Intern With Us

Seher Urban Community Mental Health and Inclusion Program
Internship Program

Bapu Trust welcomes interns and volunteers during the year, to intern in the Seher program.

Eligibility: 

1. U.G. II or III year students, PG students and students in higher education
2. Students from arts stream working towards a career in social work, clinical psychology, general psychology, any creative arts education for working with communities and students in development practice
3. Students with media and communication background, or research background are also welcome to apply, for supporting the direct services program of Seher.
4. For internship with the direct service delivery program of Seher, Marathi and/or Hindi fluency is a must.

Admission into the internship program

1. Applications with details of course, interest, time and duration of internship sought along with a CV must be sent to Seher Project Leader / co-ordinator at camhpune@gmail.com
2. Applications for the summer (April-July) should be submitted by December, January, or at the earliest.
3. Applications must be accompanied by a faculty letter from the Department / College.
4. A senior staff from Seher will start exchanges with the applicant (by email or phone call) to flesh out the common areas and agreements on the internship.

For undergraduates, the internship will provide:

• An understanding of community mental health – Key concepts
• Understanding the scope of works in grassroots support and care, and actions on inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities
• Mental Health Promotion in low income communities:
  • Development of Information Education Communication Material
  • Participation in large awareness events in low income communities
• Field data collection for research (as and when there is a need)
• The 8 Point Framework
• Support Counselling in Seher Program

Post graduate students, in addition, may learn

• Client work through lay counselling and any other additional individual client work skills the student may have
• Doing household surveys, interviews, etc. as per availability of such opportunities
• Management Information System assistance: data entry, technical support to teams.
• Research and analysis based on mutual agreement

Opportunities for volunteering / interning for professionals:

• If qualified in human social services, a professional interested to volunteer in the Seher program may offer any support services such as nutrition and fitness sessions, sessions in theatre, mindfulness, homeopathy, indigenous medicine, support in media and communications, other areas of community development, etc.
• Research and analysis on community mental health, development, disabilities, human rights.
• Training of service teams on their expertise (as discussed between director, program representatives and person)

Duration of Internship:  Minimum of 1 month

Internship Process:

Setting up Relationship:

1. Representatives of university departments interested in pursuing internship opportunities with the Bapu Trust will be required to send in a written request for internshipto the organisation via email or other written methods.
2. The request should be made officially by the representatives of the university department at which the student is enrolled.
3. Formal letter from respective university department should state:
   • Number of interns
   • Duration of Internship
   • Objectives of internship
   • Evaluation process (if any)
   • Course pursued by intern at university
   • Number of hours required (if any)
4. A formal meeting/ discussion between the department representative and director of organisation will be organisaed to set up a formal relationship between the two parties.
5. The meeting will be an agreement on the broad areas:
   • Setting up a relationship between the deparment and organisation.
   • Scope of internship withinthe time period as per request.
   • The evaluation protocols / feedback mechanisms (if any)
6. The program team will then be intimated and mobilised to prepare a plan for the supervision, feedback and allocation of work to the interns.
7. The program teamwill develop a work plan for the duration of intership in line with objectives that have been agreed upon.
8. On the first day on the internship the interns will report to the office for a meeting with senior members of the program team (in which they have opted to intern).
   • Introductions
   • Overview to the program and to community mental health
   • Understanding the students expectations from the internship
   • Setting up a context for learning and feedabck
   • Assurances and discussions on personal safety for the duration of the internship.
9. During the internship the program co-ordinator will conduct regular meeting. Meetings would consist of:
   1. Follow up on work plans
   2. Discuss experiences, reflections, questions and learnings.
   3. Revise work plans if needed
10. At the end of the internship a meeting will be held with the interns and the program team. This will focus on:
    1. Experiences
    2. Learnings within the context of community mental health and inclusion
    3. Feedback to the program
    4. Feedback on the intership experience.
11. At the end of the the internship period the intern will be expected to submit a detailed report on their internship to the organisation.
12. The interns usually meet the Director of the organization at least once during the period of their internship.