Internship & Volunteer Opportunities Available

Internships - Heartland Alliance International

BACKGROUND

For more than 100 years, Heartland Alliance has been working with displaced and vulnerable people in the Chicago area, including refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and victims of trafficking. The services offered to these populations include legal protections, torture treatment, medical and psychosocial care and services specific to children's needs. Using the expertise gained through the delivery of such services, Heartland Alliance has turned its attention to the countries where these vulnerable and displaced persons originate, which have been adversely affected by war, violence and poverty. In these countries, Heartland Alliance applies its particular areas of expertise to build the capacity of local partners to provide quality and sustainable services to vulnerable populations.

Heartland Alliance International has two primary portfolios: Social and Economic Justice and Comprehensive Health. The Social and Economic Justice portfolio includes a range of programs focused on creating opportunities and strengthening the voice of marginalized populations. The Social and Economic Justice programs include:

• Leadership and empowerment for women, youth and minority populations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals.
• Services for LGBT refugees in the United States
• Economic and labor rights, including anti-trafficking programs, livelihoods services, self-help groups, and other income-generating activities

The Comprehensive Health portfolio includes physical and mental health programs:

• HIV/AIDS programs targeting men who have sex with men (MSM) and other most-at-risk populations (MARPs), including female sex workers.
• Mental health services, including treatment for severe mental illnesses.
• Targeted primary healthcare
• Torture treatment centers and services.

Heartland Alliance International supports these programs through local non-governmental organization (LNGO) capacity building, media and advocacy campaigns, legal services, and community-based models.

INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTION:

Heartland Alliance offers work-study and unpaid internships to undergraduate and graduate students throughout the year. Internships are offered at the Heartland Alliance Headquarters Chicago Loop and Washington D.C. Offices.[1] Non-student volunteers are also encouraged to apply to these opportunities if they have related education or work experience. Internships or volunteer opportunities are typically 10-20 hours per week during the school year and 20-30 hours per week in the summer months.

Interns and volunteers provide a range of support to Heartland Alliance Directors and Program Officers. Heartland Alliance International Programs is a small office, providing interns with an opportunity for hands-on experience in the international human rights and development field. While internships will have specific areas of focus, interns should be willing to support a wide variety of tasks, including general administrative support. The types of internships or volunteer activities are described below:

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Must be detail-oriented;
• Highly proficient with Microsoft Office suite, especially Word and Excel;
• Highly skilled at internet research;
• Superb oral and written communications skills in English;

• Ability to take initiative and work independently;
• Excellent research and writing skills;

• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to multi-task;

INTERNSHIP TYPE

DESCRIPTION & CRITERIA

Public Relations, Communications and Fundraising

This position will involve developing communications materials or supporting fundraising activities for promotion of Heartland Alliance International Programs.

• Oversee creation of public relations materials including website content, brochures, reports and handbooks, or other program descriptions applying visual design principals.
• Identify and develop detailed plans for potential international program's fundraising activities in Chicago
• Lead the planning, coordination and logistics for fundraising activities
• Support the identification an international donor base and develop mailings
• Other duties based on volunteer interest and organization needs

Qualifications: Experience organizing similar fundraising events or background in public relations, design, website creation, and communications

Operations and Finance

This role will provide an intern with an opportunity to understand non-profit accounting and support to variety of operations, finance, and accounting needs. Tasks will vary depending on program needs, including:

• Review and verify expense reports, bank reconciliations, or other finance data;
• Support development of new business operations systems, including new procedures, meeting compliance requirements, and proposal development;
• Prepare and track purchase orders, billing and inter-agency financial agreements;
• Assist in the preparation and monitoring of program budgets, quarterly progress reports to donors, schedules, and other relevant work products;
• Research and write best practices and literature reviews on specific policy topics.

Qualifications: Education or experience in accounting, finance, international business or related field.

Global Health and HIV/AIDS

The Global Health and HIV/AIDS internship is an opportunity to support Heartland Alliance's health programs, including:

• Complete literature reviews and best-practices research on international HIV/AIDS, mental health, primary care, human rights, capacity development and other topics to ensure evidence-based programming;
• Assist in information technology needs and website development / maintenance;
• Perform administrative tasks as identified by International Programs Department staff;
• Collect, consolidate and analyze data from Heartland Alliance country program reports for internal and external information sharing purposes and reports;
• Coordinate with field offices and International Programs team to create useful materials and briefs;
• Design and complete an independent project based upon International Program departmental needs and individual skills and interests.

• Research and analyze funding opportunities to identify and prioritize program development opportunities, particularly in Africa and Latin America;
• Support proposal development – including technical research, content analysis and interpretation, technical writing, editing, budgeting and proposal submission;

Qualifications: At least one (1) year of experience in international health programming

Research and Project Assistance

The research and project assistance role will vary depending on program-specific needs. Typically, this role will involve hand-on work and research with active Heartland Alliance programs and ongoing work with field offices.

• Conduct research in best-practices related to program design, implementation and country context;
• Provide support in technical areas, including women's leadership, refugee services, LGBT-focused services, legal services, or income-generating activities, based on areas of technical expertise;
• Develop content for program handbooks or flyers;
• Help translate documents and research from Spanish/French/Arabic to English and vise versa;
• Preparing and tracking purchase orders, billing and inter-agency financial agreements;
• Assisting in information technology needs and website development / maintenance;
• Support proposal development – including technical research, best-practices research, content analysis and interpretation, technical writing, editing and proposal submission;
• Collect monitoring and evaluation data and help develop M&E systems.

Qualifications: Current undergraduate or graduate student in public policy, public health, social work, international development, law, medicine or other relevant field;

[1] The Washington D.C. Office is available only for GISHR Interships