Summer 2024 – Impact Strategy Intern, Initiatives

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, is a nonprofit criminal justice organization that strives to build just government institutions and safe communities free from the scourge of racism, white supremacy, profit, and inequity that is pervasive in this country’s legal systems. We are an “inside” lane organization that drives change at scale with ambitious public sector leaders who share our commitment to building anti-racist, reparative systems that deliver justice. We leverage our access to government to transform these systems and work collaboratively with stakeholders across many movements—including advocacy, grassroots, and grasstop organizations. Our role is to pilot solutions that are transformative and achievable, harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice, and use advocacy and communications to change narratives and norms.

Vera has a staff of 300 people and offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, anti-racism, and equity—both in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in people’s educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.

Who you are:

Vera generates ideas to transform justice systems and takes them to national scale. In this multistage ideation and scaling process—which we call the Impact Pipeline, Vera staff generate ideas with potential for national impact (Stage 1), pilot those ideas (Stage 2), scale more broadly (Stage 3), and achieve national impact (Stage 4). The Impact Strategy team focuses on supporting teams as they develop and pilot their projects. 

The Summer Impact Strategy Intern provides support to the Impact Strategy (IS) team. The IS team works across a variety of topics to learn how to use research, advocacy, technical assistance, and communications to reform our criminal justice system (e.g., Sentencing Reform). This position will focus on supporting newer Vera projects with desk research as well as meeting support, including capturing notes and next steps. 

The learning goals of this internship include fostering skills in and an understanding of project management, strategic planning, and program development, in addition to learning more about key areas of justice system reform. 

The Summer Impact Pipeline General Intern will work under the supervision of Impact Strategy Associates and in close collaboration with other summer interns, Associates, and Directors on our team.  

What you'll do:

Conduct desk research and synthesize the findings  

• Support desk research needed to understand the landscape in specific states where we are working on new projects  
• Summarize and present findings to the team  
• Support in the creation of memos to document learnings for internal and external audiences  

Compile materials and resources for strategy sessions with Vera teams 

• Summarize and organize resources into easily accessible formats to be used by the Impact Pipeline team and Vera colleagues 
• Send materials and internal communications outlining agendas, notes and follow-up items 
• Reflect on what worked well and what can be improved about the strategy sessions 

Assist with ad hoc projects as they relate to Impact Strategy 

• Support efforts to help teams learn across their different areas of work 
• Other ad hoc duties as needed 

What qualifications are we looking for?

• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate program OR demonstrated commitment to and experience with strategy building for social, political, or policy change" something like that work 

Preferred: 

•  Interest in program strategy  

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities you'll bring: 

• A demonstrated commitment to racial equity and social justice;  
• The ability to work both independently and with others efficiently and effectively; and  
• Strong writing and communications skills. 

Technical knowledge we need you to be prepared to use:

• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or similar software including PowerPoint and Outlook  

Location:

Please note this role will report to our Brooklyn office. Vera interns and employees adhere to a hybrid schedule and are in-office on an alternating schedule. Full-time positions generally amount to 10 days per month. Part-