The ACCG Civic Affairs Foundation (CAF) is seeking grant applications from counties across the state for the 2017 Summer Georgia County Internship Program (GCIP). These grants are made available through the CAF thanks to generous financial contributions from the private sector including individuals, corporations and businesses, and philanthropic foundations. Since its inception, GCIP has provided grant funding to over 60 counties to create internship opportunities for more than 300 college students and recent graduates in county government. The goals of the grant are to enable counties to hire talented college students for specific projects that will benefit county government and citizens; give students a chance to learn first-hand about the role of counties and functions of local government; provide practical work experiences that students can use in their career fields upon graduation; and inspire young people to a life of public service leadership.

Due to a high demand and student availability, the GCIP grants are exclusively available for summer. Any Georgia county with a substantive internship project(s) may apply for one or more grants through the program. Applications  will be sent via email to all counties in September. The deadline to submit applications to CAF is Friday, December 2, 2016. Grant award winners will be announced by February 3, 2017.

Grant award recipients are selected through a competitive grant process. Factors considered in awarding grants include the competitiveness of the project, the overall impact the project will have on the county and intern, partnerships formed to help maximize the benefit of the grant with another county, university, or regional commission, and the ability of the county to provide partial funding for the position(s) requested.

If you have any questions about the grant process, please contact Michele NeSmith at mnesmith@accg.orgor at 404-522-5022.

Cheyenne (left) and Christy Cochran, Administrative Assistant to the County Manager (right).
The photo was provided by Cherokee County

Georgia County Internship Program Spotlight

Auburn University Student, Cheyenne Moon, Interns with Cherokee County Board of Commissioners

Cheyenne Moon, a business analytics major at Auburn University, interned with the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners as part of the Georgia County Internship Program (GCIP) during the summer of 2015. Over the course of her internship, Moon’s primary tasks involved updating county property files and the transparency dashboard for the county website.

When Moon began her internship with Cherokee County, she had a general understanding of local government operations but was not familiar with the specifics. The internship exposed her to a number of county departments which allowed her to not only learn about the functions of each individual department, but also to see how they work together and with the public.

Moon noted that her most significant accomplishments during the summer involved the work she performed in updating county property files and the transparency dashboard. In order to update county property files, Moon had to ensure that deeds, lease agreements, plats and other property related documents were completed and current. For the dashboard project, she collected FY 2014 data which included quality of life, economic strength, safe communities, and value of government. Moon then used this data to assess how Cherokee County performed individually and compared to the other ten metro counties.

Through the internship, Moon also gained a great deal of research skills working with different databases. It further allowed her to apply skills she learned as part of her major in business analytics in working with different databases to procure information and how to apply that data in various reports and documents.

In terms of considering a future career in county government, Moon replied that she was open to the possibility of working for a county or city.

For more information on the GCIP, please visit the ACCG Civic Affairs Foundation website at http://www.civicaffairs.org.