Volunteer and Internship Opportunities

Volunteer Opportunities

Ambassadors & Activists - Enjoy speaking truth to power? Feel strongly about fighting pesticide pollution in NC? Want to help bring your friends and neighbors into the pesticide-free fold? Become an ambassador or activist with Toxic Free NC by contacting and meeting with your elected representatives, writing letters to the editor, bringing a Toxic Free NC staff person to speak at your workplace/church/school/club/etc. ...there are lots of possibilities! Translation Gurus - Help update the Spanish portion of our website to be as fabulously extensive as the English portion. Could help update website content and style, or just help translate content. Can be done from anywhere with internet. Outreach Assistants - Help out at Toxic Free NC's information and activity booth during one of approximately 30 community events we attend each year, mostly in the Spring and Fall. Outgoing personality, Spanish skills, and experience working with kids are all good things to have, though not necessary. Ongoing. Contacts Management Assistants - Enter new contacts into Toxic Free NC's database. 1-2 hours following each of approximately 30 outreach events throughout the year. Scheduling is flexible, though you must come in to our downtown Raleigh office. Office Work Party Volunteers - Work in a group to help Toxic Free NC stuff envelopes, look up legislators, and do other office jobs. Media Maestro - Help to update our press contacts around the state and distribute press information. Could be a part-time semester internship. You could do this from anyplace with internet and phone. Pesticide Blogger - Write for Fair Ground, Toxic Free NC's news and events blog. Write once, or a bunch of times; write pesticide stories that you come up with, or that we assign, or both. Very flexible, ongoing. You could do this from our office, or from anyplace with internet. Researchers and Writers - Help to research and write new Toxic Free NC factsheets, Action Alerts, or articles for the Toxic Free Newsletter. You can do this on your own time, from our office or anyplace with internet. Photos from top to bottom: Outreach volunteers Kate (left) and Robin (center) and Toxic Free Kids Intern Jean Strandberg (right) with melon-heads at Toxic Free NC's booth during the Eastern Carolina Cantaloupe Festival, Summer 2008. Outreach volunteers Jasmine (center) and Ben (right) work at Toxic Free NC's info and activity booth, helping a young woman make a "veggie painting." Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, Spring 2007. Envelope stuffers Maggie Davis-Bausch and Robyn Beckford at Toxic Free NC's fall envelope stuffing party. Nov, 2007. Outreach volunteer Michele La Merrill applies a ladybug tattoo to a child's hand at Toxic Free NC's info and activity booth at the New Bern Festival of Fun, April 2007. Volunteer and former intern, Ghassan Hamra, hams it up while serving popcorn at the "Buggin' Out!" film screening at Perry-winkle Farm in Oct, 2007.

See also our Internship Opportunities

Call (919-833-1123) or email our Volunteer Coordinator if you're interested in one of these opportunities, or to discuss other volunteer possibilities!

Internship Opportunities

Special Event Coordinator Farmworker Documentary Intern Toxic Free Kids Zone Intern Outreach Coordinator Right-to-Know Research Intern See also our Volunteer Opportunities

To apply for one of the internship positions described below, please send a one-page cover letter that clearly states your reasons for interest in the position, along with your resume (if you have one) and three references not related to you. Please send your references' names and contact information only - letters of reference are not necessary.

Send all materials (print on both sides, please!) to:
Internship Coordinator, Toxic Free NC
- or - 206 New Bern Place, Raleigh, NC 27601

Thank you!

Special Event Coordinator
Unpaid, 5 – 10 hours per week
Location: Raleigh or telecommute

Summary: We are looking for a Special Event Coordinator intern to work on a fundraising event for Toxic Free NC this Fall. Toxic Free NC is a growing non-profit looking for fun and interesting ways of finding new supporters, and engaging those we have. We've got a great idea for a fundraising party - a bug-drawing rally, in which local artists draw as many bugs as they can in a short period and the art is sold to raise money for our work. We just need to right person to help us make it happen!

Qualifications: Special Events Planner interns should be energetic and enthusiastic people with strong attention to detail, and who enjoy working as an independent part of a team. Some experience coordinating events or managing volunteers, and some connection to the local arts scene (or desire to become connected!) are preferred.

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Farmworker Documentary Intern
Unpaid, 5 - 10 hours per week
Location: Triangle Area with some in-state travel

Project Description: Toxic Free NC has recently begun collecting farmworker stories to give them a more direct voice in our work and in public policy decisions that affect them. We are looking for an intern to interview farmworkers in rural NC about their experiences with pesticides. The intern will learn some simple techniques for audio and photo documentary work, and if interested and able, may also assist with publishing and distributing the resulting materials via web, print or video.

Qualifications: The intern should be a professional or student in communications, Spanish, documentary work, journalism, public health, social work, or a related field. Previous experience with documentary work is not necessary. The intern must be bilingual Spanish-English; native speakers of Spanish strongly preferred. The intern must have their own car and a valid driver's license. All related expenses will be reimbursed.

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Toxic Free Kids Zone Intern
Unpaid, 5 - 10 hours per week
Location: Triangle Area or telecommute

Project Description: Toxic Free NC promotes safer alternatives to pesticides in schools, childcare centers, and other environments where children are at risk. As a complement to our Toxic-Free Schools Campaign work with parents, teachers, schools and childcare proviers, we’re developing educational materials on environmental health and safe pest management for use by teachers and students at different grade levels. The Toxic Free Kids Zone Intern will work to develop fun and artful materials for pre-K or elementary school children, in partnership with our Program Coordinator and with other Toxic Free NC volunteers. This project can take the form of a storybook, a special Kids Zone section for our website, lesson plans for classroom teachers, or something else, depending on the intern's particular talents and expertise.

Qualifications: The intern could be student or professional in the fields of education, early childhood development, creative writing, art, design, or another related field. Experience teaching and/or working with young children strongly recommended. Demonstrated commitment to working on issues of health, justice, and sustainability also preferred.

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Outreach Coordinator
Unpaid, 5 - 10 hours per week
Location: Raleigh, NC or telecommute

Background: Toxic Free NC is a private, non-profit organization that has been working for health, justice and sustainability in NC for over 20 years. Toxic Free NC staff and volunteers attend community meetings, festivals and other special events throughout the year to distribute information about safer alternatives to pesticides, and to meet new people who are interested in subscribing to our publications, volunteering, supporting our work, or otherwise getting involved.

Function: The Outreach Coordinator will work under the supervision of our Program Coordinator, and will also work with other volunteers and interns at Toxic Free NC. The primary goals of this internship are to represent Toxic Free NC’s work to the public at a variety of outreach events, and to ensure that our booths and events are fun, educational and engaging for everyone involved.

Major Duties & Responsibilities:
1) Prepare educational materials, activities and displays in advance of outreach events, and make arrangements for any needed equipment and travel.
2) Assist in training and oversight of outreach volunteers, and follow up with those volunteers after events to thank them and request their feedback.
3) Staff Toxic Free NC’s booth or table at a variety of events around the state. Greet passers-by, introduce people to Toxic Free NC’s mission and work, answer questions and direct people to our resources, and administer children’s activities such as coloring and quiz games.
4) Follow up with new people who sign up at our booths by entering them into our contacts database, sending them a note to say thank you, and following up on specific questions they asked you.

Qualifications:
1) The intern should be a university student with a background in education, communications, environmental science, public health, sociology, grassroots organizing, or a closely related field. S/he should have a strong interest in environmental health, sustainable agriculture, and/or nonprofit communications.
2) Excellent verbal communication skills are required. Ability to speak Spanish is a plus. The intern should be friendly and outgoing, be comfortable and confident talking with strangers, and be able to communicate easily and effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
3) The intern should be able to demonstrate that he or she can convey complex ideas in a way that is easy for the general public to understand. Experience as an educator, and/or a fondness for working with pre-school and elementary-aged children are strongly preferred.
4) The intern should be a highly organized person who enjoys coordinating details and having several things to work on at a time.
5) The intern must have a car and a driver’s license valid in NC.

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What's being sprayed on North Carolina's fields? Neighbors should have the right to know. Photo of a cotton field taken by Billie Karel in Pasquotank County, NC in Winter, 2004.

Right-to-Know Research Intern
Unpaid, 5 hours per week
Location: Raleigh or telecommute

Background: Toxic Free NC works in North Carolina to provide quality information to the public, to our constituents, and to our colleagues in the fields of environmental health & justice about pesticides and alternatives. This information must be scientifically sound, and also easy for non-scientists to understand and put into practice.

Description: We are looking for 1 – 2 Right-to-Know Research Interns to help create new factsheets in our Your Right to Know series, and also to research and write short, informative articles on seasonal least-toxic pest control topics for our newsletter.

Qualifications: No prior knowledge of pesticides or pest management are required. Right-to-Know Research Interns must have experience doing print and online research, patience and attention to detail, and good writing skills.

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