InternshipsPolicyLink is currently accepting applications from continuing graduate students for Summer 2012 internships. Interested candidates should apply to a specific internship listed below. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2012. Background PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by Lifting Up What Works.® PolicyLink collaborates with a broad range of partners to implement strategies to ensure that everyone—including those from low-income communities of color—can contribute to and benefit from economic growth and prosperity. PolicyLink operates a summer internship program for continuing graduate students (masters or doctoral) in public policy, urban planning, and related fields. Internships are paid and the duration is generally ten weeks. We strive to provide each intern with two main opportunities: 1) A meaningful and challenging assignment (or set of assignments) that provides a chance to apply and hone the skills they are learning in graduate school to influence public policy; and 2) The opportunity to learn about the process of policy change and the way that PolicyLink accomplishes our mission of advancing economic, social, and racial equity through policy change. Each intern plays an integral role in helping our organization further policy impact through research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy. We have had interns from nearly 20 different universities and colleges, in programs such as urban planning, public policy, public health, community development, information management, and journalism/communications. Interns gain insight into the field by assuming responsibility for a project under the guidance of experienced professionals in one of the following areas:
Most internship positions are based in our Oakland office; however, if space is available and there is need, we also host interns in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and New York. Communications interns are based in our New York office. Intern Projects Each intern is responsible for developing one significant written product or several shorter products over the summer that contributes to a specific PolicyLink effort to advance equitable policy change. Products may include reports for public release (or components of reports), web-based tools, internal research or policy memos, case studies, literature reviews, opinion pieces, or blog posts. Interns are expected to carry out a research plan developed by their supervisor that will include gathering and analyzing qualitative and/or quantitative data. Interns typically conduct interviews, literature reviews, and web-based searches to gather information on equity challenges and promising programmatic and policy solutions. Sometimes they conduct quantitative data analyses or spatial analyses using GIS mapping software. Interns work under the direct supervision of a senior staff member or the principal researcher or coordinator of a project. Summer internship projects may be tailored to the specific interests of the intern provided that they match the needs of existing project areas. At the end of the summer, each intern gives a presentation on his or her work to the PolicyLink staff. Qualifications/Skills Continuing graduate student in public policy, urban planning, public health, economics, sociology, or related fields. The following is a list of general qualifications; specific qualifications will be described for each internship job description.
Application Process Candidates may apply to up to two internships. Separate applications should be sent to each position but the candidate should indicate that they have applied to two positions in their cover letter. Applicants should submit a resume, cover letter, and list of three professional references to internships@policylink.org. Please include in subject line: Your Name – Specific Internship Name. We encourage you to submit the application components in a single document if possible (rather than three separate files) so we can print double-sided and save paper. Interviews will take place during the month of March. Applicants will be contacted by telephone to schedule an interview that will take place in-person or over the telephone. Candidates not selected for interviews will be notified by e-mail in early April.
Summer 2012 Graduate Internships
Asset-Building Interns (Oakland, CA) PolicyLink is seeking a highly motivated graduate student intern to support our Asset Building Team. Over the past year, PolicyLink has been working closely with the Ford Foundation to organize and launch an online platform for its grantees engaged in the Building Economic Security Over a Lifetime Initiative. The platform, which will consist of a website with offline support, will provide resources to grantees while connecting them to each other and a broader network. Working through a cohort of state/local and national asset building groups, this initiative is designed to assist low-income families, individuals and people of color to build wealth that can help them weather difficult economic times while moving—and staying—out of poverty for generations. The policy and communications activities underway will deepen and strengthen the capacity of grantees to address policy failures and expand opportunities for low-income families and families of color to build financial assets. Asset-building interns will provide support to the team in the following key areas:
Tasks may include literature reviews, web-based searches, interviews with national policy experts and program leaders, and other research. Written products may include internal research memos, case studies, resource guides, curricula, and drafts of external technical assistance tools. Interns may also assist in tracking and monitoring policies related to asset-building and developing policy agendas. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in economics, urban planning, public policy, or related fields, with an interest in multi-field environmental and policy approaches to improving economic security for low-income people and communities of color. Specific qualifications include:
Boys and Men of Color Project Intern PolicyLink is working with local and state partners to establish a statewide network comprised of existing practitioners, advocates, researchers, and agency representatives that are dedicated to advancing and building on local policy and systems change efforts that will improve the health and success of Boys and Men of Color (BMoC) in California, with a particular focus on the East Bay, Central Valley, and Los Angeles. The BMoC Network includes leading community practitioners and advocates, policy experts, public sector leaders, and researchers. The primary objective is to garner greater public attention and build public will on behalf of racial equity based policy and system change agenda that will benefit boys and men of color. PolicyLink is seeking a graduate student BMoC intern to provide research and technical support on key projects that will ensure the efficacy and success of the BMoC Network. Those activities specifically include:
Tasks may include literature reviews, web-based searches, interviews of local, state and national experts and program leaders, collecting and analyzing related research and policy reports, compiling and synthesizing promising community and system interventions models and initiatives, and other research. Interns may also assist in tracking and monitoring policy reform initiatives and system change efforts related to healthy development of boys and men of color. Written products may include internal research memos, case studies, resource guides, drafts of external publications, drafts of planning materials and tools for facilitation of meetings with partners and public forums. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in public health, public policy, education, law or related field, with an interest in systems and policy approaches to improve the health and economic success of boys and men of color in California. Specific qualifications include:
Built Environment and Health Equity Intern (Oakland, CA) PolicyLink is seeking a graduate student intern to provide research support for a new project focused on the built environment and health equity. This rapidly evolving field is characterized by efforts at policy and systems change that can improve health conditions through new approaches to land use, property development, and the planning of neighborhoods, transit corridors, cities and regions. A focus on equity means, in part, a focus on how these innovations are brought about in low-income communities and communities of color. One component of the Initiative is the identification of best practices for ensuring equity in built environment and health projects, programs, policies, and campaigns. The intern will help the team identify, through web research and literature reviews, the projects, campaigns and policies on which to focus more intensive attention. The intern will use the information to develop a brief report identifying some best practices, challenges and opportunities in the field. The information will be used in a variety of reports, websites, and tools for practitioners and advocates. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in urban planning, public health, transportation, public policy, or related field. Specific qualifications include:
Community Equity Initiative Intern The Community Equity Initiative is a partnership between PolicyLink, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation focused on improving the condition of infrastructure and services in unincorporated communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Many of these communities face governance, funding, and information barriers that limit access to basic things like affordable, safe drinking water and safe parks. PolicyLink is seeking a graduate student intern to help the team investigate one or more aspects of our research agenda:
Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in planning, public policy or public administration (with a focus on financing). Specific qualifications include:
Equitable Economy Intern (2 graduate-level internships, based in Oakland, CA) PolicyLink is seeking graduate student intern to provide research support to a project focused on equitable economic growth. PolicyLink is in the second year of their partnership with the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), which is a research institute based at the University of Southern California. In 2011, the team produced a framing paper, America’s Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model, that makes the case that a focus on equity—the economic and social inclusion of low-income communities and communities of color—is essential to secure our future economic prosperity, particularly in the context of our demographic transition to a majority people of color nation by 2042. In the second year of the partnership, we will continue our research on equitable economic growth, including tailoring the framing to work in different geographic, demographic, and market contexts, developing an interactive regional equity indicators atlas, and producing a series of policy briefs. The intern will help the team prepare policy briefs, conduct research on promising practices, and assist in the development of the indicators website. Tasks will be varied and may include: literature reviews; researching promising practices; drafting case studies; statistical and GIS mapping analyses; and preparing tables and charts. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in urban planning, economics, public policy, or related field. Specific qualifications include:
Healthy Food Access Interns (2 graduate-level internships, based in Oakland, CA) The PolicyLink Center for Health and Place is seeking a summer intern to provide research support on projects focused on environmental and policy strategies that promote healthy food access in low-income communities and communities of color. The Healthy Food Access intern will assist with three primary projects:
Research tasks may include literature reviews, web-based searches, and interviews with program leaders. Written products will include online content and may include internal research memos, case studies, and drafts of external publications. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in public health, urban planning, public policy, or related field, with an interest in environmental and policy approaches to improving community health. Specific qualifications include:
The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink Interns (2 graduate-level internships, a policy intern based in Oakland, CA and a communications intern based in New York, NY) PolicyLink is seeking several highly motivated graduate student interns to support the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, which is a nonprofit organization that assists Promise Neighborhoods in connecting local resources to wrap children in education, health, and social supports from the cradle-to-college-to-career, and serves as a link to federal, public, and private investors. The Institute also provides Promise Neighborhoods communities with leadership and management coaching, communications strategy, and other resources that support their efforts to ensure:
Inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone, the U.S. Department of Education's federal Promise Neighborhoods program is a bold new initiative to break the cycle of generational poverty by wrapping children in a pipeline of health, social, and educational supports from birth through college. Visit www.PromiseNeighborhoodsInstitute.org to learn more. (1) Promise Neighborhoods Public Policy Intern (Oakland, CA) The public policy intern will provide research and technical support to the Deputy Director on key projects focused on research and policy advocacy strategies to support the successful implementation of Promise Neighborhoods across the country. Assignments will include:
Specific tasks may include: research state-level legislation efforts in California, Florida, and others; researching specific government programs with related funding streams and matching them to any administration priorities or legislation; developing templates to Lift Up What Works in local Promise Neighborhood sites for Congressional visits; updating of the in-district advocacy guide for sites; planning webinars and conference calls to provide policy updates to the field; and other tasks as necessary to support the center's technical assistance and communications teams. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in public policy, education, public health, urban planning, or related fields, with an interest in multi-field policy approaches to improving the academic and life outcomes of children and their families. (2) Promise Neighborhoods Communications Intern (New York, NY) The communications intern will provide support to the Senior Communications Associate on key projects focused on communications strategies to support the successful implementation of Promise Neighborhoods across the country. Assignments will include:
Specific tasks may include: Creating a comprehensive media training toolkit to help communities tell their results story using Results-Based Accountability (RBA) language and embedding real results in their stories. The intern will compile necessary materials, list useful sources, and work with the PolicyLink designer to create a unified, intuitive, step-by-step packet of information. Additionally, the intern will create and encourage the making of videos that tell the results story of leaders implementing a Promise Neighborhood. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in communications, public policy, education, public health, urban planning, or related fields, with an interest in multi-field policy approaches to improving the academic and life outcomes of children and their families. Specific qualifications include:
Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) Interns (2) (Oakland, CA) PolicyLink is working with grantees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Sustainable Communities Regional Planning and Community Challenge grant program to provide technical assistance and capacity building support related to social equity. The team is seeking two graduate student interns to provide research and technical support on key projects that will ensure the effectiveness and success of SCI grantees. (1) Sustainable Communities Equitable Infrastructure Finance Intern (Oakland, CA) PolicyLink is seeking a graduate student intern to provide research and technical support for different components of the Initiative. One task is to analyze the regulations, laws and other policy levers by which key federal programs and funding streams for infrastructure can be directed toward outcomes that would improve equity and protect civil rights. Another task is to provide research assistance for a series of policy briefs on various aspects of sustainable development and equity. Activities specifically include:.
Specific tasks may include: research state-level legislation efforts in California, Florida, and others; researching specific government programs with related funding streams and matching them to any administration priorities or legislation; developing templates to Lift Up What Works in local Promise Neighborhood sites for Congressional visits; updating of the in-district advocacy guide for sites; planning webinars and conference calls to provide policy updates to the field; and other tasks as necessary to support the center's technical assistance and communications teams. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in planning, public policy, government, law or related field. The ideal candidate has an interest and background in budgeting, systems change and approaches to policy that focus on the use of infrastructure to improve access to opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color. (2) Sustainable Communities Best Practices Research Intern (Oakland, CA) The SCI team is seeking a graduate student intern to provide research support for a variety of written and web-based resources (issue briefs, framing papers, etc.) under development, all of which are aimed at increasing the effectiveness and success of SCI grantees. Activities specifically include:
Tasks may include: literature reviews, web-based searches, interviews of local, state and national experts and program leaders, collecting and analyzing related research and policy reports, and compiling promising models and initiatives. Interns may also assist in tracking and monitoring policy efforts related to transportation, economic development, jobs and workforce development, affordable housing, and mitigating the negative impacts of gentrification. Qualifications/Skills: Continuing graduate student in planning, public policy, law or related field, with an interest in infrastructure and improving economic conditions for low-income communities and communities of color. Specific qualifications include:
PolicyLink is committed to maintaining a diverse, multi-cultural working environment. For more information please contact our headquarters at 510.663.2333, ext. 313. |