About the City of Austin
Over 13,000 employees work for the City of Austin, the nation’s 11th largest city. The organization is dedicated to becoming the “Best Managed City” while maintaining an environment dedicated to attracting, motivating, and developing qualified, diverse and productive employees.
Community Engagement Internship
The Community Engagement Internship enables the participant(s) to help craft methods for generating public input on policy questions posed by the City Council; to design and help facilitate activities designed to develop community consensus; and to create and help execute mediation exercises meant to resolve disputes between constituencies.
The interns will work directly with the Community Engagement Consultant, Marion Sanchez, managing tasks associated with community engagement activities, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Coordination of logistics associated with engagement activities;
- Note-taking during input-gathering sessions
- Correspondence and meetings with stakeholders
- Reporting, analysis, and synthesis of data for presentations to staff and City Council
- Attendance and participation at staff meetings to develop engagement strategies
The interns will each report for work approximately 15-20 hours per week. The intern will generally report for work during weekday normal business hours (8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.) but may, on occasion, be called upon to assist with community engagement meetings in the early morning, later evening, or weekends. The hours should be fairly standard and constant, but, in cases where the Consultant is called upon to mediate an unplanned crisis situation, the intern may be asked to assist during hours other than those already scheduled.
Qualifications
Applicants from a variety of educational backgrounds will be considered. Applicants majoring in communications, government/political science, and psychology are encouraged to apply.
Applicants should possess strong writing, speaking, typing, interpersonal, leadership, and organizational skills. Applicants should be able to work under tight deadlines with limited advance notice of their assignments. They should have demonstrated experience in working with large teams and managing complex projects.
To Apply
Send cover letter and resume to Marion Sanchez. Include availability information (e.g., number of hours per week, preferred days, etc.).