Open Hands Legal services offers college student internships throughout the year. The internship program is designed to provide students with the opportunity to support the provision of free legal services in a collaborative Christian social services setting and throughout New York City. Position description. The intern will work with our Open Hands and our partners to provide Christ-centered, holistic social services low-income New Yorkers. The intern will assist in operating the legal aid desk, social media and communications as well as day to day operations at the New Hope Community Center in East Harlem, which includes routine administrative tasks. The intern will also assist in Open Hands’ ongoing transition from paper to electronic records.
Qualifications. The applicant should either be enrolled in a college or university or have already graduated. He/she must have an interest in social justice and legal issues, and serving low-income New Yorkers in a fast-pasted and energetic start-up environment. He/she should have excellent written, oral and interpersonal skills, be responsible, flexible and hard working. Interns are expected to work a minimum of 10 to 15 hours per week (Monday through Wednesday and on occasional Saturdays) over a 10 to 12 week internship period.
About Open Hands. Open Hands Legal Services is a faith-based legal services organization. We provide free legal services and spiritual support to the poor and indigent in New York City. We do our work primarily through the use of volunteer attorneys. We are lean, aggressive in our desire to effect justice and change lives and are passionate about providing hope and stability to individuals and communities. More information is available at www.openhandslegalservices.
Open Hands' internship and fellowship programs provide students and attorneys with a rich learning experience, but do not provide monetary compensation.
To apply, please submit a resume and letter of interest (no longer than one page) to Executive Director C.J. Masimore at cj@openhandslegalservices.
Because of the uneven economic recovery, homelessness in our city is on the rise – and is now higher than ever. A recent feature in The New Yorker aptly put it this way: “Yankee Stadium seats 50,287. If all the homeless people who now live in New York City used the stadium for a gathering, several thousand of them would have to stand.” So, as Christians called to help the poor, we face a very difficult question: What are we doing to preventtheir poverty in the first place? 
Now, we are asking for your continued support. Our goal is to raise $45,500 in the next six weeks. We must increase staff and operations to support to our rapidly growing client base ($36,500), expand our assistance to entrepreneurial ex-offenders ($5,800), and purchase a vital client database system to keep up with our operational demands ($3,200).