Vermont Community Planning and Placemaking Summer Internship

Are you interested in rural community development, placemaking, active transportation, or parks and public spaces? Do you have skills in writing and communications, community organizing, research or design? Would you like to get hands-on experience with community planning and organizing work in Vermont towns?

Community Workshop is a Vermont-based consulting practice that specializes in creative community engagement, placemaking, and planning. We work exclusively with communities and non-profit clients, helping people to imagine the changes they want to see in their communities and making them happen. We can host 1-2 creative and motivated summer interns to work with one of our current Vermont Better Connections planning projects. We can offer flexible options and work with the right candidate to craft a specific internship project and situation that works for you (remote or in Vermont, variable length and project types).

Better Connections is a Vermont planning grant program that helps create vibrant rural villages through improvements in multi-modal transportation, land use, water quality, public health and economic vitality. It’s a partnership of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Department of Public Health. Community Workshop is on the consultant team for all three projects, leading community engagement and pop-up demonstration design. The current projects are:

• Lyndonville, VT — Revamp the ‘Ville is creating an action plan for more active streets, an attractive and vibrant downtown, and thriving local economy.
• Poultney, VT — Town to Trails is creating an action plan for connecting Poultney’s downtown core to a growing network of regional outdoor recreation assets, and making Poultney a regional destination for outdoor activities.
• Bethel, VT — Bethel for All is creating Vermont’s first village accessibility plan, which will help ensure that public spaces, buildings, streets, trails, river access, parks and other community assets are welcoming and accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities or disabilities.

• Pop-up Demonstrations and Quick Actions — All three projects will be ready to organize quick implementation projects and pop-up (temporary) demonstrations to test potential plan solutions. A summer intern could play a key role in helping to design, plan, or lead quick action projects such as public space makeovers, wayfinding signage, bike/pedestrian or trail improvements. Bethel hosted Vermont’s first Better Block project in 2016 — a nationally renowned model for revitalizing communities by transforming a single block for a day or weekend. Bethel is bringing Better Block back in 2022, and an intern could also help specifically with planning or designing this catalytic community demonstration project over the summer. Activities might include graphic or landscape/architectural design, community organizing and outreach, project planning, or hands-on community projects. This would be ideal for an intern who could spend some time in one or more of the communities, but work could potentially be remote.

• Community Engagement, Public Art and Storytelling— We use creative engagement techniques to reach people who are often not included in planning processes, and whose voices are rarely heard. Techniques include storytelling and interviewing, public art projects, pop-up events and demonstrations, focus groups and conversations. An intern could develop a community engagement project with one or more of the Better Connections communities, using techniques like these to engage with specific demographics or community groups, capture their visions and stories, and use them to shape the planning process. Activities might include designing a creative engagement method, interviewing people or facilitating small group conversations, working with community members on art or storytelling projects, or summarizing findings.

• Research, Resource Development, and Multimedia Communications — One of the biggest barriers to rural development is accessible information. There are many existing solutions, models, and examples for how rural communities can improve transportation, land use, water quality and local economies. An intern could work to research and develop profiles of example solutions in any of these areas, which would become reference materials for current and future Better Connections communities. An intern interested in communications could also work on a project to develop accessible multimedia or other informational materials that help present complex plan information in accessible ways. Activities might include research, writing, graphic design, or multimedia content production. 

• Ideal Candidates: Community Workshop seeks interns who are creative problem-solvers. Ideal interns will be self-directed and self-motivated, willing to ask questions and run with projects on their own. We welcome applicants with a diverse range of skills and prior experience.

• Dates: This internship is flexible. We are happy to determine a length and start/end dates that suit the right candidate and project schedules.

• Location: Community Workshop staff and partners work from remote offices, but are based in Vermont. Some internship projects could also be fully remote, with interns working from anywhere in the world (interns must have their own computer and strong Internet connection). Some projects would be better suited to an intern who could be on the ground for at least part of the time. Interns who are located in the area could attend some project meetings and activities in person.

• Funding: This internship is unpaid. Interns may seek summer funding through the Center for Environmental Studies.

• Housing and Transportation: We are not able to offer summer housing or transportation to students. If interns want to spend time on the ground with projects, they would be responsible for their own transportation. We are happy to help seek temporary/short-term lodging for interns who want to do a project visit (home stay, camping, etc.) but cannot promise housing.

• Benefits: Depending on the project, interns may have the opportunity to meet and network with a variety of Vermont state agency and non-profit leaders (and potential employers). Internships are intended to focus on a discrete project or other work product that interns can later include in career portfolios.

Interested applicants should send questions or a cover letter and resume to Rebecca Stone (Williams ’01) at [email protected]. We will review submissions on a rolling basis and schedule exploratory calls with interns who seem to be a good fit.

In your cover letter, please share:

• Brief info about your background and interests in the planning and community development topics listed above
• Which of the potential projects or communities mentioned above would interest you, and what skills you’d bring to the project; please feel free to share other ideas as well
• Details about your summer availability including your ideal internship dates and length, and where you’d hope to be based