The Citywide Hamilton Internship Program connects promising youth of color with local employers.
When Jeanne Pope met Chamina Curtis, they could tell that they were going to be fast friends, but more than that, they were going to work on something together.
“When we met at the 2nd Ward Cleanup event, we talked for hours,” says Pope. “I knew that we were a good fit because when I presented my idea for an internship program to her, and she had a thousand questions. Chamina is a details person!”
Jeanne Pope is Director of Human Resources at the City of Hamilton, and Chamina Curtis an experienced community organizer and Lecturer at Miami University Hamilton. Together, they have launched CHIPs, the Citywide Hamilton Internship Program, alongside a variety of community partners and supporters.
CHIPs aims to solve two major challenges. First, employers are looking to grow their talent pools to avoid labor shortages, and they need to train up a new generation of leadership. Second, young people of color in Hamilton and other areas do not always have equitable access to connections, training, or career discernment tools when they begin looking for careers.
CHIPs serves as a connecting organization, discussing internship potential with employers in our area and then matching them with promising young people of color ages 16-30 who are looking to learn more about a given industry. The result is a 12-week internship program, working around half-time (15-20 hours a week), that is combined with professional development, community engagement, and long-term support activities.
Consider the experience of an early CHIPs intern, Brittany Chapman. She interned in Human Resources at the City of Hamilton, and her confidence and skills grew so quickly under Pope’s supervision that Chapman was offered two roles after her internship, first as CHIPs coordinator, expanding the ability of the program to grow, and as an HR assistant for the city.
“At first, I wasn’t sure if I could do the job, so I asked a lot of questions, but Jeanne kept asking me to do things, writing emails and sitting in on meetings,” explains Chapman. “She was always there to help if I wasn’t sure how to do something.”
“It went from us asking Brittany to do things to her coming to us with ideas for how to improve CHIPs,” Jeanne said proudly.
While many participants have varying levels of confidence, CHIPs does a particularly strong job of identifying potential and helping those individuals to advocate for themselves, try new things, and find their fit.
Pope and Curtis both mentioned a young man, Terrell Avery, who participated in the community engagement portion of the internship by attending, among other things, a Board meeting of the Hamilton Parks Conservancy. During that meeting, he realized that this was the right place for him, and with their encouragement, he wrote a letter asking to intern there, eventually meeting with Steve Timmer and securing an internship. By the end of the internship, he’d been asked to stay on and continue working with them long-term.
The CHIPs participants remain in touch after the 12 weeks conclude: with each other, with their onsite mentors, and with Pope, Curtis, and Chapman. When a former intern, now known as a CHIPs associate, needs a connection or other help, the team supports them.
“Much of what we’ve done is organic because CHIPs is a family,” says Curtis. “It looks like different things for different people, it’s whatever they need, because we want to be actively engaged in what their next dream is or the endeavor they want to fulfill.”
Hamilton’s employers are, as a result, getting much-needed connections to new talent, youth who are hungry to prove themselves, learn new things, and find a long-term career.
If you are interested in the CHIPs program, either as an employer or as an intern, visit the website www.chipshamilton.com to learn more and apply.