Toxic Free NC - Get Involved

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 Volunteers - Help translate our various articles, factsheets and other publications into Spanish. Can be done from anyplace with an Internet connection.

Outreach Assistants - Help out at Toxic Free NC's information and activity booth during one of approximately 25 community events we attend each year, mostly in the Spring and Fall. Outgoing personality, Spanish skills and/or experience working with kids would all be helpful, though not necessary. Ongoing.

YouTube Video Producer - Great project for a high school student, or a service or environmental club at a high school. Produce a short, funny and empowering video for high school students about NC's school pesticide law and what they can do to keep pesticides out of their school. Circulate the video via high school environmental clubs, YouTube, and social networking sites.

Office Work Party Volunteers - Work in a group to help Toxic Free NC look up legislators, do data entry, make cards, and do other odd jobs around the office that are more fun with friends. Two or three times per year.

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.

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

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

Farm-to-Child Care Intern
Unpaid, 8 - 10 hours per week for a semester, or 20 - 40 hours per week for the summer
Location: Our office in Raleigh, or remotely from your town

Project Description: As part of our Toxic-Free Kids campaign, the Farm-to-Child Care Intern will help our Program Coordinator to pilot a program at a child care center that connects the children and/or families served there to a source for fresh, affordable, sustainably-grown food. This could take several different forms, so the intern's job will be to talk with the child care provider and parents, connect them with one or more local farmers, and help them to develop a program that meets mutual goals and is as easy as possible to maintain.

Qualifications: The intern must be a resourceful and dependable person who is great with people and passionate about good food, children's health and sustainability. She or he should be able to demonstrate experience in one or more of the following fields, whether through study, work, volunteering or another route: food and nutrition, sustainable agriculture, early child education, public health, or community organizing. Because child care is the primary venue for this intern's project, preference will be given to candidates who have some direct connection to child care in their own lives, whether because they are parents, or have worked or volunteered in child care.

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YouTube Outreach Coordinator
Unpaid, 5 - 15 hours per week, Summer or Fall 2009
Location: Raleigh, NC

Project Description: Thanks to the NC School Children's Health Act, parents and teachers now have the right to be notified in advance if any pesticides will be sprayed at their school. Furthermore, public schools in our state are required to switch over from chemical-intensive pest control to least-toxic methods by 2011. These are both really important changes, since exposure to pesticides - even at very low levels - can trigger asthma attacks, cause headaches or make it difficult to concentrate, and may increase the risk for serious diseases later on, such as infertility or cancer. These health risks are the most serious for young children in lower grades, people who already have asthma, and any student or staff member who is pregnant or thinking about starting a family, but they affect everyone who spends their days in a school.

Are NC public schools following the new law and protecting their students and staff from pesticides? Middle and high school students are uniquely positioned to raise this important health and safety issue with their parents, and with their teachers and school administration.

This intern's job will be to work with student volunteers to create a short YouTube video that presents this issue and what students can do about it. It must be thought-provoking and engaging for teens, and can make use of art, music, poetry, dance, interviews, humor, photography, or any medium that the intern wants to use. He or she will then work with Toxic Free NC staff to get this video out to students statewide by sending it to environmental or volunteer clubs at different schools, school newspapers or other student publications, and out through social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook.

Qualifications: The intern should either be a teen themselves, or a student or professional with experience in fields such as middle or high school education, environmental education, television & film, or youth organizing. Regardless, this person must be self-motivated and passionate about health and sustainability, have access to video recording and editing equipment, and love working with teens. Being experienced and comfortable using YouTube, Facebook and other social networking sites is a big plus.

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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.