The Summer Heat Action Intern will work on the City of Gresham's Climate Action Plan as a member of the Solid Waste & Sustainability Program. Interns will learn about local climate impacts and community resiliency strategies. They will support program efforts to keep residents safe during extreme heat by helping run an outreach campaign including tabling, phone calls, and distribution of resources. This internship is a chance to build real skills in communication, community engagement, and public service while making a positive impact in the community.
The program collaborates heavily with local, regional, and state partners on program and policy development and implementation. All of this work is intertwined with equity goals; a sustainable future is an equitable future to make Gresham safe, healthy, sustainable, and resilient.
By the end of the internship, students will have:
- Participated in planning and carrying out a summer outreach campaign focused on heat safety and cooling access.
- Connected community members to resources like cooling centers, transit options, and heat safety tips.
- Helped create or adapt outreach materials such as call scripts, digital messages, or flyers (with staff support).
- Expanded personal skills like communication, teamwork, time management, and community engagement.
This mentor’s focus is empowering youth to build confidence, skills, and figure out their path through how their work connects to real community outcomes. As a mentor, they value lived experience, focus on collaborative learning, and understand that knowledge goes both ways (mentor and mentee). Their goal is to have a balance of providing opportunities for interns to explore and also structure to have something grounding. This is a part-time, hybrid virtual and in-person internship, with the expectation that the intern will work at least 200 hours over the course of the summer.
To learn more about the mentor’s work, visit: https://www.greshamoregon.gov/government/climate-action/
We strongly encourage students to apply who are from one or more systemically and historically excluded group, including but not limited to, non-cis-gendered students, girls, BIPOC, first-generation college-bound students, low-income/low-resourced students, students with disabilities, students who are neurodivergent, and those who speak a primary language other than English.
If you have any questions about the application, website technical issues and/or this position description, please contact Saturday Academy at ase@saturdayacademy.org. Do not contact the mentor directly. Contacting the mentor directly is grounds for disqualification of your ASE application.