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Careers and Internships

CURRENT OPENINGS:

  • No current openings

ABOUT LORI’S HANDS:

An older adult is diagnosed with congestive heart failure during a hospital stay and is discharged to her home, where she lives alone. Her newly prescribed medications are effective when she takes them, but she is often unable to find a ride to the pharmacy to pick them up. The hospital dietitian taught her to follow a low-sodium diet, but she is not able to follow it at home because she can’t stand at the stove long enough to prepare fresh foods; instead, she relies on microwavable meals. She was active in her community for many years but is now homebound and experiencing isolation due to mobility and transportation limitations.

We train college student volunteers to fill these gaps. Our students make weekly home visits to support community members with instrumental activities of daily living made difficult by chronic illness. Our student volunteers visit our clients – people living with diagnoses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, heart failure, pulmonary disease, and diabetes – to help with grocery shopping, yardwork, housework, meal preparation, and navigating community resources.

Our program is based on a reciprocal model of support: Our students assist their clients with everyday activities and, in turn, clients provide students with the unique opportunity to learn about health, illness, and aging in the community from people with lived experience. Our clients and students offer each other meaningful companionship, in many cases keeping in touch long after a student’s service-learning experience and even after their time as a college student. A client once told us that the week her Lori’s Hands students started visiting was the week “all of the windows and doors flew open and the sun started streaming in.” As one student put it, “We’re both there for companionship.”

Lori’s Hands builds mutually beneficial partnerships between community members with chronic illness and college students, fostering empathy, connection, and resilience. Students provide practical assistance to support community members’ independence at home, and community members share their health and life experiences to support students’ learning. Lori’s Hands was founded at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware in 2009 and grew from a volunteer-led initiative to a professionally staffed organization in 2017. Today, our college student volunteers support more than 150 clients via weekly visits through three Lori’s Hands chapters: one in Newark, Delaware, one in Baltimore, Maryland, and one in Metro Detroit, Michigan.

Lori’s Hands has been recognized with a Jefferson Award for Public Service and the Delaware Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award, in popular media including PBS’s Next Avenue, USA Today, and WYPR, and through state and federal contracts including the inaugural round of Community Care Corps funding. The program is evidence-based, with research demonstrating benefit for both students and clients.

Lori’s Hands is committed to expanding in a sustainable manner that fosters generational, socioeconomic, and racial equity. We intentionally look to learn from and build partnerships with existing community organizations in order to support safe, effective, and connected aging in place for community members. We are thrilled to build on our work in Delaware, Baltimore, and Metro Detroit and to bring our program to additional communities in the future through our continued expansion. As health systems become increasingly attuned to the social and practical needs of their patients, our partnership offers them an opportunity to provide what they provide well – clinical services – and to coordinate rather than directly provide services they value but are not prepared to offer – non-medical home and community-based services. Long-term, we aim to disrupt the current support service sector for older Americans by meaningfully connecting healthcare and social services through a cost-effective, person-centered method that has never before been tried. We envision Lori’s Hands becoming a national program known for best practices in community health service learning.

Learn more about our organization in our clients’ and students’ own words:

LORI’S HANDS SCHOLARS INTERNSHIP

Purpose: The Lori’s Hands Scholars program supports individuals who are BIPOC, Pell Grant recipients, and/or first generation college students in pursuing their academic and professional goals. Through a tailored internship experience, scholars will gain experience in nonprofit operations, program development, and community engagement. Scholars will learn about and contribute to the work of Lori’s Hands by providing in-home support for people living with chronic illness. They will support the growth of the organization through student recruitment, community outreach, and training development and enhancement. 

Scholars will have the distinct privilege of spearheading a significant and high-impact special project dedicated to advancing health equity within our chapter communities. This opportunity reflects our commitment to fostering meaningful change and welcomes your perspective to drive this important initiative forward. With the support of Lori’s Hands Chapter Managers and Program Director, students will identify project aims that are in alignment with Lori’s Hands’ broader goal to meet the diverse needs of the chapter community. Sample project ideas include:

  • Researching community demographics to identify underserved groups, 
  • Researching campus demographics to identify under-engaged student groups,
  • Identifying new program initiatives so Lori’s Hands can better meet the needs of underserved community groups,
  • Identifying new program initiatives so Lori’s Hands can better meet the needs of underserved students,
  • Developing strategies to recruit underrepresented clients and/or students, or
  • Developing strategies to evaluate program impact among diverse student and/or client groups

Time Commitment: Each Lori’s Hands Scholar will dedicate 10-15 hours per week to Lori’s Hands. The scholar will work in both community (i.e., client homes, neighborhood meetings) and administrative (i.e., partner organization meetings, Zoom meetings) settings. 

Responsibilities: Specific responsibilities may vary and are dependent upon the students’ learning goals and Lori’s Hands’ needs. Responsibilities may include:

  • Provide direct support to Lori’s Hands clients through weekly visits. Engage in relationship-building activities to build rapport and provide companionship. Assess clients’ needs at each point of contact and identify appropriate community resources as needed.
  • Lead a special project that will include goal-setting, planning, research, stakeholder interviews, progress tracking, recommendations, and a final report
  • Meet with local leaders and Lori’s Hands leadership and review data/reports to understand the needs of the community and existing participant enrollment and outreach efforts in order to develop targeted outreach plans
  • Support Chapter Manager with client and student recruitment and enrollment, client and student evaluation, and data collection and management
  • Support the planning and implementation of trainings and events to promote connection and learning between and among students and clients.
  • Additional administrative duties as assigned

Skills & Experience:

  • Strong and effective writer and verbal communicator
  • Prior success working closely and building relationships with diverse groups of people
  • Highly organized, self-motivated, and ability to manage complex projects independently
  • Demonstrated interest in working with older adults or individuals living with chronic illness
  • Experience using word processing and data management software to manage projects preferred but not required

Benefits: 

  • Meet and network with local leaders in field of interest
  • Enhanced communication skills with older adults and people with chronic illnesses
  • Insight into community and public health and the US healthcare system
  • Experience managing projects independently and involvement in nonprofit operations
  • Confidence in conducting community outreach and engaging with professionals in the healthcare and older adult services fields
  • Experience in volunteer recruitment and support
  • Mentorship through regular supervisory meetings with the Lori’s Hands Chapter Manager, Program Director, Executive Director, Board President, and other members of the Lori’s Hands team to improve professional development
  • Network of fellow scholars and program alumni to support further academic and professional advancement
  • Lori’s Hands t-shirt
  • Monetary stipend, travel reimbursement
    • 8 month/335 hour internship (Baltimore & Metro Detroit): $6,750 paid in 4 installments
    • 4 month/175 hour internship (Baltimore): $3,500 paid in 3 installments 
    • Intern will be required to, with the support of the Chapter Manager, develop a budget for travel during the internship.
  • Access to Lori’s Hands Sunny Day Fund (client benefit fund) to address client unmet needs 

Requirements:

  • Successful completion of a criminal background check 
  • Successful completion of Lori’s Hands’ training and enrollment 
  • Currently enrolled and in good standing as an undergraduate or graduate student at a partner academic institution
  • A computer, phone, and internet access (if this is a barrier, please still apply and let us know during the interview process so we can discuss opportunities to get you access to what you’ll need)
  • Reliable transportation to attend client visits and community meetings/events 
  • BIPOC, Pell Grant recipient, and/or first generation college student
  • Demonstrated interest in career field related to organization’s mission

Service Area: The Lori’s Hands Scholar will work in Baltimore City, MD and Metro Detroit, MI. The scholar will be attending events and visiting community members in their homes and will be responsible for finding their own transportation. Lori’s Hands will reimburse the scholar for program-related travel according to the budget developed at the outset of the internship.

The application for the Lori’s Hands Scholar program is currently closed. To inquire about additional opportunities to get involved with Lori’s Hands, contact us or sign up to participate.

Lori’s Hands is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to diversity includes the recognition that our mission is best advanced by contributions of people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects the diverse community that we serve is a priority, and we encourage applicants of all ages, cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, national or regional origins, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or other status protected by law.