Involving Interns and Fellows in Casework

Written By Katherine Long

District and state offices which already host intern programs know that interns are invaluable for handling typical tasks like answering phones, opening mail, and staffing the front desk. But it can be hard in the constant churn of three new classes a year to find appropriate tasks for interns in a casework program where interns can learn new skills and add value to your team without requiring undue amounts of supervision and training.

With a new batch of interns polishing their shoes in the coming weeks, we wanted to walk through some above-and-beyond intern-appropriate tasks that can help strengthen the casework team and expand the Member’s casework reach.

The key element that connects these tasks is that they are extra opportunities, not must-do daily activities: while interns do many of those tasks, it’s important to not be caught flat-footed if there is a slow application cycle or other predictable (or unpredictable) demands on the interns’ time. The best casework-related intern tasks:

  • Take advantage of the extra capacity when it’s available,

  • Avoid unsupervised and unstructured constituent interactions, and

  • Free up time for permanent staff to develop long-term relationships and pursue deeper engagements with constituents.

Intern casework tasks

We’ve laid out the tasks below in the likely order that an intern would be able to pick up and master them: tasks further down this list are more advanced, and may be suitable for more experienced interns. It will be helpful to talk directly to the interns themselves and their supervisors to get a sense of their individual goals and strengths.

One-off outreach events

Flyering

If interns have their own transportation or are able to easily get around all or part of the district/state, having them do the literal legwork to put up signs advertising the Member’s casework services is a great task. Interns can help design a catchy one-pager they can hang up with some bullet points about the types of cases the office handles and updated contact information for the casework team. The interns will need to be able to talk a little bit about the casework team’s work, and explain that it is not related to the campaign. They’ll also have the chance to explore the district, and build confidence by asking local businesses if they can hang a flier.

Casework Office Hours in the Community

Bringing the interns along to local office hours can also help the team be more accessible and get the word out in the community. This doesn’t have to be a huge lift: setting up a small table in a senior center, city hall, or community center with signage and materials is a good way to catch people who may miss any advertising on social media or the Member's website.

Interns can “staff” the table while caseworkers do their work nearby, remaining available to supervise and open new cases. For older and more professional interns, having them do the work to set up the office hours—calling the local center, explaining the event, arranging hours, keeping track of points of contact, organizing physical materials—is a great chance to test their initiative and planning skills. Interns will need to be able to provide basic talking points, especially about casework services, and handle equipment and materials.

Offices that are not already doing casework office hours may want to pitch the idea to leadership as a great intern experience and consider making it a culminating experience that a team of interns can do toward the end of their time with the office.

Intern Recruitment

At a meta level, who is better to recruit future interns than a current intern? College interns can reach out to local high school civics teachers and guidance counselors in the office’s network to set up “ask an intern” appearances at local schools, or send them to career and internship fairs for local colleges. Interns should be prepped with some materials on applying for internships, and some ground rules for how they can talk about their work (e.g. no personal constituent information, make it clear that they’re not speaking for the office, etc).

Working with Casework Data

Cleaning and Categorizing Old Cases

If the team has been doing casework for any length of time, then there have probably been some big shifts in how cases are handled in the constituent management system (CMS). Putting interns to work cleaning up old cases and re-categorizing closed cases can make a huge difference in the quality of casework records and data. For example, interns can go through a case cluttered with documents to standardize document names and create an index, add forwarded emails into cases as notes, and standardize information included in a case description. Interns can also do more structural clean-up by re-opening messages as cases and vice versa.

If the team has recently set up a new system for more detailed case tags or categories, having an intern read through old cases and ensure that they are accurately categorized will also help track data over time. Both of these tasks will require some supervision for quality control, so having interns keep lists of what they do for supervisors to review at the end of the day/week/internship will be helpful. A great practice is to schedule a follow up check-in at the time the caseworker assigns an intern task to ensure that feedback time is built into the casework team’s schedule.

Research and Data Analysis

Especially for interns who have spent time re-tagging cases, asking them to take a step back and play with the data can be really rewarding—and give the team a sense of their analytical skills and interests. Casework staff can download a file or a report from the CMS with topline information on constituents and case tags over time and ask the interns to play around and see if they spot any trends or correlations that might provide insights about casework and the needs of the district/state. The office may not get anything new out of the exercise, but sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can unlock some interesting new insights.

Portfolio-specific Tasks

The ideas below will require some up-front effort on the part of the casework team, but they can help create meaningful experiences for interns while adding value to the work of the casework team. Save time by asking the interns to use what they have learned to create and refine instructions, checklists, and flow charts for the next intern who works on the task or project.

Letters of Support (Non-immigrant Visas)

If the office offers letters of support for non-immigrant visas, this can be a highly rewarding job for interns or fellows. The casework team will want to create step-by-step instructions, prepare a standard form letter which requests details about the applicant, and develop a template for the letter. It would be important for the caseworker to review the details provided by the requester before tasking the letter to the intern. The intern can add the details to the template letter, identify and address the letter to the appropriate Embassy/Consulate, and then share the draft letter with the caseworker for approval. If the CMS allows an intern to “act as”, it may be possible for them to complete more of these steps independently while practicing use of the CMS. When assigning this type of task, the team can make it a real learning experience by requiring the intern to read the relevant agency guidance on the visa category and consider asking them to write up what they learn in a memo.

Passport Cases

Summertime can be an especially busy season for passports. If the office has full-time summer interns, they may be able to help the casework team handle the workload on routine passport cases. If the casework team provides them with an intake form to gather the required information and a flow chart for inquiries, they can call or email the constituents and/or they can send the information along to the Passport Agency. The Casework team should provide training and monitoring to ensure that urgent/priority cases are handled properly and that the agency staff are not overwhelmed by confusing phone messages.

Using Public-facing Government Platforms to Monitor Cases

If the team keeps long-timeline cases open (see our Case Closing chapter for a broader discussion of this), interns can be invaluable in using public-facing platforms to monitor the status of cases that, at the time of intake, were within normal processing times and did not initially warrant a Congressional inquiry.

While the ideal is to help constituents access public-facing sites themselves, interns can add value by flagging those cases that have exceeded normal/established processing times and would warrant follow up from the appropriate caseworker. Examples include:

Using form letters, interns could then send constituents letters or emails to let constituents know that the office has checked the status and remind them they can use the public-facing sites for further updates or to update their contact information with the agency. This extra step can demonstrate that the office has not forgotten about the case, even if there is no news.

NOTE: Ideally the team can create codes in the CMS to identify these long-timeline cases and create a system of due dates for monitoring and closing them out so they don’t create “deadwood” in the in the case inventory.

Monitor Congressional Portals for Updates

As agencies increasingly rely on portals for submitting inquiries, caseworkers can also train interns to use the portals to check on the status of pending inquiries and provide updates on cases. The key to success with this is to use the CMS effectively to indicate where inquiries are pending, when they were sent, and when a response is expected back. If the CMS is not yet set up to effectively track this, interns can also help with some of the manual work of looking at open cases in a particular category (USCIS, for example) and then double checking to see if there are pending inquiries and flagging those for the caseworker.

Veterans History Project

The Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) offers a unique way for the Member to connect with veterans and highlight the military service and sacrifices of the state/district’s veterans. Working with the veterans’ caseworker(s) and counterparts in DC, interns could research the already archived interviews and materials for the state/district’s veterans and propose social media content to amplify their stories. Interns could also connect with an established VHP partner and offer to help interview veterans on behalf of the office. They could also prepare some targeted outreach materials for veterans groups, the local VA medical centers, or senior living facilities to raise constituent awareness of the VHP.

Research for Legislation and Oversight

Some interns can do a great job of putting academic research skills to work investigating particular casework issues. Asking interns to review relevant research from CRS, GAO, and reporting from federal media like GovExec and Federal News Network can help uncover additional context information around difficult cases that can be helpful when working with liaisons or preparing information for legislative counterparts.

Stakeholder/Referral Contact Management

With the priority on incoming casework, maintaining stakeholder contact information can take a back burner. Interns can be particularly helpful in compiling and updating contact information for stakeholder groups that a caseworker might want to reach. Examples include veterans service organizations (VFW, DAV, American Legion) which have state leadership and local posts, veterans service officers (and claims representatives), state agency resources, consumer assistance advocates, legal services, etc.

Casework evaluation

Post-surveys

If the team sends a post-survey to constituents by email, interns could help ensure broader participation by sending out postal mail surveys and compiling the returns. Analyzing survey data is another project where interns may offer some new insights through data analysis.

Interviews for social media

As digital natives, interns will often arrive with some social media skills. The casework team can put them to good use by asking interns to conduct and edit short video interviews of constituents talking about their experiences with the office, or create some footage of caseworkers talking about how the office can help constituents on different types of issues. The team can also use interns as focus groups on any casework messaging, particularly zeroing in on how to reach the younger constituents who may not be aware that they could call their Congressional offices for assistance with various “adulting” issues.

For interns who may be future caseworkers

Once the team has a feel for the skill level of their interns, there is no limit to the creative ways they can engage in casework—especially to build interest and skills among interns who may be interested in joining the team as caseworkers after graduation. A few more ideas may include:

  • Drafting constituent education materials

  • Writing and updating an intern handbook and guide to casework

  • Drafting agency letters

  • Drafting form letters

  • Joining the caseworker on complex intakes to take notes

When interns reflect on their experiences in district/state offices, many will remark that they never knew how much the Members do for their constituents and the wide array of problems that caseworkers help to resolve. When they have an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the casework operation, they will bring that experience to whatever they do next, whether on the Hill or in a completely different field.

Katherine Long
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