ILR High Road Ithaca Fellowship
Center for Transformative Action

ILR High Road New York is statewide program that aims to teach ILR students practical methods for civic & community engagement and leadership. The High Road Ithaca Program offers students paid community engaged internships with partner organizations committed to social and environmental justice, diversity and equity, access and education in Ithaca and surrounding areas during the fall or spring semesters. Students work 5-10 hours a week and participate in critical reflection activities throughout the semester.

The Center for Transformation Action (CTA) helps create communities that are socially just, ecologically sound and that work for everyone through its educational programs and by supporting over 35 system-changing projects with incubator and fiscal sponsorship services. Projects are in Ithaca, NYC, and some that work at the national level. They address a wide range of issue areas and use different modalities, but all of them work to transform the structures, as well as the habits of mind, that produce inequities in our communities, country and the world. Their courage, innovative thinking, and heartcentered approach show us what is possible. CTA supports change makers with the tools to build thriving, inclusive communities that work for everyone. CTA serves our projects, the public, and Cornell University by offering educational programs and strategic organizational resources. CTA employs over 65 people across all our projects.

Fiscal sponsorship is a common means by which individuals and organizations can start new, nonprofit programs without establishing a separate 501(c)3 organization.This alternative allows changemakers to seek grants and solicit tax-deductible donations under our taxexempt status. As the fiscal sponsor, CTA takes on the legal and fiduciary responsibility for our projects, which means that CTA is the employer, CTA manages the bookkeeping and accounting, holds the liability insurance, develops and signs all contracts, and pay all the bills for CTA projects, and accept all grants and donations.

Fellows at CTA will work on all/any of the following opportunities:

1. We are seeking an intern who can build on the social media development work initiated by our previous High Road Ithaca intern.  CTA is just beginning to develop a social media presence on LinkedIn and Instagram to help showcase the incredible work of our 40 projects, provide thought leadership in areas of grassroots social change work, social entrepreneurship, and fiscal sponsorship, and provide updates regarding our activities and events.  CTA offers important connective tissue and backoffice services as it supports innovative changemakers in establishing tangible initiatives that help create a society that works for everyone. 

2. We are seeking an intern who can help CTA develop tutorial videos for our project staff. CTA uses Dropbox and AirTable extensively. All documents about CTA, our policies, grant applications, and hiring procedures are found in Dropbox. We use AirTable to keep track of information related to our projects’ income/expenses, hiring requests, and grant applications. However, most of our project staff are unfamiliar with Dropbox and AirTable. Although we provide several orientations to help them become more comfortable with these resources, many project leaders forget what they learned in these orientations. For this reason, we would like to create short, tutorial videos that are easy to understand and access. 

   
   The intern should be interested in social change/social justice work. We’d like the intern to be knowledgeable in developing social media content and using Canva. Experience in creating short videos is also helpful, but not necessary.  We would like someone who is comfortable offering their own ideas, as well as taking direction. The intern should be able to work independently, with weekly in-person check-ins.

   The intern should be interested in social change/social justice work. We would like the intern to be knowledgeable in creating tutorial videos that guide the viewer in accessing web-based platforms and resources. We would like someone who is comfortable offering their own ideas, as well as taking direction. The intern should be able to work independently, with weekly in-person check-ins.
    

The CTA office is located in Anabel Taylor Hall.