Using Internships to Further Drive Community-Based Change
At Someone Else’s Child (SEC), we believe it is the responsibility of a community to ensure the well-being and future success of every child. When we founded our organization in 1997, we did so intending to challenge all of us to take on this obligation by building supportive and inclusive communities so that every child would have the opportunity to flourish.
While much of our programming at SEC has focused on supporting younger children, something that has continued with our integration of The REAL Program, we want to ensure we provide opportunities for teens and young adults, with a focus on mentorship, employment, and “kids-helping-kids” in their own communities. Ultimately, this led to the creation of our internship program, which launched shortly after the onset of the global pandemic last year.
Developed to address COVID-19 and social justice challenges in several of Boston’s underserved communities, our internship program saw collaboration with many of our longstanding partners, such as Boch Center, Boston Explorers, Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center and Girls, Inc. of Lynn. Through this internship collaboration, SEC was able to provide both financial support and mentorship. The participating teens and young adult interns developed and implemented programs that addressed the consequences of the pandemic, as well as help create positive social, environmental, and economic change in their communities. Experience how our interns reflected on the first year of our internship program in the recap video here.
Internships are integral in setting a trajectory toward success. They are a valuable tool in bridging the academic and career phases of a young adult’s life. An internship lets students apply classroom learning in a professional setting, introducing the professional work and providing an avenue for career development, paving the way for a full-time position. According to research conducted on 2020/2021 internship data, trends and predictions, 53% of Class of 2019 seniors who applied for a full-time job got at least one job offer, and of this group, 57.5% had completed an internship. Completing internships increases job offers by 16% - students with at least one internship under their belt received an average of 1.17 job offers, whereas those who didn’t received 0.98 offers.
As illustrated by the above data, internships help prepare students for successful careers. At SEC, we wanted to pair internship opportunities with our focus on community support so that any intern work conducted directly helped uplift the communities our participants worked and/or were raised in. Over the last year, we looked to partner with organizations that hold similar values and identify opportunities to partner and offer employment to young participants looking to make a positive impact.
In early 2021, SEC collaborated with the Carsey-Wolf Center at U.C. Santa Barbara to develop the Impact Media Internship Program. The paid internship course equips undergrads with the production skills they need to effectively support humanitarian and environmental organizations as media interns. The aim of the course is to give students the multi-platform storytelling skills and impact strategies needed to create professional media that influence behavior, drive innovation and promote positive change within communities. Students who participate in the program will have the opportunity to apply for scholarship support for their living expenses while they work in unpaid internships in summer or fall 2021, either in the Santa Barbara area or in their local communities. The Carsey-Wolf Center will provide internship placement assistance to students in the program.
Most recently, we provided support for Greens Do Good, a subsidiary of REED Next, is a vertical hydroponic farm where greens such as kale, basil and cilantro are planted, cared for and harvested by young adults on the autism spectrum. REED Next provides continued education and employment opportunities to help attendees achieve greater independence. Most recently, SEC partnered with Greens Do Good out of Hackensack, NJ to provide agricultural internships and training for young adults with autism. SEC’s grant will support Greens Do Goods’ efforts to provide autistic teens and young adults with hydroponic farm training and future employment opportunities.
To learn more about Someone Else’s Child and how to support our community work, please visit our website. For more on our internship program and to apply for this summer, please reach out to mchristian@someoneelseschild.org.