Operation Backpack Intern

Operation Backpack Intern

Operation Backpack® is Volunteers of America-Greater New York’s annual back-to-school drive that benefits New York City’s homeless children. Every year, we engage large groups of corporate volunteers to assist with the sorting of donations and preparing backpacks filled with school supplies for distribution to homeless and domestic violence shelters across NYC. Last year, we provided over 19,000 students with a backpack filled with school supplies before the start of the school year.

The Operation Backpack® intern has significant responsibility assisting with, and in some instances managing aspects of this huge, logistically complex, and highly-visible campaign. At the end of their experience, interns will be able to state that they played a key role in the campaign’s success.

Key responsibilities:

• Warehouse logistics: assist with prepping and preparing the warehouse donation space to host volunteer groups
• Donation sorting: organize and sort large quantities of donations of backpacks and school supplies on an ongoing basis
• Volunteer coordination: manage large groups of volunteers by overseeing their task of preparing backpack and school supply orders for pick-up by shelter staff

Required skills

• Must demonstrate reliability and flexibility on a consistent basis and uphold the importance of teamwork.
• Must be able to perform physical labor (lift boxes of backpack donations, move pallets of supplies, etc.). Interns will be trained to use warehouse equipment.
• Must have the ability to multitask and problem solve as various needs arise and need to be managed simultaneously.

When: ~7 week internship. Mid July—late August. Mon-Friday, 35 hrs/week.

Location: W 26th St, New York, NY 10001 (Manhattan)

Compensation: $18/hour

To learn more about VOA-Greater New York, copy and paste this link into a browser: https://www.voa-gny.org/about