The Employer:

Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires is a health center that provides access to free, comprehensive health care for those in the Berkshire region who are income-qualified and ineligible for insurance. We envision a society in which everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve good health.

Volunteers in Medicine is located at 777 Main Street in Great Barrington, MA 01230.

The Opportunity:

A Community Health Worker (CHW)/ Caseworker at Volunteers in Medicine is instrumental in supporting adults, children, and families to connect, find, and obtain community resources. In addition, CHW assists patients in navigating unfamiliar systems, identifying gaps in services, and advocates to create bridges and eliminate access barriers that promote health equity and a community where immigrants can thrive.

Caseworker duties and responsibilities

Some of the duties and responsibilities of the summer intern CHW/ Caseworker include assist the Patient Services Team with specific projects, develop resources to support care management efforts, register families to attend events, and support the summer camps program, meeting with clients, documenting case histories, preparing reports, and serving as a liaison between Volunteers in Medicine, the families, and the organizations providing services.

Among some of the duties of the CHW/Caseworker are the following:

• Call families, update information, discuss their childcare plan for the summer and confirm dates of interest for summer camps.
• Interview clients to assess their situational needs and identify families with priority needs for summer camps.
• Schedule appointments to complete registrations in person.
• Develop a summer plan that includes different private summer camps to avoid scheduling
  conflicts with the school summer camps.
• Assist families with the registration process from beginning to end.
• Support families with the collection of paperwork for summer camp registration.
• Develop a plan of action to ensure that the camper has a plan to attend the summer camp
  (equipment, transportation,) to be successful.
• Create/ update a 1–2-page handout with all the information that the camper will need to
  need to succeed in camp
• Serve as a liaison between the applicant and the summer camp staff.

• Make follow up calls every week for children starting camp during the months of internship
• Keep updated case history in Excel spreadsheets.
• Communicate with the patient Services team if plans and circumstances change for the
  families and adjustments are needed for the summer camp plan.
• Communicate with patients and all parts involved.
• Assist with the completion of a camp satisfaction/concern surveys the week after the
  camper’s camp Other responsibilities:

• Support the Patient Services Team in the elaboration of a list of categorized community resources for different towns in the Berkshires.
• Update the patient families’ database.
• Assist with the registration and communication for events or programs during the
  Summer.

Qualifications and Skills

An ideal candidate will be:

• A student of social work or a member of the community who has completed training in Community Health Work, with some experience working with immigrants, or who has some exposure and awareness of the cultural differences, challenges, and opportunities of working with the immigrant population.
• Must be Bilingual Spanish/ English
• Has some attention to details, time management and problem-solving skills.
• Is a team player and enjoys working with others.
• Has skills in Word, Excel and is familiar with the use of databases.

Compensation and Application:
Ideally, the CHW/ Case Worker will start the internship around Mid-May and will finish around the first week of August. The length of the internship will be 12 weeks (about 3 months), 30h/week. The compensation that is offered for this position is $450/week, $15/h.

Students interested should apply at Berkshire Interns and submit a cover letter and resume. Only students currently enrolled in college or a graduate program may apply.