NEW YORK FOUNDATION
2014 SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN COMMUNITY
ORGANIZING AT A GLANCE
BACKGROUND: In 1981, the New York Foundation created a program to provide small grants to youth-serving grantees, an idea
that emerged during a grantee-trustee retreat. The purpose of the internship was to build a pipeline of young people who are
interested in community organizing by enabling grantees to provide internships for ten weeks each summer.
Since the Summer Internship in Community Organizing (SICO) program’s inception, more than 300 young people throughout the
five boroughs have participated in SICO. Chosen directly by grantees, the youth are between the ages of 15 and 23 and reflect the
communities and constituencies served by the Foundation’s grantees. They participate in formal organizing trainings and receive ongoing supervision and coaching to discuss campaign strategies, individual work plans as well as political education topics.
Many talented adult organizers we encounter had early experiences as New York Foundation summer interns. Notable examples
include Marvell Cruickshank, a former organizer at Families United for Racial and Economic Equality; Cristina Jimenez, co-founder
of New York State Youth Leadership Council and co-founder and managing director of United We Dream (named by the Chronicle
of Philanthropy among “Five From the Nonprofit World Who Will Influence Public Policy in 2013”); Marquis Jenkins, community
organizer at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and formerly lead organizer at Good Old Lower East Side; and David
Shuffler, executive director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice.
< TOTAL GRANTS APPROVED: $73,100 >
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SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
Following a competitive search in June 2014, the Foundation hired summer
intern Sarah Diaz who managed the Summer Internship in Community
Organizing (SICO) program. In addition to overseeing the intern orientation
session, conducting site visits, managing the social media that connects interns,
and writing a summary report, we wanted Ms. Diaz to have an opportunity to
learn about philanthropy. She participated in our grant-making process reviewing
proposals, accompanying staff on site visits, and contributing to our weekly
check-in meetings. Ms. Diaz’s initiative and determination proved to be useful in
her work. Meeting with a majority of the interns prior to the orientation appeared
to give interns a clearer sense of the program and allowed them to feel more
comfortable. Ms. Diaz grew up in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx,
where she witnessed many friends who lost their lives to incarceration, death,
and underachievement. A senior at Hunter College’s Public Service Scholar
Program, she interned with State Senator Liz Krueger connecting constituents to
government agencies to address various social issues, navigating the Affordable
Care Act, and garnering food stamps. Ms. Diaz said this experience helped her
to better understand the problems New Yorkers face. One of her goals is to start
a non-profit organization that addresses issues related to young Black men.
Each summer, the Foundation hosts an orientation session for SICO interns.
This year’s meeting, held in July, was facilitated by Rickke Mananzala, former
executive director of FIERCE, and organized by Ms. Diaz. All 26 SICO interns
attended the session. A “talk show style” panel and “speed dating”
discussion was popular and informative. The young people heard from
Marquis Jenkins, community engagement advocate of the NAACP’s Legal
Defense Fund and Walter Barrientos, lead organizer of Make the Road New
York, both who are former SICO interns. The speakers offered advice and a
critical perspective about organizing work and shared anecdotal stories about
challenges they faced early on. Overall, the interns appreciated connecting
with their peers and learning about each other’s work. Lunch was provided by
Émigré Gourmet, a worker-owned and operated business providing catering
and cooking lessons (a cooperative that resulted from a grant from the
New York Foundation to the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park).
Our communications manager Kenny Polyak took photos of the day and
were included with a blog piece Ms. Diaz wrote about the session
(http://nyf.org/2014/08/13/let-the-youth-lead-the-way/).
INTERN PROFILES
The daughter of a factory worker, Olivia Jones felt inspired to fight against
the structural inequalities that people of color are subject to everyday. In 2013,
Ms. Jones was an intern at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, an LGBTQ advocacy
group and former grantee of the Foundation. While at Mount Holyoke College,
she led a student group that promotes awareness about the increasing
surveillance, policing, and mass incarceration of poor communities of color.
As the civil rights campaign intern at Picture the Homeless, last summer,
Ms. Jones conducted outreach to welfare centers, shelters, and soup kitchens
throughout all five boroughs. She listened to and recorded community members’
concerns around policing, and helped to develop know-your-rights materials
for trainings she conducted about the Community Safety Act.
Shyniece Ferguson returned for a second internship with Black Women’s
Blueprint in 2014. The previous year, she had supervised a group of student
interns to create material for the organization’s Museum of Women’s Resistance
exhibition. This time around, Ms. Ferguson was the project manager of the Black
Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Truth Commission focuses on
the history, risks and consequences of the historical rape culture of Black women
in the United States. Ms. Ferguson created a curriculum and trained members on
how to collect written and video/audio recording of stories from Black survivors
of sexual abuse. Ms. Ferguson actively sought out and connected with young
women under the age of 18. In 2016, Black Women’s Blueprint will present the
ethnography collected to the United Nations. Last fall, Ms. Ferguson was hired
as the organization’s community organizer for the campaign to support rape and
sexual assault survivors in the workplace and on college campuses.
Havir Kaur was drawn to Brooklyn Movement Center’s food justice campaign.
As a volunteer with the organization over the past year, she has been instrumental
in the development of the Central Brooklyn Food Coop. In her role as intern, last
summer, Ms. Kaur recruited neighborhood residents to attend large meetings,
potlucks, and block parties to talk about issues in the community and collaborate
on issues such as food policy, access, and service delivery. She led canvasser
trainings for 35 volunteers. To document food consumption and buying habits in
Central Brooklyn, Ms. Kaur helped devise and execute a survey collection and
outreach strategy that deployed teams to more than 30 different events and sites.
This culminated in the collection of almost 500 surveys. In doing this work, she has
learned that community organizing takes time and that part of her role as an
organizer is making sure others do not get discouraged. Committed to seeing the
food cooperative operate successfully, Ms. Kaur continues to be involved with
the Brooklyn Movement Center.
SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING (SICO)
2014 SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING GRANTS
AFRICAN COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED! CAMPAIGN
For a full-time college-aged intern to organize
African youth in support of immigration reform.
For a full-time college-aged intern to participate in
outreach, research, the development of materials, and the
organizing of activities to advance a campaign to expand
the minimum wage.
BLACK WOMEN’S BLUEPRINT
For two part-time interns; one high school and one
college-aged to organize a campaign under the Black
Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address
sexual violence against women of African descent.
BROOKLYN MOVEMENT CENTER
For a full-time college-aged intern to provide research
and organizing support to a food justice campaign in
Central Brooklyn.
CHURCHES UNITED FOR FAIR HOUSING
For a full-time college-aged intern to increase awareness
of affordable housing options in North Brooklyn.
COLLEGE & COMMUNITY FELLOWSHIP
For two part-time college-aged interns to assist in
outreach, research and operations in the campaigns to
reinstate New York State Tuition Assistance Program
grant eligibility for incarcerated students and for its
campaign to ban the use of criminal history screenings
in the admission process.
COMMUNITY ACTION FOR SAFE APARTMENTS
For a full-time high-school intern to coordinate a summer
outreach initiative to increase the number of neighborhood
residents in the Bronx to engage in tenants’ rights campaigns.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS FOR YOUTH
For two part-time college-aged interns to conduct a
participatory action research project with court-involved
youth in the South Bronx.
CYPRESS HILLS LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
For two part-time interns; one high school and one
college-aged to organize an assembly candidate forum
and to assist in organizing tenant meetings.
FLATBUSH DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
For two part-time college-aged interns to work with
tenant leaders in buildings owned by predatory equity
companies to strengthen tenant associations, and
identify and develop new ones.
LAUNDRY WORKERS CENTER
For two part-time interns; one high school and one
college-aged to provide organizing support in campaigns
to improve conditions for laundry and restaurant workers
and organize tenants in Washington Heights.
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING INITIATIVE
For two part-time college-aged interns to conduct
general outreach and community engagement
activities for the pilot project’s fourth cycle.
PICTURE THE HOMELESS
For two part-time college-aged interns to assist in
general outreach, research, and organizing community
trainings and meetings for the civil rights and
housing campaigns.
RIDERS ALLIANCE
For a full-time college-aged intern to help increase
awareness and participation in the communities
of Bedford- Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in
Brooklyn in advocating for public transit needs.
ROCKAWAY YOUTH TASK FORCE
For a full-time college-aged intern to work on
message development and outreach materials for
food justice campaign.
SOUTHERN BRONX RIVER WATERSHED ALLIANCE
For two part-time college-aged interns to conduct
outreach, develop workshops and educational materials to
advocate for a plan to transform the Sheridan Expressway
with affordable housing and green space.
VOICES OF COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS & LEADERS (VOCAL-NY)
For a full-time college-aged intern to work on
campaigns aimed at removing questions about criminal
record history from private and public sector job
descriptions, and ending arrests for small amounts
of marijuana.