Volunteer Development Intern

Volunteer Development Intern Job Description 

This position is part of a cohort of 10 UVM summer interns working with organizations that support the Brattleboro community, including New Americans, in partnership with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp and the School for International Training (SIT). The UVM Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships will fund a stipend of $4,000 per intern and provide housing at the SIT campus in Brattleboro, Vermont.

This is a 20-hour-per-week internship with the following components:

15 hours per week: Primary internship as described in this posting

2 hours per week: Collaborative work with other cohort members to support the New Vermonter Education Program’s ESL instruction and program activities, providing additional hands-on experience working with refugees in an educational setting

3 hours per week: Weekly intern cohort workshops focused on professional development, networking, and reflection, including a community orientation and a final sharing event in August 2026

Check out Instagram @DowntownBrattleboro to see what’s happening in this vibrant community.

Questions about the cohort? Contact UVM Internship Coordinator kristen.andrews@uvm.edu 

Agency Description: The Community Asylum Seekers Project is a small immigrant support nonprofit formed in 2016. Its mission is to cultivate a supportive community for those seeking asylum in the U.S. while offering basic needs and accompanying them on their journey towards building a life in this country. We are based in Brattleboro, VT, and currently serve 25 asylum seekers with housing, financial support, legal aid, and/or community integration. We also work on statewide projects aimed at benefitting asylum seekers, including the coordination of a ten-member network of asylum support organizations, a legal project aimed at increasing the availability of legal aid for immigrants, and occasional policy advocacy. Our staff includes an Executive Director and a Case Manager. Much of our work is done by a network of local volunteers. 

We are seeking a summer intern to help with organizing and assessing existing volunteer training materials and identifying and/or producing additional materials. The intern will also assist with some administrative office tasks, as well as assisting the case manager with client-facing activities as needed. 

Requirements: 

Essential skills include:

• Exceptional organizational skills and self-direction
• Good oral and written communication skills 

Other valued skills include:

• A demonstrated commitment to migration justice and some familiarity with issues facing immigrants to this country.
• Spanish language ability 

In addition, the intern will need to be committed to maintaining confidentiality for, and respect of, some personal information about asylum-seekers, whose safety depends upon employees and interns maintaining their privacy.  

Responsibilities: 

Volunteer Training

• Create a volunteer training report, based on the following activities:
  • Organizing and assessing current training materials
  • Surveying current volunteers about interest in various training topics and modalities
  • Compiling and communicating survey results
  • Using the survey results to explore existing publicly available training resources on the priority topics for which CASP does not currently have training resources. 
• Update volunteer manual based on results of the report
• Assist in creating short training videos with CASP staff and community partners, based on report results

Administrative/Outreach

• Assist with office tasks (photocopying, scanning, organizing files)

Case Management

• Work with case manager to provide services to asylum seekers 

Research

• Research and update online resource lists for asylum seekers
• Research and evaluate publicly available training resources for fit for CASP volunteer training

Supervision

• Participate in weekly supervision with designated agency supervisory 

Learning Goals include:

1) Become familiar with issues facing asylum seekers and refugees in the U.S., including policy changes under the current administration.

 2) Learn basics of simple survey creation and analysis of survey results.

 3) Practice research skills in identifying publicly available training resources.

Employer Contact Information

Name: Sharon Hall-Smith

Email: info@caspvt.org

Phone: 802-212-1877