Student Activity Fund
UU Faith in Action
Students Making a Difference in our Communities
| SAF Brochure | First Time App. | Renewal App. |
What is SAF all about?
The purpose of the Student Activity Fund is to encourage young Unitarian Universalists to live their religious values through internships in social action, advocacy and service provision.
SAF is a grant-program funded by the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock that enables high school seniors and college students to perform significant service to the community while earning money to help finance their education.
Click here to read the personal accounts of last year's SAF participants.
Will I receive payment for my work?
The number of hours that you can work through SAF is set at the beginning of the grant year, based on the number of students participating and the amount of money available to the SAF.
Awards are calculated at $7.50 per hour of service for high school students and $8.50 per hour for college students, and increases to $9.50 per hour once a participant has worked a total of 500 hours through the SAF Program.
Who can participate in SAF?
To participate in the Student Activity Fund Program, you must:
• Be entering your senior year of High School in the Fall of the internship year
OR
• Be a full time undergraduate college or trade school student
AND
• Be between ages 16 and 24 on June 1 of the year of application
• Be a member or child of member in good standing of a Long Island Unitarian Universalist Congregation for at least one year
• Have received no more than four previous annual SAF grants
What must I do to participate?
• Submit application to the SAF Coordinator no later than April 15th for participation beginning that summer.
• Attend Annual SAF Orientation Workshop, held at the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock in late May.
• Internship site must be approved by SAF Coordinator before you begin working.
• Make sure agency submits an evaluation of your work at the end of each work period.
• Write and submit a report evaluating your experience at end of each work period.
• Report back to your UU congregation about your internship.
What does the participating agency have to do?
• Taking into account intern’s experience and abilities, structure a meaningful, hands-on internship and complete required SAF paperwork before student begins work.
• Provide adequate training, if needed, and ongoing supervision
• Provide safe working environment
• Share with intern the agency’s mission and its role in society
• Complete and return supervisor’s evaluation at conclusion of internship
As an SAF intern what must I do?
• Provide agency with SAF forms and obtain approval for internship from SAF coordinator before start of internship.
• Display the values of Unitarian Universalism in your behavior while at work
• Connect internship experience to UU values in written essay
• Complete SAF paperwork in a timely fashion, & provide feedback about your internship to SAF Coordinator
SUGGESTIONS FOR SAF INTERNSHIPS
Here are some of the types of organizations at which you may intern:
• Agencies offering counseling and advocacy in fair housing, domestic violence and abuse
• Soup kitchens and homeless shelters
• Head Start programs, day care centers, community camp programs or shelters offering programs for disadvantaged children
• Hospitals and public nursing homes
• Environmental agencies
• Literacy and English as a Second Language programs
• Organizations that Work with children and adults with special needs
• Reproductive health care providers or organizations
• Agencies advocating resistance to injustices
… and MANY, MANY MORE!
QUALIFICATIONS FOR INTERNSHIPS
To receive funding for work done through SAF, the intern must choose an agency whose goals are:
Directly aimed at alleviating inequity, injustice and discrimination in U.S. society, or which encourage the formulation and implementation of public policies promoting world peace or ecological responsibility
OR
Designed to preserve and protect civil liberties
OR
Related to the direct provision of needed services to disadvantaged sectors of U.S. society, including the poor and the disabled
Although many students participate in the SAF Program while at home during the summer, it is also possible to choose to work anywhere in the world, provided the agency meets one of the above qualifications. You may work in more than one qualified agency. While primarily a summer program, students may work part-time during the academic year when sufficient funding exists.
How was the experience for past participants?
Click here to read their 2011 essays.
For more information, please contact:
Linda Pfeiffer, SAF Coordinator
631-584-6854
e-mail: lpfeiffer@optonline.net