Hello! I’m Caitlin, the new Charity Intern (also referred to as Shipmate, which I’m sure you’ll agree is much cooler) at the Literacy Pirates. I have just started my fourth week here and although I’m still trying to navigate my way around the Hackney Ship, I am loving my time with the pirates so far!
My role is quite varied – I help with the general running and administration of our ship, as well as helping with projects for the fundraising team. My favourite part, however, is working with the Young Pirates. They’re so full of energy and their enthusiasm is infectious, so I love popping down to The Deep to run break time, armed with fruit and games (Giant Jenga, anyone?)
Another important fact about my role is my sponsorship from The Jack Petchey Foundation. To celebrate their 20th year, Jack Petchey are sponsoring 20 paid internships within a variety of different charities to help give young people a “flying start” in the charity sector.
At the end of September I went on residential trip with my fellow interns to Gilwell Park as our first taster of the internship programme. Over the course of the two days we attended workshops that helped us establish our core values, who we are and where we want to be in 10 years-time. We also discussed how to seize this opportunity, how to work to our full potential, and how to learn as much as we can over the course of our internships. Later in the day, we did some team building exercises which were hilarious and fun but also required us to communicate effectively (which is tricky to do when you’re standing in the rain trying to roll a ball through some drainpipes.)
A few highlights: definitely the food (3 course meal, yes please), the networking and relationships I made with the other interns, the key-note speech from Tim Campbell MBE, but my favourite part of the experience was writing a postcard to future me, detailing what we want to achieve over the next few months (very excited to receive it in the post in 6 months-time, I never get any mail!)
Going on the Internship Residential has made me very excited for the year ahead and has both inspired and challenged me to ensure that I make the most of my time at the Literacy Pirates.
