Community Care Cohort Internship Info Session

Apply to the Community Care Cohort!

Calling UIC undergrads! We are thrilled to open applications for next year’s #CommunityCareCohort:

Any and all questions will be answered during our two info sessions, noon Feb. 28 and 4 p.m. March 15. RSVP online.

Applications are due March 25.

Who: Open to UIC undergraduate students.

When: The internship will take place over the fall 2022 semester, with the option to continue in spring 2023. Community Care Cohort members will also have the option to continue into a second year.

Time commitment: 33 hours a semester, approximately 2 hours a week, with room for flexibility.

Stipend: $500 per semester

About Us:

The Disability Cultural Center is one of the seven Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change housed in the Office of Diversity, and we are one of a few disability cultural centers in the country. The DCC offers public programs, discussion series, arts-based workshops, and one-on-one support — as we work to engage an understanding of disability as a social justice issue and a site for identity, community and culture.

We are an all-disabled staff, and we are invested in thoughtfully shaping an accessible and equitable work culture. We value intersectional perspectives, and we understand our work as a response to enduring systems of oppression. We encourage applications from Disabled, Deaf, Sick, Neurodiverse and Mad applicants, applicants who are exploring their own relationship to disability identity, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color applicants, LGBTQIA applicants, and applicants who are women, trans, and gender nonconforming.

About the Internship

The Community Care Cohort internship is an opportunity for undergraduate students to experiment with creating and leading care projects within a supportive environment. Interns will engage deeply with the questions raised in the Community Care Kit Project mission statement.

Interns will learn about different histories and practices of care work, focusing on the disability justice, healing justice and transformative justice movements. As they build a CCC community, Interns will develop skills to map already-existing systems of care, and they will co-create and lead care projects with the DCC. CCC interns will also have the opportunity to apply what they have learned to/engage with guest speakers and participate in Chicago-area care work projects.

During the first semester of the internship, we will focus on three overlapping themes:

1. An exploration of history: disability culture and history, foundations of healing justice, transformative justice, disability justice. Exploring the question “What is care work?”
2. An exploration of self: What do I bring to this work, who am I, what are my gifts?
3. An exploration of community practice: Practice with project design and leading projects (potential projects include leading a skill session, mutual aid project, practice with accompaniment and advocacy, and more).

The CCC Internship is designed to have a two-year structure that CCC interns can choose to continue into. The two-year cycle for the CCC involves:

Year one, fall semester: Exploring

Year one, spring semester: Apprenticing

• After the first semester, Year One CCC interns will utilize their analyses and frameworks from the first semester to apply theory to dreaming up practical explorations of their knowledge.

Year two, fall semester: Leading

Year two, spring semester: Mentoring

• In year two, CCC interns will have the opportunity to participate as co-facilitators for future cohort meetings, take on more sustained care work projects of their own and influence the direction of the CCC internship.