Internship Purpose:
The Family Life Center Intern will work with the Family Life team to assist in implementing the program’s goals of providing holistic, wrap-around, and psycho-social support for families experiencing a child’s illness or injury. The Family Life Center Intern will schedule, conduct, and follow up on family meetings to ensure families are supported with adequate resources during their stay at the Ronald McDonald House. This is an excellent opportunity for a highly organized and motivated social work student to develop skills in supporting families and children experiencing medical crises.
All internships are unpaid positions and are required to be performed in-person at our administrative offices.
Please review our application deadlines below:
Summer semester: April 15, 2024
Fall semester: July 15, 2025
Spring 2025 Semester: November 1, 2025
To apply, please speak with your university field placement coordinator and/or use this form to message your resume and cover letter to April Dickerson, Director of Family Life.
Qualifications:
The ideal candidate for the position should be currently enrolled in a college/university and working towards the completion of a degree in the area of social work. Having some volunteer experience with Ronald McDonald House Charities, with children and families, or in medical-related settings is a plus.
The ideal candidate must also have the following skills or experience:
- Pursuing a Masters of Social Work degree.
- Responsible, flexible, hard-working, ethical, and committed to the mission of RMHCA.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to relate to people of diverse backgrounds.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to handle multiple and diverse tasks.
- Dependable, excellent judgment and demonstrated ability to operate in flexible, team-oriented environment.
- Skilled in Canva, Microsoft Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, and other desktop software programs.
- Prior demonstrated ability to work with families in crisis, preferred.
- Willing to consent to a background check
Essential Functions:
- Work in a positive, nurturing manner with volunteers, community groups, donors, and support staff
- Maintain professional, engaged, supportive, and positive relationships with guest families from initial check-in to check-out and beyond
- Record all family contacts and complete appropriate documentation following each family meeting
- Schedule and host one-on-one family meetings to gather information about the patient and family, with the goal of identifying additional support needs
- Identify opportunities to match families with both material and psycho-social support resources as appropriate
- Provide families with information and resources related to their stay at the Ronald McDonald House
- Promote a successful transition back home through post-stay check-ins, providing resource connections in their local community, and addressing any additional support needs as appropriate
- Elevate family needs to the Director of Family Life and/or the Family Life Coordinator as appropriate
- Research additional resources, activities for families to engage in, and ways to better provide trauma-informed care
- Attend Family Life Program team meetings to implement strategies
Disclaimer:
This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, requirements, efforts, or working conditions associated with the position. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, management reserves the right to revise the position or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (i.e. emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, or technological developments.)
Physical Demands:
- Sits at desk up to 60% of the day
- Near visual acuity essential for reading
- Talking and hearing essential for communication
- Able to lift and transport up to 50 pounds