Age-Friendly Omaha Intern

About Spark

Spark is a community development intermediary that convenes partners, builds collaborative capacity, and helps move community-driven ideas into action. Through strategic planning, coalition building, project management, and community engagement, Spark supports initiatives that strengthen neighborhoods and improve quality of life. As the backbone organization for Age-Friendly Omaha, Spark coordinates partners, facilitates community input, manages the planning process, and helps translate the voices of older adults and other stakeholders into a shared action plan that will guide Omaha's age-friendly efforts for years to come.

Summary

Are you a creative, passionate, and results-driven student or recent graduate interested in policies and programs that make communities livable for all ages? Spark is seeking an Age-Friendly Omaha Intern to support Age-Friendly Omaha, a community-driven initiative dedicated to creating an Omaha where people of all ages can live, remain, and thrive. This internship is designed for students interested in applied gerontology, community-based research, healthy aging, policy, urban design, and systems change.

The intern will help Spark and Age-Friendly Omaha partners translate resident input into action by supporting outreach, meeting logistics, research, data organization, strategic planning, and communication related to Omaha’s Age-Friendly Action Plan. The role offers hands-on experience connecting classroom learning to community planning work.

Key Responsibilities

• Support Age-Friendly Omaha outreach and engagement with older adults, caregivers, aging-service providers, community partners, and Age-Friendly Champions.
• Assist with planning, logistics, materials, sign-in, note-taking, and follow-up for steering committee meetings, working groups, community conversations, and partner events.
• Help organize and summarize community input from surveys, listening sessions, stakeholder conversations, and partner meetings, with attention to themes relevant to older adult health, independence, access, and quality of life. Prepare concise reports, presentations, and meeting materials.
• Support applied research related to AARP’s Eight Domains of Livability, including housing, transportation, social connection, health and community services, public spaces, communication, civic participation, and respect and inclusion.
• Maintain project documents, contact lists, meeting notes, community feedback, partner commitments, and implementation planning materials.
• Help prepare summaries, presentations, outreach materials, and website or social media content that make AFO findings accessible to older adults and community partners.
• Assist Spark staff with managing projects and relationships, including coordination among AFO partners such as the City of Omaha, Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging, UNO CPAR, AARP Nebraska, and other coalition members.

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in degree program, or a student or recent graduate with significant coursework or interest in gerontology, public health, social work, public administration, urban studies, nonprofit management, the humanities, or a related field.
• Strong interest in older adults, healthy aging, aging in place, caregiving, livability, equity, and community systems that support independence and connection.
• Interest in connecting coursework to real-world community engagement, policy, planning, and nonprofit coordination.
• Excellent communication, organization, writing, listening, and follow-through skills.
• Comfortable working with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Detail-oriented and able to manage multiple tasks, timelines, meeting notes, and follow-up items.
• Experience with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Canva, spreadsheets, survey tools, or basic data organization is helpful.
• Spanish or other language fluency is a plus, but not required.

Core Values

Spark’s core values reflect the way we do business. All Spark staff must consistently embody these values in their everyday work and interactions with other team members and external parties:

1. Collaborative – everything we do, we do in partnership with others – neighborhood leaders, nonprofit partners, developers, government officials
2. Passionate – we strongly believe in and value the assets/strengths of community members and neighborhoods
3. Hard Working – we get stuff done by rolling up our sleeves and undertaking difficult initiatives and conversations
4. Trustworthy – we are honest and transparent with each other, our partners, and the community
5. Strategic – our work relies on understanding the big picture and long-term outcomes, and we work thoughtfully and intentionally to get there.

Duration and Compensation

• Term: 12 weeks, with flexible start/end dates based on the academic calendar, practicum requirements, and project needs. Term may be extended.
• Hours: 10 hours per week
• Pay: $20/hour
• Spark is open to coordinating with degree programs if the internship may support practicum, service learning, or applied project requirements.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply coursework to a real community initiative.
• Learn how resident input, survey data, listening sessions, and partner collaboration inform an action plan.
• Build skills in community engagement, nonprofit project coordination, meeting support, and cross-sector coalition work.
• Contribute to materials that support Omaha’s first Age-Friendly Action Plan and its transition from assessment to implementation.

To Apply

Please send your resume and a brief note describing your interest in the role to Ryan ZimmerMas at ryan@sparkcdi.org.

Spark is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will not discriminate in its employment practices, volunteer opportunities, or the delivery of programs or services, based on race, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, age, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, or based on disability if the employee can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations.