Arctic Sierra Club Internship

Dates: Spring 2016

Location: On campus

Campaign Background:

The Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the country. While the Sierra Club has been active on issues surrounding the Arctic for decades, recently these issues have been thrust into the national spotlight by a renewed interest by the oil industry to open up Arctic waters for drilling. Because of the unique political significance of the Arctic, a new model of distributed organizing is being pioneered by the Sierra Club in which we will mobilize activists in key priority states around Arctic issues – specifically drilling in the Chuchki Sea and the designation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a national monument.

Opportunities:

Interns with the Sierra Club will work with a professional Staff-person as a mentor and resource to learn how to effectively create change in multiple environmental sectors. An intern is paired with a staffer based on his or her specific interest. Interns will have the opportunity to help organize a grassroots campaign, conduct community and policy research, among other projects and tasks. Interns will learn skills through individual coaching, trainings, and workshops.

Research Component:

The research component of this internship combines, community, policy and scientific research by looking at how climate change will affect different locations around the country. These locations are determined by the Arctic team staff as the political leadership plays some significant role in decisions made around the Arctic. The theory of change is that if we can identify the most impacted communities in these states, we can bolster an inclusive and effective climate movement locally that can empower the state level targets to pressure the president to make the right decision regarding Arctic protection. Additionally this research will include compiling a database of local organizations – environmental, justice-bases, faith, and labor groups.

Outreach Component:

In addition to the research needed to effectively enter these communities, initial outreach needs to be done to local activists and groups. This primarily includes making initial calls to Arctic Action takers to identify potential leaders on the campaign and asking them to take individual actions such as writing a letter to the editor or collecting petition signatures. This process will serve as a test for these individuals where they can build a base of activists with the goal of launching a team.

Preferred Skills:

Basic understanding of Arctic issues and policy handles, phone skills, research skills

Expectations and Requirements:

• The intern will complete 10-15 hours of work per week of the school semester (10 weeks).
• The intern will compile a report of climate impacts based off of a series of questions to be answered about the state including climate change vulnerable communities.
• Time will be split between research and recruitment.
• The intern will become proficient in the HELEN database system in order to maintain an accurate record of the work being done with activists.