IRC Silver Spring is operating hybrid due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spring 2023 interns may work partly in-person or entirely remote, depending on the program. The situation will be reevaluated as things evolve.
I’ve listed the titles and a brief description of each internship below. You can find the full description by going to https://rescue.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx?site=1&c=rescue and filtering by City (Silver Spring) and Employee Category (Intern). Prospective interns will use that link to apply. We strongly encourage interested applicants to apply for more than one program. If you want professional, hands-on experience working with refugees, asylees, & trafficking victims, apply to be an intern with the IRC in Silver Spring!
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) was founded at the behest of Albert Einstein in 1933 to assist people fleeing from persecution. Since then, the IRC has grown and works all over the world providing humanitarian support. In Silver Spring, the IRC works with refugees the moment they step off the plane to help them get situated and become self-sufficient members of their new community.
IRC internships give interns the opportunity to work directly with refugees to teach them or help them accomplish tasks needed to live successfully in the US. We offer 15 unique internships that offer a wide variety of opportunities to develop different skills and gain experience including:
· Anti-Trafficking: The Anti-Trafficking program provides trauma-informed and client-centered services to assist victims of trafficking. Services include meeting clients’ basic needs, ensuring clients’ safety and access to temporary and long-term shelter as needed. Also, the program refers clients to pro bono legal services, mental health specialists and economic empowerment activities as needed.
· Asylee Casework: The Asylee Casework team is the first point of contact for asylee clients. Caseworkers provide 8 months of case management to asylees. The services include providing monthly cash assistance, ensuring that clients apply for public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps, ensuring that clients apply for social security and enroll in health insurance and ESL classes.
· Career Development: Refugees are often required to accept the first available job they get offered. This means that many refugees with professional experience take jobs outside of their previous field of work. The Career Development Program helps them re-enter their previous field of work. Since these are more advanced positions, staff and interns provide advanced job readiness trainings and teach skills geared towards acquiring positions in mid-level and up jobs.
· Economic Empowerment: The Economic Empowerment program assists refugees to become economically self-sufficient by providing workforce development. We assist recently arrived refugees to acquire their first job. Through this position you will be teaching our refugee and asylee clients skills and cultural practices that will help them to obtain and hold employment as well as budgeting and US laws.
· Refugee Employment and Skill-Building: The Refugee Employment and Skill-Building Program aims to reduce barriers to self-sufficiency and employment and assist the parents to secure full-time employment.
· Refugee Employment Coordination: The Employment Coordination Program supports humanitarian immigrants to achieve economic self-sufficiency through engagement in work participation activities including volunteering, internship procurement, vocational English as a second language classes, and referrals to certificate-bearing professional development courses. The program specializes in providing holistic services to large families.
· Family Mentor: The Family Mentor Program focuses on helping newly arrived refugees feel more at home by connecting them to mentors from the local community. Mentors help refugees practice English, socialize with others, and integrate into the community through weekly visits. The Family Mentor team provides support for mentors during their six-month commitment and monitors the refugee family’s improvement throughout the program.
· Gender Equity: IRC programming assists refugees to become economically self-sufficient and supports acclimatization within the United States by providing access to casework services. All IRC service provision is provided through the lens of Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI). This role will support the IRC’s Gender Equality work, cross-cutting programmatically and departmentally to support the administration of equitable services and the proper consideration of gender concerns in programmatic and departmental initiatives.
· Housing and Casework: The housing department is responsible for finding and setting up all apartments prior to a refugee family’s arrival. They work with community partners, US ties, and IRC staff to set up apartments and schedule the airport pickup schedule. Internship also includes responsibilities of the Refugee Casework internship.
· Immigration: This program’s primary responsibilities include helping immigrants obtain Permanent Residence Status, Citizenship, and family reunification. Many IRC immigration interns go on to pursue law school citing the internship as inspiration and good experience.
· Intake-Outreach/Q&A: The Intake-Outreach Q&A program is the first point of contact to all “walk-in” clients that visit the IRC in Silver Spring. We provide fast track enrollment in public benefits and referrals to internal and/or external resources and programs as needed. We are part of the casework team and ensure “No visitor will walk out empty-handed.”
· Intensive Case Management: Clients are referred to Intensive Case Management when they have extra barriers to self-sufficiency (typically medical conditions and pre-literacy). The ICM program helps them to overcome these challenges.
· Refugee Casework: This department oversees the core programing of refugee resettlement. Casework interns teach refugees how to use the bus, take clients to social security, help enroll children in school, and meet with refugees in the office to talk about the challenges they are facing.
· Youth Casework: The Youth Casework Team enrolls students in IRC Youth Programs and into the school system, provides school aged students with individual case management support and works to address challenges identified by our clients and help them towards self-sufficiency.
· Youth Development: The IRC’s Youth Development Program works to support the integration of recently arrived refugees and asylees who are middle and high school aged students. Students participate in IRC’s after school programs, Saturday Learning Series, and other programs, each designed to address challenges identified by our clients.
Most internships require a minimum of 15 to 20 hours per week. All selected interns will need to undergo and clear a background check and reference check to intern. We ask that you make a $30 donation to help us cover the associated costs. Currently, 87% of our funding goes directly to programming to support our clients, and your help to cover this cost will ensure that no funding is directed away from serving our clients. Instructions will be provided after you have been selected to intern or volunteer.
IRC Silver Spring is operating hybrid due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spring 2023 interns may work partly in-person or entirely remote, depending on the program. The situation will be reevaluated as things evolve.
The IRC is not able to sponsor visas.
All internships are unpaid. For information on scholarship opportunities, contact your university or the IRC Silver Spring intern coordinator at Kyle.Monsees@Rescue.org.
To view opportunities and apply, visit https://rescue.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx?site=1&c=rescue Applications require a resume, cover letter, and list of three references.
We currently offer internships during the following semesters:
Spring: January – May
Summer: May – August
Fall: September – December
Internships are typically posted 2-3 months prior to the anticipated start date.
*Candidates applying who are not currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program, or are outside 12 months of their graduation are welcome to apply. These candidates will be processed as volunteers.
IRC leading the way from harm to home.
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
If you need assistance in the application or hiring process to accommodate a disability, you may request an accommodation at any time. Please contact Talent Acquisitions at IRC.Recruitment@rescue.org. As required by law, the IRC will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with a known disability.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you,
Kyle Monsees | Community Engagement Coordinator
International Rescue Committee
Silver Spring Office: 8719 Colesville Road 3rd floor, Silver Spring, MD 20910
T + 1 301 562 8633 ext. 218
