Category Archives: Opportunities

03.17.09
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Politicorps Launches Application for Summer 09

The fellowship program for emerging activists and campaigners based here in Portland, OR, is accepting nominations and applications for this summer.

PolitiCorps is looking for “hotshot young activists ready to run a campaign, polish up her public speaking skills, and manage a volunteer team.” 

Fellowships provide a total of 24 young activists a free 10 week training in high impact grassroots organizing skills and next generation leadership skills. Fellows are college juniors or seniors, or recent grads (up to age 24).

Two applications periods exist for Summer 2009.
Round 1: Applications due March 20th (12 Fellows)
Round 2: Rolling admissions until the program is full (12 Fellows)

To apply or to nominate someone else, find  a nomination form here.

This national Fellowship offers:

  • A cleared path toward a career in the public interest
  • Training in communications, community organizing, public policy analysis, networking, data management, and project management
  • Round-table conversations with nationally-known politics, wonks, strategists, and change-agents
  • Housing and cost of living stipends are offered on top of tuition for the 10 week training

Check out the Idealist podcast show featuring the folks at Politicorps.

03.14.09
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Music National Service Initiative Looking for Interns

picture-31People eager to support national service and music can contribute as interns for the Music National Service Initiative (MNSi).

Kiff Gallagher’s Music National Service Initiative has recently launched three new internships in Idealist.org.

MNSi is looking for self starters who will be critical players in MNSi’s fundraising and community-building strategy, who love project management, have an eye for detail and who will follow through. The “Musical Peace Corps” is looking for:

Campus and Community Organizer who will strengthen and expand the volunteer base for Music National Service Continue reading →

03.09.09
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Marketplace on NPR Looking for Stories from Teach For America Alums

picture-3Sharon McNary of Marketplace, the business show on public radio, has questions about people’s experiences with Teach For America.

The personal finance show Marketplace Money is exploring how Teach For America changes the lives and earning potential of the people who participate as teachers. She is looking for former corps members, relatives of corps members, or people at the schools who host TFA teachers. If you fit in any of these categories, please click here to share your TFA story with Marketplace. They want to know:

  • How competitive it was to enter the program
  • How it helped or changed the participant’s career options
  • How you view the opportunity cost of being part of TFA, that is, what might you have been doing if you were not in the program
  • How do you see the program changing in the recession and how might it change under President Obama call out for Americans to do more public service.

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03.05.09
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Why It’s Wrong to Assume that All Service Participants are Young

How branding national service as an opportunity only for young people does more harm to the movement than good.

Christian Witkin for TIME Magazine

Christian Witkin for TIME Magazine

While many service corps do have upper age limits — City Year, AmeriCorps*NCCC, Public Allies, and many other team-based programs — most programs do not have an upper age limit.

In fact, several programs specifically recruit professionals — Experience Corps, Atlas Corps, CUSO-VSO (the Canadian VSO), Volunteers for Prosperity, and United Nations Volunteers just to name a few. Others like Peace Corps and AmeriCorps*VISTA recruit almost entirely college graduates because of the skill required in carrying out service.

And yet when people speak of service they almost always describe it as an opportunity for young people to give back, receive scholarship money, develop leadership skills, and go an an adventure before settling down with a real job.

What difference does it make if most people think of national or international service as a pursuit for the young?

Here are some reasons:

Recruitment:

If we assume only young people will enlist in a citizen service corps, we won’t recruit new corps members as creatively Continue reading →

02.20.09
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Rolling out stimulus AmeriCorps members

I listened to an open conference call hosted by Corporation for National and Community Service Chief of Program Operations Kristin McSwain. I am not going to post the more technical aspects of the call, but here are a few points I found interesting.

“Stimulus” members will serve alongside traditional members in existing programs (VISTA might be an exception). Stimulus members will address mostly these areas (though everything is still up in the air) :

1. Winterizing homes, housing access, keeping people in homes
2. Access to health care and providing health care
3. Nonprofit capacity building
4. Youth corps/development

Keep in mind, this is still separate from the Kennedy-Hatch “Serve America Act.”

Here’s the link to the page that will document the changes to national service through the Recovery Act. At the web site, you call a toll-free number to listen to a recording of the call.