Job type: Internship 

Job location: Nicaragua (Las Minas or El Hatillo in Matagalpa) or the Dominican Republic (Batey 1, 7, 8, Cuchilla, Blocks de Mena or Batey 9) or Haiti (Terre Froide in Fonds Verrettes)

Salary and benefits: Unpaid. Depending on your professional experience we can discuss covering some or all part of your fees, especially for Boston Public School employees.

Fees: $950-$1050

Commitment hours:  10-15 hours per week in May and June; full time while on the trip (see bellows for more details). For BPS teachers, 4 hours per week in May and June are requested and a minimum of 3-week commitment over the summer.

Job length: 4 Months (for BPS teachers it would be a total of approximately 2 months)

Start date – End date: May 1-June 20^th: Part-time hours, 10-15/week; June 20th – August 18^th (Approximate): Full-time hours.  This is a 24/7 commitment during this time, staff are on-call at all times. However, staff work in teams of 4, and therefore can of course allocate time off accordingly.  August 18^th-September 4^th, Part-time hours, 10-15/week. BPS Teachers have the option of coming only 3 weeks during the summer.

Position reports to: Executive Director, Managing Director, Director of Operations or International Program Director

JOB SUMMARY

• Global Potential seeks energetic social workers, teachers and youth workers to help us lead preparatory workshops for our youth team this May (at least one afternoon a week), and to help accompany and lead the youth team in a field placement for 45 days this summer starting approximately from June 30 to August 18 (either in Nicaragua, or the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
• We are especially interested in individuals that would be interested in staying involved after the summer, as well.
• Bi-lingual (Spanish or Haitian Creole) speakers with experience working and living in developing countries are especially encouraged to apply.

Overall responsibility: 

• As Summer Youth Facilitator, you will facilitate GP’s Summer Program by supporting the youth and guiding them through each stage of participation, both locally and internationally.
• The staff member will also help with curriculum, clinical work with youth, youth development, evaluation, and needs and impact assessments.
• You will be an integral part of the team and the daily life of the youth participants.
• Unlike Summer Youth Facilitators, Community Facilitators will have the opportunity to have a mini Peace Corps experience as they will host community meetings, workshops and activities with youth from their host village.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Run training workshops, type up summaries of trainings, and send out to the team.
• Work closely with GP participants to and provide support for youths’ personal development through weekly individual and group advisory/evaluation meetings.
• Work together as team members and role models with youth on general infrastructure and social development projects in the community, existing projects and new ideas.
• Facilitate participatory dialogue between the community, the NGOs, the youth, and the GP team to ensure empowerment of the community and equal and respectful power dynamic
• Ensure a SAFE and EDUCATIONAL experience for all youth participants.
• Attend conferences, external meetings, or networking events as appropriate.
• Prepare minutes of the meetings and distribute among the staff.
• Work with local and global partners such as Boston Public Schools, IDDI, CEDESO, Peace Corps, World Vision, the local village Development Associations, the Municipal Government.

QUALIFICATIONS (Who we are looking for):

Skills and Knowledge

• Creation and management of groups, teaching and/or facilitating group discussions.
• Experience working with youth and communities that are historically marginalized
• Ability to be both a leader and compatriot to youth participants, an inspiration and a guide
• Experience living in challenging conditions, in rural areas internationally
• Adept interpersonal skills; strength in developing and maintaining relationships with youth, families, community members, GP staff, and partnering agencies
• Self-motivated and capable of working independently as well as with a team

Education: College Degree required (unless significant equivalent experience can be demonstrated), Graduate degree or in process preferred. Appropriate fields include: Social Work, Education, International Development, Counseling Psychology, Anthropology, Film, Social Entrepreneurship (Business), Political Science, other fields may be considered. We are seeking BPS teachers to come on board.

Language skills: A basic level of Spanish (medium fluency) and/or Haitian Creole skills necessary 

Other Work Requirements:

• To adhere to GP’s rules and procedures, including record-keeping requirements and maintaining confidentiality with all GP information and for GP’s participants.
• To meet time and duty commitments, or to provide adequate notice so that alternate arrangements can be made.

Conditions: Global Potential covers all program-related expenses in the field.

• Unless otherwise discussed with your supervisor, such as for Boston Public School employees and those with significant field and/or in-country experience, language fluency, significant experience leading youth volunteers internationally, you will have the responsibility to cover your airfare, room and board, which adds to approximately $950-1000 for the whole summer. Stipends or reduced fees might be available based on your skillsets.
• We work together to find the best solution for you if finding these funds are a challenge, but in the past our staff have had consistent success with getting fellowships, grants, awards, or personal fundraising to easily cover these costs. They have fundraised on crowdsourcing sites too.
• Since GP’s budget is limited to covering most of the expenses for the participants, we work with summer field staff to help find funding through school scholarships and other online opportunities. Social Work, Counseling Psychology or other technical supervision is available to qualified students.
• We are also willing to work with colleges to negotiate credit for your service.

Interested candidates should send cover letter and resume to hr@global-potential.org

Indicate “Summer Facilitator” or “Community Facilitator” in the subject line.

For more information about Global Potential, please feel free to visit our website:  http://www.global-potential.org/ and to read our biannual report here: www.global-potential.org/biennialreport2010-2012.html

GP Alumni Daniel Martinez gets accepted to Harvard College! Daniel is a GP Boston graduate (2009-2010) of GP, went to Nicaragua as a GP youth leader to the community of El Hatillo summer 2010, then came back as GP staff summer 2011 to Batey 7 in the Dominican Republic. He won 2 social venture awards from GP’s partner Ashoka’s Youth Venture for his GP projects on water sanitation and a right to education, and he edited and produced two documentary films on these topics that he filmed in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. He will be graduating this June from high school from the John D O’Bryant High School of Mathematics and Sciences.

Current GP New York leader (2012-2013) Nouhou Barry originally from Conakry, Guinea, was in Haiti and Dominican Republic (Batey 7) this past summer with GP, is graduating in May 2013 from the International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, NY. He is 17 and speaks French, English, and Foulany. He likes to be with his family during his free time and would like to become an engineer. He joined GP for the community service, to travel and learn new cultures and languages.

30 Global Potential Youth, Leaders, Alumni, Staff, Friends and Mentors spend the afternoon on Thompson Island thanks to GP Boston leader Megan DiBiase’s 3rd phase project that she organized: Beach and/or brush clean up/tour and learn about Thompson Island and its opportunities for Boston Youth.

According to Megan DiBiase, Global Potential 3rd phase leader in Boston, Bishop Fenwick High School senior and service expedition organizer, “The trip to Thompson Island will be great exposure for the Boston kids to a beautiful island wilderness, right in their back yard, as well as to all the programs that Thompson Island Education Center makes available to them. It will also be a great opportunity to integrate urban and suburban youth to breakdown stereotypes on both sides.” Adds DiBiase, “Of course it will also be great to give back to Thompson Island by getting the grounds and beaches ready to serve all youth of Boston and enable the teens participating to achieve the community service hours required by their schools.”

“We are thrilled to have a community of young people from urban and suburban schools come together on Thompson Island for a day of service-learning,” said Paul Lamoureux, Vice President of Programs at Thompson Island Outward Bound. “Outward Bound, Global Potential and Bishop Fenwick High School all have a strong tradition of service and the wilderness setting of Thompson Island provides the perfect backdrop for a day of youth bonding and for breaking down stereotypes.”

Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center is a not-for-profit organization that provides outdoor adventure and experiential learning programs for more than 6,500 young people annually, 4,000 of whom are from Boston. Programs are designed to inspire leadership, teamwork and academic achievement, as well as social and environmental responsibility. Located in the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, Thompson Island is one of the largest, most accessible and most ecologically diverse islands in the Park. The 204- acre island has mature forests, meadows, freshwater and marine wetlands, salt marshes and a variety of important geological features. Thompson Island also has a school campus complete with dormitories, dining hall, classrooms, lab space, library.

RSVP on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/137594336388135

http://www.gct.com/Community/Grand-Circle-Gallery/Current-Exhibitions.aspx

Points of View:
Visions of Travel and Community

Opens November 28, 2012

Individual images can evoke cultural and social connotations that extend far beyond the borders of a page. In Points of View, young people from different communities around the world set out to explore self-identification and social inequality through photography and videography. Their pieces document more than 20 youth-led community projects, which deal with cultural identity and social change in Boston and overseas.

High school students who contributed pieces to this provocative exhibit participate in two non-profit organizations that use visual arts as a medium to empower urban youth from low-income communities. Global Potential fosters leadership and social entrepreneurial skills in high-school students around the world. For Points of View, the organization’s students from Boston and New York traveled to rural villages in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic and collaborated on photo- and video-journalism pieces that compare their role in communities at home and abroad.

Students from West End House, an independent Boys and Girls Club in Boston that works with immigrant and urban youth, took a more local look at identity with photographs that focus on diversity, self-perception, and community. The young artists represent nine schools, five neighborhoods, and ten countries.

Visitor Information »

A l’initiative de l’association pour le développement culturel de la jeunesse de Terre-Froide / Fonds Verrettes (Adcjtffv), une trentaine de jeunes provenant des États–Unis d’Amérique, de la Chine, de la République Démocratique du Congo, du Nicaragua, de la France, du Vénézuéla, de la Jamaïque, de la République Dominicaine se sont retrouvés à Terre Froide dans la commune frontalière de Fonds-Verrettes dans l’Ouest d’Haïti.

Ces échanges interculturels ont duré près d’une semaine, soit du 23 au 29 juillet 2012.

Ces jeunes – qui sont membres de l’organisation sociale Global Potencial (GP) – ont réalisé diverses activités, de concert avec les jeunes de la commune notamment, ceux et celles de l’Adcjtffv.

Au programme, figuraient un partage de connaissances sur le compost organique et la conservation du sol, ainsi que la mise en terre de plantules dans la section communale de Terre-Froide.

Durant leur séjour, les jeunes visiteuses et visiteurs ont offert des séances d’anglais et d’espagnol, tout en s’évertuant à leur tour, à retenir des tournures du Créole haïtien.

Des moments de réflexion sur le quotidien des migrantes et migrants haïtiens, de l’autre côté de la frontière, ont porté les participantes et participants à se familiariser avec le travail de Global Potencial dans la république voisine.

« Grâce au travail d’accompagnement et de mise en valeur de la communauté migrante haïtienne, réalisé par l’organisation GP en République Dominicaine, notamment dans les bateyes, nous ne nous sentons plus gênés de dire que nous y vivons », a déclaré Yonei Feliz Cuevas, un Dominicain d’ascendance haïtienne issu d’un batey.

La représentante de GP en République Dominicaine, Nuris Marcul Batista Luis qui, elle aussi vit dans les bateyes, a indiqué que cette organisation sociale et antiraciste travaillera davantage pour que les Dominicaines et Dominicains puissent avoir une nouvelle perception des ressortissantes et ressortissants haïtiens.

« GP organise, de temps à autre, des conférences traitant du racisme et de la discrimination dans les bateyes dominicains. Cela contribue, certes, à diminuer le degré du complexe d’infériorité à nous identifier, mais il reste beaucoup à faire », a-t-elle souligné.

L’Africaine Kichia Mkuba, s’est réjouie de son voyage en terre haïtienne.

« Nous avons beaucoup appris d’ Haïti, durant notre séjour à Terre Froide. Le temps est beau ici, et le côté montagneux nous fait penser également à l’Afrique d’où nous venons », a déclaré Kichia Mkuba.

De son côté, le directeur exécutif de Global Potencial, Franck Cohn, a souligné l’apport de l’organisme à l’encadrement des jeunes durant ses cinq années d’existence.

« Plusieurs jeunes Haïtiens ont déjà bénéficié de bourses d’études à l’étranger, dans le cadre de notre programme d’encadrement à la jeunesse. D’autres sont invités-es, chaque année, à participer dans nos différentes conférences, axées sur des thèmes comme l’éducation, le racisme, la discrimination, et les violations des droits humains ».

En 2013, quatre jeunes Haïtiens vont participer aux conférences de l’organisation Global Potencial, prévues à New York et en République Dominicaine, a indiqué le responsable de l’association pour le développement culturel de la jeunesse de Terre Froide, Paul Jeff Pauliné, également représentant de GP dans la zone.

Global Potencial est une organisation sociale à but non lucratif, fondée à New York en 2007. Elle compte plus de 1,000 membres à travers dix pays, dont Haïti et la République Dominicaine.

Lisane André
Responsable Section Communication & Plaidoyer