Recruiting Intern for Young Friends of the Earth

Post: Young Friends of the Earth Intern

Organisation: Friends of the Earth Ireland
Young FoE, a youth network within Friends of the Earth, was created in 2009 by and for young people wishing to campaign for environmental justice and sustainability in Ireland.
We are looking for a dynamic coordinator to help us strengthen the network. The successful candidate will be hosted and supported in the Friends of the Earth Ireland office.

Location: Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2
Duration: A 6-9 nine month internship starting on 25 June (negotiable).
Responsible to: The Director, Friends of the Earth
Closing Date for Applications: 24th May

The Opportunity
This is a unique opportunity to join a young, forward thinking team, to learn fast and to take on considerable levels of responsibility supporting Young FoE on issues including climate change and energy. Friends of the Earth campaigns for sustainable and just societies and for the protection of the environment and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International. Your role as Young Friends of the Earth intern will be to build and maintain a dynamic and diverse youth network that empowers young people to campaign for environmental justice and sustainability.

Core objectives of the position:

• Maintain and expand the Young FoE network in Ireland in third level institutions.
• Ensure that the Young FoE National Co-ordinating Group (NCG) is functioning and supported
• Assist Young FoE groups to decide on, plan and take action for environmental and social justice
• Promote membership and participation in Young FoE groups and individual members
• Facilitate communication and interaction between Young FoE groups and members within Ireland
• Facilitate communication and interaction between Young FoE in Ireland and Friends of the Earth Ireland.
• Facilitate communication and interaction between Young FoE in Ireland and Young FoE Europe
• Build the capacity of Young FoE

Achieving these objectives will involve;

Communication

• Communicate via e-mail, conference calls and meetings where appropriate to:
• Build-up Young FoE by contacting existing youth groups or young people within the network and giving them support
• Develop existing relationships and identify new networking opportunities within the youth and environmental sectors
• Support the National Co-ordinating Group guiding the network
• Support working groups created by the network in achieving their aims
• Maintain a strong relationship between Young FoE in Ireland and the Young FoE Europe office in Brussels.
• Build relationships between Young FoE in Ireland and other groups in the Young FoE Europe network.

Co-ordination of events

• Organise Young FoE meetings, activities
• Create and organise an action in 2013 in close collaboration with the Young FoE network
• Co-ordinate trips to international youth events
• Participate in Fresher's Week events in universities around Ireland in September
• Support Friends of the Earth in their events

Website/ Online Communication

• Update website content for Young FoE
• Undertake basic design work with images and banners for web and publicity
• Interact with European youth groups from FoE Europe to deliver frequently updated content and images for Young FoE on what is happening in Europe
• Write a newsletter about Young FoE and circulate to members

Other tasks:

• Prepare funding proposals write funding applications for Young FoE in 2013 under direction of the NCG
• Be active in seeking funding for international trips and activities
• Manage the financial and administrative work associated with the maintenance of the network
• Work to ensure that the agreements between Friends of the Earth and Young Friends of the Earth are met
• Be creative in contributing to ideas for activities in 2013-2014 and be thinking of future projects

Essential Requirements:

• Commitment to the values, vision and mission of Friends of the Earth
• Ability to work two and a half days a week in the Dublin office.
• Experience as an activist within an environmental or youth group
• A natural communicator and relationship builder
• Experience in preparing actions and meetings
• Experience in facilitating group meetings and supporting groups in making decisions
• Fluent English
• Self motivated and organised
• A bright, confident self starter able to grasp quickly complex policy issues
• High levels of motivation, good team player, confident telephone skills, creativity, flexibility, sense of humour, political awareness

Desirable

• Experience in delivering facilitation workshops/ training to youth groups
• Experience in delivering action training to youth groups
• Experiences with FoE, the FoEE network or a similar network
• Experience in delivering media training to youth groups
• Experience in writing action guides and resource packs for youth groups
• Familiarity with the Irish environmental movement
• Design knowledge an advantage
• Web design

The Commitment

This is an unpaid internship. The intern will be based in our office in Dublin for two and a half days a week. The Friends of the Earth office provides a highly motivating working environment in a national NGO. Friends of the Earth will provide office space, support meetings, training where possible and references. Occasional weekend and evening work hours, and travel within Ireland and to Europe will be required as part of this position. After this intern period there is the possibility to prolong the position depending on the needs of the youth network.

To download this job description as a pdf, please click here.

Closing Date for Applications: 24th May

Application by CV and cover letter:
Email: youngfoe@foe.ie

For more information about Young Friends of the Earth please see our website or our facebook page.