Our communities face ever-worsening hazards – climate change, superstorms, power outages, chemical spills.. Most towns have emergency response and hazard mitigation plans, and separate groups working on social services and conservation. But they rarely talk together or work together, and can’t possibly prepare for everything on their own. The best solution is to build resilience – the ability for communities to come together and solve whatever problems that come their way. That involves preparing for things like climate change and floods, but also building self-reliance and strong community ties.Community Resilience Organizations (CROs) are local teams that engage residents and town leaders in climate adaptation, disaster preparedness and hazard mitigation, while strengthening local collaboration and social cohesion. CROs break down community silos by bringing together a diverse mix of stakeholders involved in resilience and hazard mitigation: emergency management, conservation, social services, government and more. Through an annual Day for CROing and ongoing projects, teams engage youth and the broader community to collaborate on critical projects that will make the town stronger and safer, simultaneously celebrating local spirit and building community.In 2015, we are launching CROs with five Vermont pilot towns: Hartford, Jeffersonville, Londonderry, Putney and Waterbury. Each town will receive capacity building and organizational support and will participate in an overnight summit to share ideas and start planning. This is an exciting time to participate, helping with all aspects of the start-up process and shaping this program in its first year.
Who We Are
The CROs organization is based in South Royalton, Vermont. We are seeking one summer intern for 8-10 weeks (unpaid), for 20-40 hours per week. The intern may be based remotely, but should be in the broader region for the summer. She/he would be expected to travel to South Royalton for in-person meetings several times and might also travel to CROs pilot towns throughout Vermont. CROs currently has two part-time staff members who each work out of home offices. We are flexible, creative, fun, and would welcome the chance to have an intern help shape this program.
What We’re Looking For
We have a lot of work ahead of us, and are interested in interns who are responsible, independent, hard-working, and willing to do whatever needs to get done. Because we are a small shop, we are ideally seeking someone who has a range of skills and can contribute to several aspects of this growing pilot program.
We will work with an intern to tailor a specific work plan to that person’s skills and interests. Tasks might include writing website content, writing stories and news articles, developing profiles of pilot towns, helping to coordinate projects in towns, photography and digital storytelling, grant research, youth engagement, communications and outreach, resilience research and more!
Intern candidates should have:
- Excellent writing skills
- Excellent phone, email and general communications skills
- Excellent computer skills, including web, social media and Microsoft Office
- Strong research skills (primarily online; ability to read and summarize info clearly)
- Interest in resilience, climate action, community building and working with people
- Creative ideas and the initiative to make suggestions
Other skills are a plus!
- Experience with WordPress, MailChimp, and/or other website and CMS platforms
- Experience with editing digital photos and multimedia content
- Knowledge of climate change and resilience
- Knowledge of Vermont and/or small towns
- Experience with graphic design
- Anything else that would contribute!
To ApplyEmail a resume and short letter of interest to Rebecca Sanborn Stone (Williams ’01), Associate Director of Community Resilience Organizations, at [email protected]. The position is open until filled. www.gocros.org
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