Collaboration Intern at Southwest Decision Resources
Position Title: Collaboration Intern
Reports to: Tahnee Robertson and Colleen Whitaker
Hours/Week: 10-15
Internship Date Range: Summer 2024 (flexible start/end dates)
Location: Tucson AZ (some in person, most virtual)
About the Resilience Internships and Student Experiences (RISE) Program
The RISE Program is hosted by the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR) and provides undergraduate and graduate students with paid internships related to resilient environments and societies. RISE internships give students experience in workplace settings with an opportunity to grow their interpersonal skills and prepare them for careers after graduation.
About Southwest Decision Resources: Southwest Decision Resources (SDR) is a Tucson-based organization that works with a variety of partners to collaboratively address conservation and community issues throughout Arizona and the Southwest. Our work focuses on the design and facilitation of collaborative planning and decision making efforts, with a goal of achieving broad participation and inclusiveness, higher quality outcomes, and more lasting solutions for our landscapes and communities.
Internship description:
Southwest Decision Resources works on a variety of projects related to natural resources and community development, with the benefit of customizing internship projects to the interests of the intern. When the internship starts, we will provide an orientation with the intern about the work and approach of SDR, the suite of our current projects, and specific projects with potential internship roles. We’ll learn more about the interests of the intern, and based on this, decide together which projects would be the best fit. In the projects listed below, the intern would be a full part of that project team, meaning they would receive training and exposure to situation/stakeholder assessment, agenda and process design, meeting facilitation, documentation, communications, report writing and other aspects of this work. The intern would focus on aspects of these projects that best align with their interest and skills and the needs of the project. Based on interests of the intern, we can create an independent mini-project as well (graphic design, outreach or communications strategy, short writing pieces, etc.). Our SDR summer project options include:
- Urban planning: SDR is working with the City of Tucson on Plan Tucson, their General Plan Update public engagement process. This involves in-person and virtual workshops, meetings, planning sessions, data analysis and other aspects of engaging our diverse community on all relevant urban planning topics.
- Arizona Cross-Watershed Network: AZ XWN is a network of watershed partnerships, organizations, agencies, universities and other local and statewide partners who are working to improve the health of watersheds and watershed communities across Arizona. The mission of AZ XWN is to create a more resilient, adaptive and interconnected community of watershed practitioners across the state to foster collaboration and increase collective impact.
- Trail and outdoor recreation planning: SDR is working on two collaborative trails and outdoor recreation planning efforts. The intern would help with aspects of the project of most interest, which could include map making/GIS, supporting engagement of underrepresented stakeholders, graphics/materials development, meeting facilitation support, data analysis and participating in the project team.
- Place-based collaboratives: SDR organizes and facilitates collaboratives of diverse partners including agencies, local government, community organizations and other stakeholders in various locations across the Southwest.
- Numerous other projects including: climate adaptation, transportation planning, collaborative conservation, among others.
Requirements:
Applicants must be active students who are enrolled in courses for Fall 2024.
Compensation:
The intern will be compensated by the University of Arizona. Students will be paid through two stipends at a rate of $18/hour.
How to Apply:
Please send your resume and cover letter to Tahnee Robertson at tahnee@swdresources.com.
Applications must be submitted no later than April 26, 2024.