Remember the last time you moved and you called friends for help packing, loading, and unloading?  Or how about when you asked Uncle Louie to help you paint?  Or when your kids helped weed the garden or wash the dishes?  Whenever you do this, you are building your capacity to meet everyday challenges.  This holds true for groups of volunteers – sometimes we need more resources (a.k.a. “capacity”) to meet challenges. 

But, as we all know, it takes resources to build resources.  So we have a trick to share with you: college interns can be a great way to get some “bang for your buck.”  The response from NEGEF grantees that have used college interns has been incredibly positive (check out some stories below!).  That said, there are some things to keep in mind:

• First and foremost, is a student who will be with you for one semester or one summer going to be a good fit for your group or your project right now?
• Second, keep it simple – choose a project or a piece of a project that can be done in a semester, a summer, or other short period of time
• Third, be clear in your goals – you and the intern will get the most out of this if you both sit down ahead of time and outline clear goals together and design some kind of Memorandum of Understanding and a timeline for the project
• Fourth, if the student is receiving class credit for the internship, be sure you both know what any academic requirements are for the project – you don’t want to have any last minute changes in plans
• Last, be open-minded and have fun!  College students offer a fresh perspective and can be a great addition to the energy and creativity of an organization.

It’s pretty clear that students can be a great resource for a group.  But let’s flip that for a second and think about how the student benefits.  Their experiences with your group offer them the inspiration, skills, and direction they need to become future leaders in their own communities.

So where’s the catch?  If working with students is so great, why aren’t all groups doing it?  First, a lot of them already are!  Second, relationships between community groups and schools take time to build and maintain.  NEGEF knows a lot about this – we recently received the Engaged Community Member of the Year award from the University of Vermont.  Contact us with any questions about how to get started.  And if you already do have contacts at a local community college or university, let us hear about it.  There couild be another group nearby trying to do the same thing that would love to talk to you - we get requests all the time!

Alright, what are you waiting for?  Start thinking now about whether or not a student intern is a good fit for your group!  Click here for a comprehensive resource that might help you get started, or you can also check out the University of Vermont's Office of Experiential Learning!   

The OCHP is a volunteer-run organization working with landowners and on land conservation in Orange County, Vermont.  In the summer of 2007, the OCHP engaged Erin Haney and Matt Peters, both University of Vermont Ecological Planning program graduate students, to conduct an inventory of vernal pools and wetlands on private land in the community.  Erin and Matt presented their research and defended their Masters theses on April 25, 2008, at the University of Vermont.  Here are some of their observations from their experience:

 The challenges of working with a community group

Erin said...

• It was great getting to meet people and working directly with the leaders, and the small group allowed us to come up with specific plans rather than a broad, big project.  But the OCHP is staffed by volunteers that have lives and jobs outside of the organization and that was sometimes challenging.

Matt said...

• The funding piece of the volunteer organization was challenging.  As students, we were balancing the internship as our summer employment and it was a tight budget.

 Their relationship to the community

Erin said...

• Being part of an all-volunteer group we became part of that group and were less perceived as outsiders. Landowners were really receptive to us – in fact, they asked us to come back and do more work!  This led me to the greater question of balancing volunteer efforts and work efforts, and when someone is an “expert” but is also part of the community, when do they and when should they charge for their expertise?

Matt said...

• People in the community were interested in getting to know us, they were tremendously supportive of the work we were doing.  As part of a volunteer group we felt accepted in the community rather than being perceived as outsiders by the private landowners.
• I went in to the project with a more scientific research background and an expectation of being the expert working alone but found that that was not the case – reaching out to the community was equally as important as getting the inventory work done.
• The more I reached out, the more I saw the tension between work that genuinely needed a lot of hands, and getting hands involved for the purpose of educating and exciting people, both equally valuable goals.

 The influence and impact of “community” in OCHP

Erin said...

• The group had a very laid-back approach to land conservation that was really driven by what the landowners wanted and what the community wanted rather than by what the group perceived as “right.”
• I found the citizen engagement piece incredibly inspiring.

 Matt said...

• Volunteer groups seem to want to reach out more to the community and get them involved.
• There’s the ability with volunteering to create your own community and build social capital.  The landowners I met with and worked with became an informal community for me during the summer, which was great, and that community was essential to getting the inventory work done as well as to the larger mission of OCHP.

The Worcester Street Community Gardens coordinator Carol Bonnar had worked hard to share responsibility with site coordinators and encourage greater community-based decision-making.  Her goal was to bring structure into the garden slowly and sustainably.  Her efforts paid off in a more surprising way: the South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust, when contacted by Boston Architectural College instructors, recommended the Worcester Street garden as the perfect community partner because of their strong shared decision-making.

The BAC instructors wanted their students to have a hands-on landscape architecture experience.  The gardeners wanted a structure to replace their umbrella-ed table in the center of the garden.  Over the course of 5 months, both the students and the gardeners got what they wanted.  The result: an engaging and successful process and a striking pavilion.

Bonnar remembers that approximately 30-40 people came to the first meeting, which was over 30% of the garden membership.  Members voiced concerns about losing plot space or increasing shade in the plots.  At the second meeting, the students presented three designs.  Bonnar notes that the students did a great job incorporating the concerns from the first meeting into the designs.  Following a vote, students and gardeners worked to refine the design for the Living Pavilion.

This partnership gave students first-hand experience working with “clients.”  It also engaged the gardeners in one of the most challenging questions of all: “What is best for our community?”

• We're bringing Jose back!  Jose Acevedo will conduct his one-day leadership workshop from Rockwood's Art of Leadership program
• Fundraising... the most-requested topic of all!  Andy Robinson will be leading a daylong workshop on the fundamentals of fundraising for community groups
• Community Organizing 201: advanced tips for mobilization!  Alyssa Schuren from Toxics Action Center will present some of TAC's best tips and strategies for rallying your community around your cause