Neighborhood Organizing Intern

About OHI: The Open Hearts Initiative builds community support for housing and services for homeless New Yorkers by organizing housed community residents to advocate for housing justice in their own backyards. We connect communities, homeless New Yorkers, and service providers to create welcoming environments rooted in empathy, compassion, and respect in order to build strong and integrated neighborhoods.

OHI staff support a network of volunteers in neighborhood-based chapters across New York City, helping them mobilize community resources for neighbors experiencing homelessness, advocate for needed transitional and permanent housing in their communities, and build connections across housing status.

About the internship: As OHI grows, we’re looking for a motivated intern to help us expand our capacity to provide technical assistance to communities welcoming homeless neighbors and advocating for housing justice. This internship will run over the course of the summer (June through the end of August, with some flexibility for exact start and end dates depending on your academic schedule). You will report to the neighborhood organizer. This internship pays $16/hour for up to 20 hours a week. This is a hybrid role. Day-to-day work can be done in our office in Harlem or a combination of remote/in-office, but you must be located in the New York metro area and have the ability to attend occasional in-person events. A MetroCard will be provided for work-related travel.

Responsibilities: You will assist the team with a variety of projects and tasks that span the range of OHI’s work. Your responsibilities will depend on your interests and skills and OHI’s needs at a given time, but they may include:

• Developing Open Hearts’ new persuasion toolkit - designed to help volunteers have conversations about homelessness with other housed neighbors
• Communicating with volunteers and supporting the work of our chapters
• Managing the intake process for new volunteers
• Tracking news related to homelessness and housing
• Building and strengthening connections with neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, including by attending and helping to organize various in-person community events
• Creating fliers and doing outreach for fundraisers, events, etc.
• Helping to plan and project-manage events
• Attending and taking notes on chapter meetings

Skills/Experience: You must bring a passion for housing justice and welcoming homeless neighbors. Our ideal intern is an excellent writer and communicator with extremely strong organizational and project management skills. You should be comfortable interacting with a wide range of people, getting on the phone to make a call, and showing up somewhere new and introducing yourself. Additional language competency and interest in NYC policy is a plus but not required.

To Apply: Please email a resume, cover letter, and the name and contact info for 1 reference to Caroline Schwab at caroline@openheartsinitiative.org with the subject line “Neighborhood Organizing Intern.” We will review applications on a rolling basis. If you’re not sure how to approach the application, check out this link with tips and guidelines for applying.