Public Affairs Intern - American Printing House for the Blind Position Title: Public Affairs Intern Employer Name: American Printing House for the Blind Paid Position: yes Address 1: 1839 Frankfort Ave Address 2: City: Louisville State: KY Zip: 40206 Phone: 502-899-2357 Fax: 502-899-2363 Email: rwilliams@aph.org WebAddress: www.aph.org Contact/Supervisor: Roberta Williams Supervisor e-mail (if different): Alternate Contact/Supervisor: Alternate Contact's e-mail: Student from previous year (if applicable) : Julie Aust Student from previous year's email (if applicable): Julie.aust@yale.edu Brief Description of Agency or Firm's Mission: The mission of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is to promote independence of blind and visually impaired persons by providing special media, tools, materials, and services needed for education and life. A non-profit organization founded in Louisville in 1858, it has had a national presence since 1879 and employs over 300 people. It is the main supplier of educational materials for blind students, below college level, throughout America. Educational Aids, books, and software are among the hundreds of items designed and manufactured at APH. In 1994, APH opened the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind. It is a history museum that explores the international history of the education of blind people and how APH has contributed to that history. The museum includes such items as the first book printed for blind people in France in 1786, a part of Helen Keller's Bible and a "hands on section" in which visitors are invited to write their names in braille. APH is a private nonprofit organization, but it has an annual federal appropriation and does custom work on contract for the public and private sectors (such as making braille menus for restaurants). The Internship will be in the Public Affairs Department which covers relationships with government officials, the general public, and APH employees. It is charged with • Increasing awareness of people, products, and services of APH and the role APH plays in helping blind and visually impaired individuals gain independence in daily living. • Advocating for individuals who are blind and visually impaired by increasing awareness of issues affecting their lives, and encouraging self-advocacy through education and example. Describe the value of the proposed Internship to the Agency/Firm: An additional person in the Public Affairs Department during the summer is always most helpful because we are especially busy during that period. In addition to finalizing plans for the October annual meeting, working on the APH InSights art competition for blind and visually impaired artists, and the federal appropriation, the department hosts large numbers of tour visitors during June and July. Summer is also a time for making plans for programs for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. Research about specific programs, and marketing plans for those programs needs to be done in the summer. Summer 2012 will bring a special group of visitors to APH. We expect about 4,000 people to attend a national conference of members of the American Council of the Blind in early July. Most of these have used APH products, and many are looking forward to visiting APH. We expect several busloads for tours, and numerous individual visitors, so it is especially important that we have additional help this summer. Describe the value of the proposed Internship to the Intern: The intern will gain an understanding of the day-to-day workings of a small public affairs office (including internal and external public relations activities and government relations), see how the program deals with educating the general public about our services, and how we communicate with our special client base, people who are visually impaired. Since about 11% of the 300 people who work at the Printing house are visually impaired, including the vice president of the Public Affairs Department, there will also be an opportunity to work directly with someone with a vision impairment. The situation at APH is unique: a manufacturing facility that is a non-profit that serves the nation, and also has a museum with a national/international focus. The internship will be of value to someone considering going into public relations or other field in which one must deal with a variety of publics, and work on a variety of tasks. Job Description (should include: hours of work, job responsibilities, reporting structure -- chain of command, a description of the intern's "typical" day): Forty hours a week, 8:00 AM until 4:30 PM, (unpaid ½ hour lunch) Monday through Friday. Hours may change if a special event is scheduled. (Can negotiate hours to some extent if transportation is a problem.) This position pays $10.00 an hour. Most of the time, the intern will work in the public affairs department, assisting with public relations, government relations, and special projects. The intern may also work on projects in the museum. Examples of tasks in the public affairs area: write news releases or articles for the in-house newsletter; lead walking tours for some of the 6,000 people who visit APH, annually; make or assist with other presentations to public; prepare and maintain mailing lists; do research on various subjects using books and internet; assist with preparation and execution of special events (art competition for blind artists, annual meeting, museum events). The supervisor (Roberta Williams) will use on-the-job and formal training sessions to orient and train the intern for the various tasks that will be required. For instance, the intern will go through a formal tour guide-training program and will be trained in special skills for working with people who are blind. If the intern works on a project for another staff person, that person will give any training and supervision necessary for that particular task. In the public affairs field, we usually do not think of a "typical" day, since the nature of the job is that unusual tasks often come up on short notice. So, anyone going into this field must be flexible enough to change directions on short notice. However, if nothing unusual happens, the day might go something like this: Morning: Arrive at 8 AM; Make sure display room is in order and check e-mail Give a 1 ½ hr. walking tour for a group of summer camp students; spend an hour or so on data entry for the InSights Art Competition; spend another hour packing artwork to return to artists whose work was rejected from the exhibition; help set up for a board meeting and luncheon. (Take a 15-minute break sometime during the morning.) Midday: half hour lunch break sometime between 11:30 and 1:30 (depending on tour schedule) Afternoon: Give a 1 ½ hour walking tour for a group of senior citizens; spend the rest of the afternoon organizing files and lists or researching and writing an article for the newsletter or doing research on the internet for the government relations area. (Take a 15-minute break sometime during the afternoon.) Leave at 4:30 PM Note: There are many departments at APH, including development/fundraising, production, etc. While the major portion of the person's time will be spent working on projects and activities for the Public Affairs Department, it may be possible to tailor additional projects to fit a particular interest of the student. For instance, one of our interns was a linguistics major who wanted to know more about our (talking books) recording studios. He was asked to produce foreign language pronunciation guides for that studio area-- something we had not envisioned until we met him and understood his skills. Management Goals: (should include: role of supervisor, frequency of intermediate reviews, expectations of intern, and an explanation of how the intern fits into the organization's goals -- please indicate whether supervisor works full-time or part-time): The goals of the APH intern program are: 1. To provide additional help for the public affairs department. 2. To educate the intern about the special skills that are required for the public affairs field. 3. To identify people who might be interested in working for APH after graduation. The supervisor is a full-time staff person. We expect the person hired for the intern position to have a skill-set matching the job description (see job description and next section on Special Job Requirements). APH will train the intern for specific jobs. Some areas of the position will require more training than others. For instance, there is a training manual for the tour guide component of the job which includes information about public speaking for different age groups, blindness, history of APH, etc. that the intern will need to read and remember. The intern will observe experienced tour guides, and do joint tours for a period of time. Once the tour guide goes solo, he/she is observed and evaluated periodically. Training for writing for the newsletter would be minimal, since it is expected that the intern will already have good writing skills. However, the newsletter editor will offer suggestions for how to reach our particular audience and will critique articles. Database entry, filing, research, government relations work -- all have some training component. Special Job Requirements (i.e. transportation, language, technical or other skills): Must be able to write, do research, and make public presentations. Must have knowledge of business English and grammar and must be computer literate (will train on specific programs and tasks) and internet savvy. We use the Microsoft office suite: Word, Access, and Excel; we have YouTube, FaceBook, and. Twitter accounts. (One of the interesting bits of information that the intern will acquire is a better understanding of how people who are blind use computers.) The ability to take photographs will be useful but is not required. Must be comfortable with tasks that require physical labor such as packing boxes of art, or setting up tables for a meeting. Writing samples may be requested as part of the interview process. Personal qualities: Should be outgoing and personable; have the ability to quickly assimilate and organize information; should be flexible and able to juggle several tasks at one time. Must be willing to take direction. Transportation: APH is located just east of downtown Louisville. However, there is no direct bus route between the university where students are housed, and APH. So, applicants must be comfortable with a long bus ride to work, or have access to a car. Other students have found that having a car in this city makes their time between work and special activities of the group flow more efficiently. (From time to time, APH may be able to provide some transportation, but we cannot promise that it will be provided on a regular basis.) Additional Information: