Family Economic Security Intern at National Center for Children in Poverty (Spring)

Overview

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education is seeking a Senior Research Associate, with expertise in policies that support the economic security and mobility of low-income families. NCCP, founded in 1989, conducts research and translates evidence into actionable recommendations that advocates and policymakers can use to improve the lives and futures of low-income children and their families. The senior research associate will be part of the Family Economic Security (FES) team. Bank Street has a growing research and policy capacity through several research centers. This position is largely funded through external funding.

Family Economic Security internship: We are seeking 2 interns working 10 hours/week for 10 weeks on 2 projects for NCCP’s Family Economic Security team. All work will be conducted remotely. This is a paid internship.
Family Resource Simulator: The Family Resource Simulator (FRS), available at http://nccp.org/tools/frs, models family budgets by comparing family resources (I.e., family income, tax credits, and public benefits) against estimates of basic family expenses, based on where families live, over a range of family incomes. Program administrators, researchers, and advocates have used this tool to model the impact of policy changes on families’ net resources in their states/counties.

Ohio project: The intern will assist NCCP researchers in updating FRS codes to reflect policies in Ohio. The tool will be used by caseworkers and families to understand the impact of changes to employment on families’ net resources. The intern may also have the opportunity to help the Family Economic Security team research and incorporate social policy rules for populations being added to the tool, including children with disabilities, immigrants, former foster youth, expecting parents, and individuals who have been formerly incarcerated.

Kansas project: The intern will assist NCCP researchers in updating FRS codes to reflect policies in Kansas. The tool will support policy analysis and research specific to safety net programs that support low-income families in Kansas, with a specific focus on individuals who provide child care.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta collaboration: The intern will assist NCCP researchers with the ongoing development and maintenance of a benefit rules database operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which includes policy codes and policy variables for federal rules and state variations in CCDF, SNAP, Medicaid, and more.

Policy Focus: Child care, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, SNAP/food stamps, child support, Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Section 8 housing vouchers, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and school meal programs, among others
Desired Qualifications

Overall, if you have an interest in researching safety net policies in the U.S., and have experience or a desire to learn about coding and product development, this internship is ideal for you.

Basic desired qualifications include: 

Strong research and communication skills
Highly organized
Attention to detail and ability to meet deadlines
Ability to work collaboratively and independently
Interest in learning about public policies affecting low-income populations in the U.S.
Some combination of:
Programming experience in Perl and /or PHP, SAS, R, Python or advanced knowledge of Excel
GitHub and other related platforms
HTML, WordPress and/or JavaScript, and other web development skills
Database/SQL skills

The intern will receive guidance and supervision for all tasks, and be expected to conduct individual, self-directed work. The pay rate is $20/hour. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, and short writing sample to Akilah Moore, amoore2@bankstreet.edu (or nccp@bankstreet.edu). Please indicate how many hours you are available and when you are available to start.