Program Associate, CYJ
Who We Are
The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, envisions a society that respects the dignity of every person and safeguards justice for everyone. Vera is committed to securing equal justice, ending mass incarceration, and strengthening families and communities.
- We study problems that impede human dignity and justice.
- We pilot solutions that are at once transformative and achievable.
- We engage diverse communities in informed debate.
- We harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice.
We work with others who share our vision to tackle the most pressing injustices of our day—from mass incarceration, racial disparities, and the loss of public trust in law enforcement to the unmet needs of the vulnerable, the marginalized, and those harmed by crime and violence. Vera has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Vera is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace—specifically, we value diverse experiences with regard to educational background and justice system contact. We hire employees that reflect our values: respect, independence, collaboration, and commitment.
Ending Girl's Incarceration
We are Vera’s Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration team. We believe that freedom and justice for all young people is not possible without being responsive to how gender and sexism intersect with racism to drive youth incarceration.
We work to end the incarceration of youth on the girls’ side of the juvenile justice system by building stronger, safer, and more equitable communities where girls and gender expansive youth of color are no longer criminalized for the violence and discrimination they face.
Through our initiative, we are partnering with six “Getting to Zero” sites to create new programs and enact systemic changes that will support the safety and well-being of girls and gender expansive youth in their communities, address the root causes of their incarceration, and permanently close the doors to girls’ juvenile detention and placement facilities.
Our change process blends the practice experience and data generated by government systems with national research and the expertise of the youth, grassroots organizers, advocates, and service providers that are closest to the challenges we aim to address.
Our efforts drive towards the following rights of girls’ and gender expansive youth:
- Justice and Equity: The right to equitable access to resources within their communities, as well as equal protection of the law. Public systems, families and communities are accountable to youth, regardless of their identities.
- Self Determination and Freedom: The right to self-determination—to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be valued as experts in their own lives. Gender-responsive reform means recognizing girls’ resistance as strength, celebrating their power, and promoting their freedom.
- Safety and Safe Spaces: The right to grow up in places where they feel safe, where they are free from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and other threats to their safety. Systems must focus efforts on preventing and addressing the harm girls and gender expansive youth experience, rather than criminalizing girls’ defenses against harm.
- Childhood and Adolescence: The right to a healthy and supported childhood and adolescence. This includes the freedom to develop, experience, and express their identity and sexuality without judgment or consequence, as well as their right to love and be loved, to have meaningful and lasting connections with family, friends, and community.
Who You Are
- You care deeply about advancing gender and racial justice and ending mass incarceration.
- You are committed to uplifting and centering the voices and experiences of girls and gender expansive youth of color in programming and policy decisions. You believe that youth leadership and voice are integral to successful and meaningful systems change work. You believe in our team’s values, as listed above.
- You understand how policies from all levels interplay to shape the systems, programs, and resources that communities and individuals experience. You are inquisitive and are able to ask good questions, follow leads towards more answers, and synthesize a breadth of the information to figure out how systems tick.
- You are extremely organized, detail-oriented, and interested in the process behind the work. You’ve never left a meeting without laying out next steps, and you can translate conversations about project goals into clear and achievable tasks, deliverables, and deadlines.
- You are comfortable moving quickly between different priorities and jumping between different types of analyses. Although you have experience in either juvenile justice or child welfare, you are most likely a generalist who is excited about the opportunity to immerse yourself in multiple different areas of research and writing.
- You love to write, and you can write quickly, clearly, persuasively, and accessibly for a variety of audiences. You understand how to effectively craft a clear and convincing message and work in partnership to promote that message.
- You are comfortable reading and interpreting data, can connect the data to broader contexts, and have experience writing reports that include data analysis.
- You have strong project management skills and are able to independently drive multiple pieces of work. At the same time, you are excited to and able to work within a very small team that works together closely and collaboratively to run a seamless and powerful national initiative. You are a team player and you value the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from people whose strengths and skillsets are different from your own.
- You thrive in a fast-paced environment, and you keep your cool under pressure. You are comfortable with ambiguity and able to take action when required with the best information available, even if incomplete. You are committed to continual growth and learning on the job.
- You have an advanced degree in policy, social work, or related fields and have 3+ years’ experience in policy-related work.
Key responsibilities
As a Program Associate on the Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration Team, you will support the project’s site-based, technical assistance work across all of our Getting to Zero sites. You will support the Senior Program Associates who manage the site work in developing and managing workplans for sites, organizing and coordinating site visits, conducting policy research and best practice scans to support solution development across sites, and producing memos and other written documents synthesizing findings. Some key responsibilities include:
- Organizing and coordinating site visits, including scheduling meetings, creating agendas and facilitation plans, and drafting slide decks for presentations.
- Attending site visits, leading meetings with site-based stakeholders, and conducting presentations and trainings for government stakeholders, providers, and community leaders on diagnostic assessment findings and strategic planning recommendations.
- Conducting policy and best practice scans of our Getting to Zero sites and producing clear, digestible memos that translate complex regulations and policy into action that can inform conversations about change, both internally and externally.
- Monitoring and tracking major changes in federal and state juvenile justice and child welfare policy that impact our Getting to Zero sites; keeping a pulse on national policy conversations, trends, and major media stories within the juvenile justice, child welfare, runaway and homeless youth, and mental health fields.
- Supporting the writing of publications, external documents for our partners, and internal guidance around national best practices and model programming, as well as findings from our site-based programmatic scans
- Facilitating conversations with a broad array of local stakeholders in our Getting to Zero sites, from policy-makers to grassroots organizers to young people, to better understand the implications of and barriers to proposed policy changes, including anticipated support and opposition.
The nitty-gritty
- This is a full-time position based in Vera’s Industry City, Brooklyn Office.
- This position will involve travel to sites as needed; you will be asked to attend multiple site visits over the course of a year.
- Salary is competitive plus excellent benefits.
How to apply
Please submit a cover letter, resume, and portfolio. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until position is filled.
However, if necessary, materials may be mailed or faxed to
ATTN: Human Resources / Program Associate, Ending Girl's Incarceration
Vera Institute of Justice
233 Broadway, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10279
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Online submission in PDF format (through Vera’s careers page) is preferred.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.
Vera is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status.
Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission.
For more information about Vera’s work, please visit www.vera.org.