Testimonials
Administrative Assistant
Position Details:
Performs diverse, advanced, and confidential administrative support functions including composing, signing, and releasing routine but somewhat complex correspondence. Usually relieves management of administrative details; gathers compiles, and reports information relevant to/for the department; may manage a number of different and often conflicting objectives, projects, or activities.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Performs diverse, advanced and confidential administrative support functions including composing, signing and releasing routine but somewhat complex correspondence
• Usually relieves management of administrative details; gathers, compiles and reports information relevant to/for department; may manage a number of different and often conflicting objectives, projects or activities at one time
• Communicates with executives, board, staff and interns to gather or convey relevant information
• May be involved in high-level client contact and exposure to sensitive information, and must use considerable tact, diplomacy and judgment
• Managing executives’ calendars
• Coordinate executives’ travel plans
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
• Advanced administrative and analytical skills
• Thorough knowledge of a variety of software programs
• Proven experience (3-5 years) as an executive assistant or similar role
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and Power Point), Adobe Acrobat
• Outstanding organizational and time management skills that reflect ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail
pixel art team Internship
position details:
We are seeking a creative Digital Artist with a strong background in pixel art to join our video game development team. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in creating pixel art assets, including sprites, sprite sheets, tilesets, and environment objects, for video game development.
key responsibilities:
Create pixel art assets for our upcoming 2D top-down RPG video game, ensuring they align with the 16-bit art style of the game.
Design and animate a variety of sprites and sprite sheets, including characters, enemies, and interactive elements.
Develop detailed tilesets and environment objects that enhance the game world's immersion and aesthetic appeal.
Collaborate with the game design team to ensure consistency and alignment of art assets with game mechanics and narrative.
Provide creative input and ideas to enhance the visual appeal and gameplay experience.
Qualifications, Credentials, and Technical Skills Required:
Experience in digital art, specifically in pixel art and 16-bit aesthetics.
Portfolio showcasing pixel art assets, including sprites, sprite sheets, tilesets, and environment objects.
Proficiency in pixel art tools and software (e.g., Aseprite, Photoshop).
Passion for video games, particularly RPGs, and an understanding of game design principles.
Curriculum development internship
Position Details:
Witness to Mass Incarceration (WITNESS) is working on a series of curricula/syllabi that offer a radical reimagining of how we address various harms. Power is currently in the hands of people who appear to be openly hostile to the most marginalized in society (Black people, Native people, the poor, LGBTQ+, immigrant communities, and more). Our vision for designing these curricula is one with an awareness of the horrors of the prison system - and the action that awareness demands. The Curriculum Developer will help create the syllabus and lesson plans for these courses as well as curate supplemental materials.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Assist in designing a syllabus for a class on mass incarceration
Find and schedule speakers on each class topic
Find outside resources (readings, films, podcasts, etc.) to accompany each week
Manage instructional materials
Prepare weekly lesson plans
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Excellent organizational skills
Excellent writing and communication skills
Experience in curriculum creation
Education or related major recommended
app Developer
Position Details:
Witness to Mass Incarceration is seeking an intern to create an app that works to grow our program The MAP, a first-of-its-kind online directory of formerly incarcerated-led services and businesses. Out of necessity, many formerly incarcerated people turn to self-employment to sustain themselves. To uplift these organizations, we're working to build public recognition and change the narrative around formerly incarcerated people from criminals waiting to commit their next crime to hardworking entrepreneurs.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Develop an application to go with The MAP project.
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
• Undergraduate (junior or senior) or graduate student
• Flexible and self-motivated
• Detail-oriented, with the ability to prioritize under deadlines
• Understanding of or prior work/volunteer experience in non-profit organizations is preferred
Community Organizer & Community Engagement Team
position details:
We are looking for several individuals to network with and mobilize both the formerly incarcerated community and the public to develop programs and events. Additionally, we’re looking for individuals who are dedicated to their work and to creating an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.
Responsibilities and expected Outcomes:
Work with the Executive Director to identify and meet with members of the formerly incarcerated community
Work with the ED to identify and meet with community leader, community boards in order to make them aware of WITNESS events
Create a platform to form alliances that help with advocacy
Expand formerly incarcerated business base
Assist with fundraising and facilitate voter registration drive
Qualifications, Credentials, and Technical Skills Required:
Prior organizing experience
Prior experience preferred
Must live in NYC
Proficient in Microsoft Office and other digital tools
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Journalist/Copywriter
Position Details:
The Journalist/Copywriter intern will be involved in developing, writing, and editing biographical profiles for a number of formerly incarcerated people. The intern will write copy, edit, and publish these profiles. The Journalist/Copywriter intern will have strong skills in writing, editing, content creation, and nuanced storytelling, as well as the ability to collaborate with a small team of dedicated interns and staff.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Work closely with Witness staff and interns to develop compelling biographical narratives for FIP featured in Witness’ MAP that center these individuals’ voices, narratives, and experiences
• Provide writing and editing support for work related to this project.
• Generate e-newsletter and social media content.
• Monitor pen-pal program
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
• Education or experience in journalism or writing; previous internship experience considered a plus.
• Strong copyediting, research, and writing skills.
• Know-how to produce communications in multiple formats, including digital, print and broadcast.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and attention to detail required.
• Strong organization skills. Ability to effectively manage course load, extra-curricular and internship responsibilities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Willingness to ask questions when in need of direction or clarification.
• Ability and confidence to interact with staff at all levels and external constituents.
• Creativity and passion for philanthropic communications and non-profit marketing. Desire to continue learning and growing.
Indiginous Relations team
Position details:
The Indigenous Relations Team will work closely with the Director of Indigenous Relations and the Executive Director to identify formerly incarcerated Indigenous business leaders
Working with WITNESS staff to find formerly incarcerated (FIP)Indigenous-led services and businesses all over the country.
Researching potential services and businesses through google, newspaper articles and websites
Adding at least 24 listings each week
Work to find nonprofit organizations led by or serving formerly incarcerated Indigenous people
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Coordinate with nonprofit Indigenous organizations, local residents, and civic leaders
Strengthen the grassroots effort to build a quality of life for formerly incarcerated Indigenous people
Work with stakeholders and community leaders to identify people for The MAP Project
Lead the community outreach and education efforts to engage community members
Assist the coalition with the planning and facilitation of community events
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Possess excellent interpersonal, written and communication skills.
Indigenous individual is preferred
Demonstrated experience facilitating community organization campaigns.
Ability to work with diverse stakeholder, including community residents, community leaders, elected officials and city and state representative
Illustrator/Cartoonist
Position Details:
The Illustrator/Cartoonist intern will provide robust support for a new storytelling/comic program at WITNESS that centers the narratives and voices of formerly incarcerated people (FIP). The intern will help develop concepts, design, and illustration into a finished product with both art and copy. The Illustrator/Cartoonist intern will have strong creative abilities, technical proficiency, and nuanced storytelling skills, as well as the ability to collaborate with a small team of dedicated interns and staff.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Collaborate with a small team to develop illustrations, graphics, and structure for the comic strip
• Provide artistic direction, design leadership and support for this program.
• Generate an artistically nuanced and graphically coherent final product, the comic strip, that incorporates the lived experiences, narratives, and voices of the FIP featured.
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
• Education or experience in illustration, graphic design, and writing; previous internship experience considered a plus.
• Strong design, writing, illustration and research skills. Graphic design, video and HTML/content management experience preferred.
• Proficiency in manual drawing, coloring, as well as facility with Adobe Creative Suite software (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign)
• Know-how to produce communications in multiple formats, including digital, print, and video.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and attention to detail required.
• Strong organization skills. Ability to effectively manage course load, extra-curricular and internship responsibilities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Willingness to ask questions when in need of direction or clarification.
• Ability and confidence to interact with staff at all levels and external constituents.
• Creativity and passion for philanthropic communications and non-profit marketing. Desire to continue learning and growing.
Filmmaker/Editor
Position Details:
Witness to Mass Incarceration (WITNESS) is seeking a filmmaking/editing intern to assist in working on the WITNESS Digital Library to make short films and videos about incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, and mass incarceration. The WITNESS Digital Library has interviews of life before, during, and after incarceration for formerly incarcerated individuals, and we are looking for a talented individual to comb through complex narratives to find and capture engaging, impactful moments/stories in the short films and features they produce. We pride ourselves in our interviews and on pursuing these unique, compelling stories for a wide audience.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Listen to our library interviews and develop storylines for short films
Produce short-form video features
Oversee pre and post-production
Accurately represent and tell the stories of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, and help to change the narrative surrounding them through shepherding ideas from initial concept through creative development and production.
Provide thoughtful ideas or insights on how to better bring these idea to life
Clear communication and collaboration skills
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Experience in telling and producing compelling stories through film
Some prior experience in filmmaking or editing is a must
Experience in/willingness to learn about researching and developing concepts for potential series, including storytelling and collaborations
Ability to bring complex narratives to life simply and beautifully
Ability to juggle multiple projects in a fast-paced but supportive environment
video game team internship
position details:
INdividual donors team
Position Details:
Knowledge about trends in relations to individual donor engagement.
Build an individual donor database platform
Develop long term relationship between WITNESS and its key constituencies which would result in substantial and prolonged financial support for WITNESS
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Work with ED to manage the drafting gift proposals; acknowledgement letters and other correspondence on behalf of senior administration; gift acceptance documentation;and other donor-related documentation as needed
Participate in coordination and standardization of donor recognition signage
Work with ED to ensure appropriate and timely stewardship reports for major amd principal gifts, particularly those related to endowed funds and campaign initiatives.
Collaborate with the Special Events team to plan and implement select high-level cultivation/stewardship
Oversee, develop and/or manage content , production and distribution of print and digital media publications, including, but not limited to, articles, broadcast emails, invitations, brochures, flyers, newsletters, websites and any other print or online content for WITNESS
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Excellent oral, written communication, and organizational skills
Able to think strategically about marketing and communications
Superior attention to detail
Ability to set clear priorities, complete complex projects and manage time well.
Strong interpersonal and organizational skills, as well as creativity and resourcefulness
Intern/Volunteer Coordinator
Position Details:
An Intern and Volunteer Coordinator helps organize all aspects of volunteering and interning, from recruiting new volunteers and interns, to managing intern and volunteer projects, to keeping track of intern schedules. This person is responsible for creating and maintaining an organized volunteer and internship schedule.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Reviews and approves internship applications
Helps interns refine internship goals
Keeps track of intern hours and responsibilities
Meets with interns on a recurring basis to check progress
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Experience managing interns or volunteers
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Excellent organizational and team-building skills
1-3 years of volunteer experience
web development internship
communications, marketing, and social media internship
Position Details:
The marketing and communications interns will provide support to Witness through writing, material development, event planning, research and evaluation. The interns will help to develop and implement communications strategies and materials that engage Witness members and prospective members; promote collaboration among a broad spectrum of stakeholder groups and raise awareness of Witness to Mass Incarceration within the broader community.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Develop content for social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Volunteer Match, and other digital platforms.
• Provide on-site/ virtual event support and assist the team with event planning and community relations. This includes speaking with members of our programs.
• Generate e-newsletter and social media content.
• Monitor pen-pal program
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
• Education or experience in public relations, communications or marketing; previous internship experience considered a plus.
• Strong writing, proofreading, social media and research skills. Graphic design, video and HTML/content management experience preferred. Special event experiences are a plus.
• Know-how to produce communications in multiple formats, including digital, print and broadcast.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and attention to detail required.
• Strong organization skills. Ability to effectively manage course load, extra-curricular and internship responsibilities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Willingness to ask questions when in need of direction or clarification.
• Ability and confidence to interact with staff at all levels and external constituents.
• Creativity and passion for philanthropic communications and non-profit marketing. Desire to continue learning and growing.
Development Internship
Position Details:
Witness to Mass Incarceration is seeking an intern to assist with grant writing and fundraising activities. This opportunity is excellent for an individual seeking to gain more experience in grant and funding research, writing, and planning activities for a nonprofit organization. The intern will work in collaboration with Witness’ Founder to draft compelling grant proposals, among other activities.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
• Draft compelling grant proposals and conduct relevant research and data analysis for the proposals
• Identify, through research, public and private grant and corporate sponsorship opportunities for the legal programs within the organization
• Develop program summaries, outlining how each of our programs are run for funders
• Assist grant writer in maintaining the annual grantmaking calendar
• Assist in preparing donor materials, including packets, thank-you letters, and processing incoming donations
• Be a part of the planning and execution of fundraising campaigns, appeals, and events
Qualifications, Credentials, and Technical Skills Required:
• Undergraduate (junior or senior) or graduate student with experience in English and/or Communications
• Excellent writing, verbal, proofreading, editing, and professional phone and email communication is required
• Flexible and self-motivated
• Detail-oriented, with the ability to prioritize under deadlines
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products, specifically Word and Excel, as well as Internet search tools
• Previous experience in research and/or grant writing
• Previous experience in event planning is preferred
• Understanding of or prior work/volunteer experience in non-profit organizations is preferred
Special events/Convening internship
Position Details:
The Special Events/Convening Intern will assist in planning and executing a wide variety of events, including our annual Suitcase Sunday event, which brings together formerly incarcerated people (FIP) their families, more than 50 FIP-led services and businesses, a diverse group of congregations and religious organizations, community-based organizations, local and municipal governments and other supporters to celebrate the success FIP have had since being released from prison. This intern will also play a key role in supporting our events and marketing programs. The role will also support the marketing team by providing assistance with events management, execution, communication and design.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Assist in ensuring proactive planning, communication and scheduling of a wide variety of events
Assist in the program content development for events, solicit sponsors, create and coordinate the drafting/distribution of promotional materials, etc.
Assist in managing registration for all events and programs
Work with the marketing team to plan and execute all marketing activities necessary to ensure successful events
Monitor the special events content on the website and social media sites to ensure they are updated
Secure equipment and rentals as needed, set-up, tear-down, and help coordination of overall event execution
Assist with guest follow-up
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Excellent organizational and time management skills required
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Experience in event planning
Newsletter team internship
position details:
TBA
Voter Registration Coordinator
Position Details:
Witness to Mass Incarceration's (WITNESS) voter registration initiative is designed to register incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people (FIP) to vote and to Get Out The Vote (GOTV). We have worked to register our FIP for several election cycles. We are looking to hire a volunteer coordinator to work with our staff and interns in building our capacity to do in-person, phone banking, and texting voter registration.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Organize and lead outreach events for the purpose of registering new incarcerated and formerly incarcerated voters
Organize and promote a social media campaign to encourage voter registration among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people
Organize voter registration drives throughout the city, coordinating staff, interns, partners, and volunteers to execute successful events.
Coordinate pop up events and in-person door knocking
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Experience in civic engagement
Excellent organizational skills required
Strong interpersonal skills and attention to detail required
Ability and willingness to coordinate groups of volunteers/interns
Social media knowledge is required
Phone banking experience is a plus
Economic Development for Formerly Incarcerated Services and Business Owners
Position Details:
Through the building of economic mobility and stability for formerly incarcerated people, our project provides outreach, awareness, and visibility to the most marginalized and vulnerable populations in our nation. Systematically oppressed and denied opportunities for independence and generational wealth, formerly incarcerated people struggle to break free of the justice system often with little success. Witness initiative The MAP Project embraces cultural inclusivity and the advancement of FIP-led services and businesses through promotion, advocacy, and storytelling.
Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes:
Working with WITNESS staff to find formerly incarcerated (FIP)-led services and businesses all over the country. We have a special focus on FIP Indigenous business owners
Researching potential services and businesses through google, newspaper articles and websites
Adding at least 24 listings each week
Qualifications, Credentials and Technical Skills required:
Dedicated to a detail-oriented project
May be involved in high-level client contact and exposure to sensitive information, and must use considerable tact, diplomacy and judgment
Proficient in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), Adobe Acrobat
Outstanding organizational and time management skills that reflect ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail