice.” We have collected many wonderful submissions of articles, artwork, recipes, poetry, and resources, and the second edition is currently moving into the design phase of the project, with a goal of printing in December. The Fall intern will participate in the design process with the OFOR team, as well as help with publicity and fund-raising. Essentially, the intern will help us carry this book through it’s final stages and lay the groundwork for distributing it far and wide in the community!

Background on the project:
What is “Our Food, Our Right”? “Our Food, Our Right” is a publication of the Food Justice Project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ) based in Seattle, WA. The publication combines hands-on tools for change with community recipes and political awareness to engage YOU in joining in the struggle for food justice! “Our Food, Our Right” promotes community knowledge sharing, self-sufficiency, accessibility, and food justice through a food sovereignty framework. In the 2nd edition we will focus on stories of successful initiatives locally and globally that are helping to create more sustainable food communities.

Fundraising Intern

Assist the Executive Director and fundraising team to help ensure CAGJ’s continued financial health.  Interns may assist in grant research and writing, special events planning, monthly sustainership promotion, special gifts planning and activities to promote membership in CAGJ.   This is an excellent opportunity for anyone seeking employment or involvement in the non-profit sector.

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.