Sunrise Day Camp Community Care Intern

Sunrise Day Camp: Community Care Internship – Summer 2026

Location: Sunrise Day Camp – Chicago 
Date: June 5th, 2026 – August 7th, 2026

Time: Monday – Friday / 8:45am-4:00pm 

Summary: 

Our Community Care team is comprised of licensed mental health professionals and special educators who provide ongoing social and emotional support for our campers and staff. Under the guidance of the Community Care lead, the Community Care Intern will help identify children experiencing challenging emotions or behaviors and create age-appropriate interventions to support them in the camp environment.  The Community Care Intern will provide ongoing resources to staff on topics that are related to child development and the social-emotional needs of children.

Learning Goals:

• Strengthen communication skills by engaging regularly with adults and children, both individually and in groups. Model positive relationships with colleagues, offer constructive feedback, and create a welcoming and safe environment for everyone.  
• Enhance organizational skills by prioritizing tasks, developing effective time management strategies, and following through on both urgent and less pressing matters in a timely fashion.
• Develop clinical assessment and intervention skills by observing children’s behaviors, hypothesizing what behavior is communicating, identifying opportunities to intervene, and implementing age-appropriate strategies to help support their needs.
• Build therapeutic and facilitation skills by leading small group discussions or modeling approaches to address interpersonal group dynamics including bullying, conflict resolution, exclusionary behaviors, lagging play skills. 
• Develop reflective capacity and professional flexibility through communication with colleagues and supervisor to monitor and adjust strategies as needed.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

• Work with the camp director, unit heads, and community care team to set expectations for camper and counselor behavior. 
• Assist with the implementation of routines, schedules, and procedures for camp activities and transitions. 
• Observe and evaluate the needs of campers to help create and implement interventions to support them in the group environment.
• Keep the community care team informed of camper and counselor issues.
• Assist in documenting interactions and interventions for data collection purposes.
• Come to camp each day with a positive attitude and model for staff, children, and families engaging and professional behavior.

• Engage as an active member of the camp community.
• Attend pre-camp virtual orientation and weekly group consultation sessions for Community Care staff.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements & Essential Duties: 

Must be a current undergraduate student studying social work, psychology, early childhood, or any related field. Must have experience working in a school, camp, or social work setting and have experience working with children. 

• The following physical skills are helpful but are not required to successfully perform the core duties of this role.
• Demonstrate physical stamina and agility required to be mobile for long periods throughout the day.
• Move from sitting (chair and floor) to standing position easily and quickly.
• Stand for long periods of time and be able to actively engage physically with children.
• Clearly and effectively communicate in a manner that children understand.
• Supervise children, keeping them in sight and sound at all times.
• Know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. Prevent, circumvent, and deal with problem behaviors appropriately and effectively.
• Maintain a sense of calm and perspective with physical and mental alertness during stressful times.
• Consistently demonstrate and reinforce the values of caring, respect, honesty, and responsibility.
• Willingness to perform other camp-related duties and responsibilities.

Compensation: Stipend