Fellowship Placement Sites

ArtVan is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote equity and accessibility by delivering mobile art therapy for transformational healing to people in the communities where they live. At no cost to ArtVan's 15 neighborhoods, they provide yearlong safe, creative, feedback-oriented environment for youth and families living in under-resourced housing. Led by an art therapist and behavioral health professional, ArtVan provides year-round quality therapeutic arts program for youth of all ages, gender, religious background, and abilities without access to social services and recreational activities.

Fellows projects may include:

• Partaking in 80% programmatic work: meaning direct services and all planning, materials preparation, and follow up.
• 20% operations, working with the Executive Director and Event Coordinator on summer events (ArtWalks, ArtBars) and assist with program documentation.
• As summer proceeds the fellow will design their own project to implement with a neighborhood program week. This project will be based on the academic and personal goals and interests of the particular student. 
• The fellow will attend all staff meetings and any other community collaborations ArtVan may be involved with for the summer.

Skills Needed: This position requires the fellow to be self-directed, open-minded, a good time manager, comfortable with ones own creativity (does not necessarily need to be an "Artist" or have an art background), able to work with a small team, flexible to adjust to a busy summer schedule that may not necessarily be Monday - Friday 9 - 5, but may be required to assist in an evening and/or Saturday event, and balance their schedule for time off and self-care. This fellow also needs to be comfortable working alongside youth of all ages, mental health, and abilities and willing to take healthy risks to discover and grow in their own personal and academic journey.

This position will be mostly in-person but may require/provide limited remote flexibility.

Greater Portland Family Promise supports immigrant families experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness by helping them achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response. They serve parents and children in need of safe housing, stabilization support, food assistance, and access to essential resources. Through programs such as transitional housing, housing navigation, benefits access, move-in support, financial and food assistance, education and employment support, and volunteer-powered family support, they ensure every family has a safe home and the opportunity to build a better future.

Fellows projects may include:

• A student fellow could support a 10-week project focused on GPFP's ongoing program activities, including housing navigation (application support, leasing assistance), move-in support (furniture, kitchenware, cleaning supplies, and toiletries), monthly food distributions, and direct engagement with families at community events.
• Students may also assist families with benefits access (GA, SNAP, TANF, MaineCare, WIC) and support educational and employment goals for children and adults.
• Fellows will build meaningful relationships with families, provide mentorship and community support, and may shadow case managers during home visits to understand how GPFP delivers comprehensive housing stabilization, advocacy, and tenant education. This hands-on experience provides an immersive understanding of the organization’s holistic approach to preventing homelessness and supporting long-term family stability.

Skills Needed: GPFP is seeking students who are compassionate and eager to work directly with families and our staff. Strong communication skills, the ability to work independently and collaboratively, and a willingness to learn are essential. Experience with community engagement or family support is helpful but not required; most importantly, we value students who are motivated to contribute meaningfully to our mission and help families achieve stability and independence.

This position will be 50% in person and 50% remote.

Hope Acts offers asylum seekers access to housing and basic needs, assistance in navigating complex immigration processes, and resources for learning English to help them successfully transition to a new life in Maine. Hope Acts works with individuals and families. They help people access basic needs (housing, food, medical, etc.) and offer asylum and work permit clinics to assist asylum seekers through these complex processes. They also provide English and digital literacy classes.

Fellows projects may include:

• The summer fellow will primarily work in Hope Acts' office (in Portland) with individual clients to assist them in completing paperwork and online forms, understanding immigration status, and helping walk-in clients with a variety of needs. Interns will be supported by Hope Acts staff and experienced volunteers and interpreters. Recently, our work has included assisting individuals and families impacted by ICE detention.
• Special projects could include creating social media, assisting with an English classes or developing client education materials.

Skills Needed: Hope Acts welcomes students who have a passion for social justice and who are interested in learning about social safety net programs and the asylum process in the U.S. Any level of French, Portuguese, or Spanish would be helpful, but not required. Students with experience working with people one-on-one, especially those from other countries and cultures, could be a good fit for our organization. Anyone interested in learning about the asylum process and immigration in general would be a good match for Hope Acts.

Hope Acts' best interns have been eager to learn, and they have a passion for helping others. Students interested in working with a multicultural, supportive team and meeting people from different parts of the world will benefit from this internship.

This position will be mostly in-person but may require/provide limited remote flexibility.

The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) is the only non-profit organization that provides comprehensive immigration legal services in Maine. They work with low-income clients seeking humanitarian forms of immigration relief. ILAP provides legal consultations, legal representation and limited self-help assistance directly to clients. They are also involved in policy and advocacy work on a variety of state and federal issues affecting immigrants in Maine.

Fellows projects may include:

• The Bowdoin fellow will assist in staffing ILAP's legal clinics and walk-ins.
• The fellow will support the work of ILAP’s direct legal services team in carrying out legal work on behalf of our clients. The fellow will likely have the opportunity to assist ILAP clients in filling out immigration forms.
• A fellow with relevant language skills may be involved in providing interpretation and document translation support.
• In addition, ILAP expects the fellow to help provide back-up coverage at their front desk as needed.

Skills Needed: ILAP would like a fellow who has ability to work with individuals from different cultures and with limited English proficiency, as well as a fellow who is detailed oriented.

Since most of ILAP's clients have limited English proficiency, they usually work with interpreters during our meetings, so having a student who is fluent in at least one of the languages used by most of ILAP's clients: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Lingala, would be beneficial. 

This is an exclusively in-person fellowship opportunity with no remote work.

Independence Association is a non-profit organization located in Brunswick, whose mission is to support children and adults with intellectual disabilities to achieve full and inclusive lives in their chosen communities. The agency services include residential support options, employment supports, case management, and community support programs.

Fellows projects may include:

The ideal candidate for this fellowship would be a student that wants to spend time with adults with intellectual disabilities at two of Independence Association's community support locations in Brunswick.

• One of these locations is Spindleworks, an art program where they offer guidance to artists with disabilities to find their creative voice in a variety of art mediums of their choice. A student could self-design their project and spend a good portion of their time at this location at 7-9 Lincoln St.
• The other project would be to support the organization's Community Vision community supports program with finding inclusive opportunities and collaborations.
  
  

Skills Needed: Independence Association is looking for a creative, motivated, self-directed student that is looking to foster relationships with individuals with disabilities that we support. The qualified candidate should have passionate around making community collaborations as well as empathetic.

This position will be an exclusively in-person experience.

The Merrymeeting Gleaners serve as a connection between community members and area farms, making nutritious, local produce available to folks for whom it would otherwise be cost prohibitive. Much of this work involves harvesting excess produce from farms, packing it and making it available through the MCHPP Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen as well as through their deliveries to Sharing Tables and other adjacent organizations. The work relies heavily on volunteer support and collaboration from local farms, libraries and other non profits.

**This fellowship site requires their fellow to have use of a personal vehicle throughout the summer. Thanks to a fellowship donor, the McKeen Center will reimburse the fellow for mileage however.** 

Fellows projects may include:

• The student would be participating in and leading harvests at their partner farms as well as leading produce packing shifts in which volunteers pack the produce for delivery to other organizations.
• Some regular administrative work includes data entry, volunteer emails and organization tasks.
• In terms of broader projects, the student will work on producing communication materials for the gleaners including, maps of farm partnership/sharing tables, social media posts and items for volunteer recruitment.
• The Gleaners also play a leading role in the fledgling Maine Gleaning Network and the student will lend miscellaneous support to this effort creating graphics/communication materials as well as doing some internal communication.

Skills Needed: Merrymeeting Gleaners is looking for a student who wants to be challenged and is comfortable being put in a leadership position amidst groups of volunteers. The work can be fast-paced, fluid, and full of unexpected developments so we benefit a lot when the student has an eye for organization and is able to remain composed when things change on the fly. After the first few weeks, the supervisor is not always immediately to answer questions, so it is important that they both have a level of self-reliance and that they establish relationships with other coworkers who can support them as needed. It is not important that they have farm/gardening experience as long as they are excited to learn.

This is an exclusively in-person fellowship opportunity with no remote work.

Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (MCHPP) is located in Brunswick, Maine and is the largest hunger relief and prevention agency in the midcoast region. Their mission is to offer dignity and empowerment by providing all members of our community with access to healthy food. MCHPP operates two facilities, their Food Access Center which includes a Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry and their Warehouse and Administrative Facility includes their Food Bank, Neighborhood Delivery Programs, Community Kitchen, and Gleaning Program. They serve communities in Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox, and Waldo counties. Last year they provided 1.2 million meals to neighbors in need. 

Fellows projects may include:

This student will most likely be helping to assist MCHPP's Food Pantry Manager with our OrderAhead Program which uses an online ordering platform for households to pre-order groceries for pick up at our Food Pantry:

• Manage, train, supervise, and schedule OrderAhead volunteers
• Ensure volunteer staffing levels meet daily needs, and cover gaps in volunteer staffing as needed
• Communicate regularly with the Food Bank and Satellite teams, as well as the Food Pantry Manager, to ensure adequate food supply for OrderAhead
• Maintain the OrderAhead database and inventory and support satellite OrderAhead coordinators
• Provide monthly and as needed OrderAhead reports to the Food Pantry Manager and Program Director
• Engage with clients to help them understand and access the services provided by MCHPP and communicate other possible resources to clients
  

Skills Needed: MCHPP needs a fellow who has comfort working with a diverse and underserved community. They should be a great communicator and problem solver. Enthusiasm for working in a dynamic environment and with a diverse group of people, and a passion for food justice are important. They should have the ability and desire to coordinate the administrative tasks, people management, and food handling needs of a commercial kitchen operation

This position will be mostly in-person but may require/provide limited remote flexibility.

People Plus is the organization that builds community. It offers classes and recreational activities to an audience of all ages. People Plus operates a youth program called the Brunswick Area Teen Center. This is a drop in program that provides meals top more than 40 students per day as well as a myriad of structured and unstructured programming for teens.

Fellowship Description: A Bowdoin Fellow working with People Plus would predominantly work with the Brunswick Area Teen Center's Summer Adventure Program. Students would help plan trips, clubs, and activities throughout the summer and assist the center in advertising it's programming to a wider audience. Students would also support the meal program at the Teen Center and the weekly Monday Munchies program at People Plus.

Skills Needed: People Plus is looking for someone comfortable engaging with youth between the ages of 12 and 18. Experience designing flyers and outreach material would also be beneficial.  

This position will be mostly in-person but may require/provide limited remote flexibility.

Together with its community partners, the Portland Housing Authority (PHA) provides and expands affordable housing and services that improve quality of life, build community, enhance safety and promote personal success for the people they serve and the neighborhoods in which they reside. The constituents of the Portland Housing Authority are about 3,000 low-income households (around 6,000 individuals) in Greater Portland. 1,867 are youth, 1,267 are elderly, 2,190 are disabled, 1,7867 are BIPOC, and 80% live off less than 20% of Area Median Income for their household size. Approximately 2/3rds of their public housing families have a country of origin other than the United States. The primary work of PHA is to is to provide safe and affordable subsidized housing to families, though their robust Resident Services Department works to create and partner with programs and services to address the barriers individuals face to asset building and self-sufficiency. This fellowship works with Resident Services on direct service youth development work during the summer months.

Fellows projects may include:

• The Fellow will work with our summer youth leadership and job skills development program known as the CHEETA project. Neighborhood youth enrolled in CHEETA will identify community needs and design and implement projects to address the challenges in their neighborhoods. The fellow works directly with staff mentors and youth to follow project planning steps and facilitate reflections with the students on skill development. The fellow is a lynch pin to the program providing a big picture connection to overall skill development and collaboration/cooperative support between different neighborhood groups.
• The fellow will also work with staff to create end of program activities around resume creation, money management, and/or job interview preparation for youth.

Skills Needed: PHA hopes to find a fellow with an interest in youth development, counseling, or education for teens. Though creativity and problem-solving skills are essential, the ability to foster those skills in others is a must. Facilitation skills, goal setting, teamwork, adaptability, cultural competency, and time management skills are preferred. Any previous work, academic, or volunteer experience with youth may be helpful but is not required. Experience with social media would allow us to share our work with a broader audience.

Personal transportation is a plus but not required - PHA is accessible by Breez bus and carpool as well.

This is an exclusively in-person fellowship opportunity with no remote work.

The mission of Preble Street is to provide accessible, barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty and to advocate for solutions to these problems. Driven by its 50-year mission, Preble Street has continuously responded to urgent and emergent social problems by meeting basic needs, developing and implementing solutions, and advocating for policies that eliminate the root causes of homelessness, hunger, and poverty.

The Advocacy Team pursues systemic solutions to the social, economic, and political conditions that have historically perpetuated our society's inequities. Their advocacy work includes community organizing, policy advocacy, and systems advocacy.

Fellows projects may include: The scope of Preble Street’s Advocacy work is broad and dynamic. They would love to work with a Fellow to develop a project that aligns with their specific skills and interests. Some of the projects that a Fellow may work on include:

• Longest Day of Homelessness/Summer Solstice Event – Each summer, Homeless Voices for Justice (HVJ) hosts the Longest Day of Homelessness event on the summer solstice to draw attention to the ongoing dangers and difficulties of homelessness on the longest day of the year. The Fellow will work with the Advocacy Team Leader to produce marketing materials for the event and coordinate with partner organizations.
• Gather input from individuals experiencing homelessness and/or food insecurity who are utilizing our services – The Fellow will have the opportunity to obtain this information through focus groups and surveys. Preble Street expects the fellow to assist with coordinating these efforts, interpreting the data, and presenting the findings. The findings from this research will inform their food production goals and strategy for Maine’s 133rd legislative session.
• HVJ newsletter – The HVJ newsletter is published every six months to update the community on HVJ's projects and priorities. The Fellow will work with the Advocacy Team Leader and the Advocates to organize and edit the summer edition of the newsletter.
• You Don’t Need a Home to Vote Campaign – Every year, HVJ organizes a “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” campaign to educate individuals experiencing homelessness about their right to vote. As part of this campaign, HVJ hosts candidate forums, which provide an opportunity for people experiencing homelessness to ask questions of candidates running for office. The Fellow will conduct voter registration at Preble Street locations and assist with preparations for the fall portions of this campaign.

Skills Needed: Preble Street is looking for a fellow who is compassionate, organized, and able to work in a fast-paced environment. Advocacy work at Preble Street calls for understanding and positive regard for individuals experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, and poverty. Prior experience in social services or public policy settings is beneficial but not required. An ideal candidate for this position will have strong written and verbal communication skills, be a critical thinker, and be able to work collaborately and independently. The Advocacy Team will support the Fellow weekly in both a staff team meeting and one-on-one supervision with the Advocacy Team Leader.

This position will be mostly in-person but may require/provide limited remote flexibility.

The Telling Room empowers youth through writing and shares their voices with the world. Focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, the Telling Room seeks to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for their students. They believe that the power of creative expression can change their communities and prepare their youth for success, both now and in the future.

Fellows projects may include: The fellow will work alongside Telling Room Teaching Artists during their Summer camps. Telling Room camps run Monday through Friday from 8:30a-4:30p and cover a variety of ages and genres. Fellows will learn how to create an engaging writing curriculum and activities. The fellow will support the teaching artist with supervising students, working one-on-one with students, leading small group work and activities, communicating with parents and Telling Room staff, assisting with the set-up and breakdown of the classroom each day, and helping prepare snacks & lunch. Interns will be encouraged to hone their teaching skills by implementing their own lessons, games, and activities.

Skills Needed: Fellows should have an interest in education and a passion for The Telling Room’s mission. The fellow should have some experience working with children and the ability to take initiative and respond to needs within the classroom.

This is an exclusively in-person fellowship opportunity with no remote work.

Tree Street Youth is a Lewiston-based community of youth and adults who use their diverse lived experiences and collective empowerment to co-create youth-centered programs and partnerships that encourage leadership, learning, exploration, and growth. Located in the heart of Lewiston's downtown tree streets neighborhood, Tree Street Youth serves youth ages 4-24 through a varied ecosystem of afterschool, school-integrated, and workforce programming.

**This fellowship site requires their fellow to have use of a personal vehicle throughout the summer since Lewiston is not accessible by public transportation or bicycle. The fellow would be responsible for their own transportation costs.** 

Fellows projects may include:

• Tree Street Youth offers free, summer day camp programs for youth aged pre-k through 8th grade. Summer fellows with Tree Street Youth will be assisting our staff to facilitate summer camp activities including arts and sports enrichment activities, and novel experiences/field trips.
• Student fellows will gain insight into Tree Street Youth's unique approach to community-based youth development and our use of restorative practices to address conflict and harm in our community.

Skills Needed: An ideal student fellow will have experience working with elementary and middle-school aged youth, particularly through play and experiential learning activities. Students with an interest in community and youth development, restorative justice, or early-childhood education are encouraged to apply.

This is an exclusively in-person fellowship opportunity with no remote work.