The GenChange Internship Program
GenChange received hundreds of applications for its 2009 southern
internship program and chose the top 12 participants to be placed at local community organizations through North Carolina and Tennessee.
The 10 week summer internship was launched with a week long
community organizing training in Nashville, TN. Once in the field, the
interns not only learned hands on about community organizing and
themselves, but contributed signifcantly to the organizations.
Their accomplishments ranged from tracking newly dispersed federal stimulus money on the state level, to working on the passage of a green jobs ordinance, to laying the ground work for new community organizations, to lending support for health care reform. Intern workplans ranged from a variety of specific tasks and goals around immigration, healthcare, and worker justice/the economy.
The interns graduated from the program with time to reflect on their
experience with a two day capstone meeting in Raleigh, NC. The interns spent time adding their own unique stories and perspectives individually to their collective understanding of how their summer's work advance community organizing. We are
excited to say that the interns left the program with a better
understanding of community organizing as a field and as a career.
