Summer 2025 - Intern, Advocacy and Partnerships

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they’re fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just, antiracist solutions so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. For more information, visit vera.org.

Vera has a staff of 224 people, is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York and has offices in Washington, D.C., 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.

About the team:

Vera’s Advocacy & Partnerships department is responsible for coordinating the vision, strategy, and staff development across Vera’s initiatives to pass legislation, change policy, and create change at scale. We work to ensure that the goals of our advocacy campaigns align with the people and communities most impacted by criminal justice and immigration policies, and we collaborate with movement and advocacy partners to produce the right knowledge and ideas needed to change policies and legislation at the right time.  

Vera’s advocacy department serves the following core functions:  

• Providing state and local government and movement strategy guidance to Vera’s national and place-based initiatives, with a focus on lobbying, campaigns, and coalition work; Vera Insights, a rapid response data and evidence team responsible for developing and producing data and knowledge to key partners and audiences;
• Federal Policy expertise to lead Vera's advocacy strategies in DC; and
• Vera Action, an independent (c)(4) entity.

About the role:

You are passionate about social and racial justice and motivated to help drive change. You are enthusiastic, collaborative, curious, and kind, and you value working with and helping others. You like creating processes to help teams function, and you like building information systems.

The learning goals of this internship include gaining insight into the issues affecting incarcerated individuals across the country, research learn and provide resources to incarcerated individuals and will learn about the various areas of the criminal legal and immigration reform that Vera’s Advocacy Department works on to gain insight that will help the intern in choosing a career path in the field.

What you'll do:

Coordinate the backlog of communications from incarcerated individuals: 

• Review and gather information from communications received from incarcerated individuals
• Research and respond to requests from incarcerated individuals

Assist with desk research and drafting written memos 

• Conduct daily online, media, literature, and news reviews
• Draft research synopsis memos  

Help create and maintain a database of executive and legislative members and staff:

• Assist with the creation of a quick-reference database providing information on electeds and their staff in the state, city, and local governments we work in

Other duties as assigned by Manager, but not limited to 

• Provide support for department meetings and special events  to include but not limited to, scheduling, meeting set up, creating agendas, ordering needed materials, etc. 

What qualifications are we looking for?

• Interest and experience in program management or equivalent work experience
• Experience conducting a wide range of research to support department needs
• A demonstrated interest in the criminal legal and immigration systems by recognizing racial equity and social justice
• Experience building and refining document organization systems
• Demonstrat