Internship Opportunities
Restorative Justice – One Summer Chicago (SUMMER ONLY)
Location: 4730 N. Sheridan, Chicago, IL AND 241 E 57th St Chicago, IL Level: Foundation/First Year
Number of hires:
Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? No
Description:
Foundation year placement providing supportive services to clients in Alternatives’ restorative justice One Summer Chicago employment program. Students must be available during the day MTWThF. Clients age ranges from 12 to 18.
Restorative Justice – Regular Academic Year
Location: 4730 N. Sheridan, Chicago, IL AND 241 E 57th St Chicago, IL Level: Foundation
Number of hires: Up to 4
Primary Service Classification: Multi-Service
Primary Learning Opportunity: Youth Development/Empowerment Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? Yes
Description:
Restorative justice interns will be placed in a school on the south or west side of Chicago. Programming can vary depending on the school culture, but focus is to empower students to become leaders in violence prevention, conflict resolution, and school safety while also offering positive, skill-building alternatives to suspension and detention. Each program for youth typically meets weekly. RJ Interns may be placed with Girl World, Just Us, or Full Circle. Girl World provides gender-specific and age appropriate programming for girls, young women, and femmes ages 10 to 18. Just Us provides culturally relevant programming for youth of color ages 10 to 18. Full Circle is a training for young adults (ages 17-24 years old) who have been systems-involved or experienced housing insecurity.
Behavioral Health – Clinical (Therapy)
Location: 2 days / week at Chicago Public School assigned after internship start; 1 day / week admin/remote.
Level: Advanced / 2nd year
Number of hires: Up to 6
Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? Possible
Description:
Perform the following from a racial, gender, sexuality, and accessibility equity lens
- Average a number of clinical hours of direct service per week as directed by the supervisor.
- Perform a variety of therapy, assessment, and case management services.
- Provide assessment, treatment, and training services at community locations/schools, as requested.
- Conduct therapeutic groups on a variety of topics as needed.
- Participate in an interdisciplinary team within the school or other community locations regarding social emotional needs of students.
- Maintain complete, accurate, and timely written documentation in client files of all services provided.
- Participate in all- agency meetings, behavioral health staffing, and supervision.
- Demonstrate knowledge of Alternatives, Inc. policies, practices, and services.
Please note: if you are assigned to a CPS school, you will be expected to stay for the duration of the 2023-2024 school year to avoid disruption of services for students
Behavioral Health – Mezzo/Macro Level Internship
Location: Remote / 4730 N Sheridan Rd / 241 E 57th St Level: Foundation or advanced Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? Yes
Description:
Interns provide support to program directors in program evaluation, organizational policy (trauma-informed care working group, racial equity plan), grant research and/or writing, and advocacy.
Behavioral Health – SeeIt (Trauma Informed Capacity-Building)
Location: 2 days / week at Chicago Public School, assigned after internship starts; admin work done remote
Level: Graduate – Foundation or Advanced, Undergraduate
Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? When available
Description:
SeeIt (Systemic Evaluation, Enhancement and Institutional Training) is a program dedicated to building and strengthening Tier I behavioral health services in schools. Tier I services refer to the core instruction and support that every student receives when attending school. The SeeIt Intern is responsible for the following:
- Create Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum to be administered in the classrooms.
- Present SEL curriculum in the classroom as needed.
- Present SEL curriculum to teaching staff when necessary
- Help create training for school staff on mental health and trauma informed approaches to classroom work
- Co-facilitate workshops and trainings with supervisor
- Assist the SeeIt Coordinator and SeeIt Specialist with tasks as needed
- Assist with data collection, entry and interpretation for the SeeIt Program
- Review existing assessments and provide suggestions for improvement using evidence-based
- screening tools.
- Participate and provide consistent engagement in Behavioral Health Team Meetings.
Behavioral Health – SeeIt Data and Development Intern
Location: Hybrid schedule. Meetings can be virtual or in person whereas admin work is done remotely. Level: Graduate – Foundation or Advanced, Undergraduate Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? When available
Description:
SeeIt (Systemic Evaluation, Enhancement and Institutional Training) is a program dedicated to building and strengthening Tier I behavioral health services in schools. Tier I services refer to the core instruction and support that every student receives when attending school. The Data and Development Intern will play a key role in the macro level data collection, entry and capturing comprehensive data throughout the internship process. The Data and Development Intern will support the SeeIt Coordinator and Specialists on high priority projects and research as assigned.
- Assist Specialists and/ or SeeIt Coordinator review, research, and further develop Alternative’s SEL (trauma- informed) curriculum and/or training(s). Must be knowledgeable about PowerPoint design, etc.
- Create, Collect and Review program evaluations and data metrics. Data interns must maintain monthly data entries.
- Attend biweekly sessions with the Data and Program Evaluation Manager to remain accurate and up to date with the Alternative CRM system.
- Work closely with the data team to ensure all collection and entry is done correctly and successfully to ensure accurate data comparisons.
- Practice, Develop, and Engage in managerial (or leadership) roles by: Training and equipping other interns on Alternatives ETO data collection and entry. Follow through with collecting data from Seeit Interns by assigned deadlines. Remain in constant communication with SeeIt Coordinator & Specialist [or their direct supervisor].
- Help create training for school staff on mental health and trauma informed approaches to classroom work.
- Assist the SeeIt Coordinator and SeeIt Specialist with tasks as needed.
- Review existing assessments and provide suggestions for improvement using evidence-based screening tools.
- Attend weekly group supervision with SeeIt Specialists.
- Participate and provide consistent engagement in Behavioral Health Team Meetings. -Attend mandatory individual and training sessions.
Data Internship
Location: Remote
Level: Foundation or advanced
Accessible by Public Transportation?: No
Car Needed for Internship?: No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option?: Yes
Description:
- Support Data Specialist with agency data entry and quality control
- Design and modify forms and data collection measures
- Support agency staff with database technical assistance
- Help to build monthly and quarterly program reports
- Visual reports using Tableau, Canva, and other applications
- Support with program evaluation
- Research on data processes using software or programming languages (R, Python, etc.)
- Support building a data repository
Behavioral Health – Substance Abuse Prevention
Location: Chicago Public School to be assigned after internship starts Level: Foundation
Accessible by Public Transportation? Yes
Car Needed for Internship? No
Evening and/or Weekend Hours option? No
Description:
Facilitating substance abuse prevention groups and education for 1-2 schools each semester. Interns will be trained in specific curriculum for 6th-8th graders. Need to be available 7:30am – 3:00pm and some after school hours.