InterIm CDA is a comprehensive community development organization whose mission is Advancing Social Justice & Equity for low income, Asian and Pacific Islanders, immigrant and refugee communities. We are a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization based in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District (CID) that develops and owns affordable housing, provides direct housing services, leads neighborhood planning initiatives, runs a youth program, manages a community garden, and fosters leadership programs within the community.

The Community Development programs team leads several of our initiatives. This includes our community organizing and policy advocacy efforts, our Danny Woo Garden programs, our WILD youth program, and our resident outreach and services program.

Students would have the chance to participate in projects in each program, or to participate in projects that cut across different programs. Here are some examples.,
Community Organizing or Policy Advocacy: Educate community members about pending legislation, help amplify the organizing of the CID Tenants Association, summarize and track local-state policy issues.

WILD Youth program: Help facilitate youth programming, help educate youth on specific topics, help youth engage the community members.

Danny Woo Garden: Facilitate youth or resident involvement in programming, organize volunteer service events, organize with residents to improve facilities.

Resident Outreach and Services: Help engage residents in shaping new services, educate residents on new programs or register them for existing programs, help organize and facilitate discussions with residents.

Depending on the interest of the student and the opportunities available, there would be chances to engage with individual in multiple formats. This would include serving individuals in Interim CDA housing, those who have program-based needs, those who come to us because they have a tenant's right complaint, and others.

Many of our programs will provide opportunities to serve groups of people. Many of the resident services programs and activities take place in a group format. In addition, the WILD Youth program is entirely a group format. Even some of our community organizing work, the CID Tenants Association, is based on a group format. Students would have the opportunity to engage in all of these area's.

InterIm CDA is currently involved with many public policy initiatives and coalitions. Some major items include Sound Transit, our Equitable Development Coalitions, API Coalition, the implementation of recent policy reports, and many other items. The student would be able to collaborate with the Community and Policy Manager, other community organizing and policy staff, and other staff to be involved in these initiatives.

It would be preferred that the student has some experience in the non-profit, human services, or office-based settings or similar experience.

It is important that the student hold social justice, racial justice, and economic justice values. They should be interested in serving the community in and around the Chinatown-International District. They should be interested in engaging and helping people.

While not required, it would be ideal if the candidate spoke a non-English language to atleast a conversational degree. The most needed languages are Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taishanese. We also would love to recruit a student who speaks Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish, or any of the multiple East African languages.

Please email a cover letter, resume, and three references to Derek Lum at dlum@interimcda.org

In your cover letter, please explain why you are interested in serving the Chinatown International District, and what about Interim CDA interests you.