United Way of Greater Waterbury

Title: Community Impact Intern
Location: Waterbury
Dates: 6/9 - 8/15 with some flexibility
Hours: Approximately 31.5 hours a week for 10 weeks.

Job Description: 

United Way of Greater Waterbury’s mission is to mobilize our ten-town region amplify its resources and invest in approaches that advance equity and measurable community outcomes. We envision an engaged, inspired community in which all people thrive with healthy lives, quality education, and financial stability. Since 1942, the United Way of Greater Waterbury has leveraged its active volunteer leadership, deep subject-matter expertise and strong fundraising skills to positively impact the quality of life in our 10-town area, which includes Bethlehem, Cheshire, Middlebury, Prospect, Southbury, Thomaston, Waterbury, Watertown, Wolcott and Woodbury. The organization invests in over 50 programs and initiatives in the areas of Basic Needs (health care, housing and food), Education and Financial Stability. These efforts address individuals’ and families' immediate needs while also developing long-term solutions to community challenges in the following impact areas:

Basic Needs: ensuring all residents have adequate access to healthcare, housing and food.

Education: increasing quality early learning educational experiences for children birth through 5 and increase the number of youth, 5 through 18, who have opportunities to experience success and achieve their potential.

Financial Stability: increase financial stability by expanding training and employment opportunities for the under-employed and unemployable youth and adults as well as access to programs and practices that increase household income.

Some examples of the work will include:

Under Basic Needs:

• Assist with the Waterbury Food Insecurity Resource Group, which consists of food pantries and soup kitchens in Greater Waterbury. The goal of the group is to identify community needs and work together to meet those needs. The intern will assist by sending out meeting invites, taking meeting minutes and attend these community meetings to learn firsthand about the collaborative work to help those who are hungry in Greater Waterbury. In addition, the intern will also assist with our Annual Stock the Pantry event, which is a community wide collection of healthy foods to replenish food programs for the summertime when children are out of school and not getting meals through the public school system.

Under Education:

• Assist with the creation of a Youth Summit, by United Way’s UPSTARTERS, that will take place in the summer of 2025. UPSTARTERS is a youth volunteer engagement initiative by the United Way of Greater Waterbury that gives local youth exposure to addressing community needs. The intern will assist with the planning process and implementation of the Youth Summit.

Financial Stability:

• Assist with the implementation of a Your Money, Your Goals Financial Literacy Training for staff of local non-profit providers. Coordinate with training facilitator, locate training space and invite community members to attend. Training will take place over 3 hours per day, once a week for three weeks and will include the topics of budgeting, savings, banking, credit, debt and more. The Community Impact Intern is also invited to be a participant in the class.

All Impact Areas:

• Learn about the work of United Way in the Greater Waterbury Community, visit and engage with community agencies.
• Assist with additional community impact projects as needed, including setting up webinars, lunch and learns, and tours with our community partners as well as assisting with our Emerging Leaders, which is network of young professionals who live or work in the 10-town region and share a passion to enrich our community. The group provides a platform to impact change throughout our community and to grow personally, professionally and socially.

Career Experience: 

United Way leads many tables of conversation and collaboration on the initiatives that we support, giving the intern the experience of participating in this first-hand and how they improve the lives of Greater Waterbury residents.

Suggested College Majors:

The college and career goals that may be the best match for this position would be those individuals that are interested in Health & Human Services and/or Basic Needs (health, housing and food), Education and Financial Stability.

Applicant Requirements: 

We welcome any applicant that is willing to learn about the work of United Way and that is positive and enthusiastic about helping people thrive with their Basic Needs, Education and Financial Stability in the Greater Waterbury community.

How to apply: 

All ASF Scholars will recieve an email with the access code and instructions on how to apply through the scholarship portal. If you have any questions about your eligiblity or the application you can contact Heather Hokunson at hhokunson@asfdn.org, 860-612-4291 or by text.