Making Moves Intern

Community Development C • Melville, NY

7d

About The Position

The Making Moves program aims to increase housing options in high-opportunity areas for families with school-aged children in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. The team provides mobility counseling, financial assistance, and recruits property owners to the HCV program. Decades of research indicate that HCV families, particularly those with young children, experience improved academic, college attendance, employment, earnings, and health outcomes when they reside in safe neighborhoods with access to quality schools. Last year, Making Moves collaborated with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) on a project funded by the American Institutes for Research to develop tools that help mobility programs better integrate a focus on helping participants access well-resourced schools into their services. This initiative resulted in an evidence-informed, education-focused model for mobility coaching, including a comprehensive web-based school district profiling tool and a parent workshop, which requires more time and effort than the current staff capacity allows. Furthermore, the new Neighborhood Resource Index (NRI) tool has added complexity to the housing search for both participants and staff. All Making Moves sites statewide recently transitioned from the original HCR-designated Well-Resourced Area (WRA) Map to the NRI, along with tiered opportunity areas. While the WRA Map used only poverty and test score data to designate opportunity neighborhoods, the NRI incorporates 24 measures, including five specific to education: share of free & reduced lunches, student-to-teacher ratio, spending per pupil, state school aid, and standardized test proficiency. Although the NRI utilizes a broader range of data to better inform neighborhood choices, it presents greater challenges for Coaches as they assist participants in navigating the tool and interpreting the information. A Making Moves summer intern would enhance the team's capacity to support families in selecting communities based on school quality and in sustaining their tenancies post-move. The absence of budgetary support for an Educational Liaison, a role that would have synthesized the aforementioned into the existing coaching framework and bridged communication between students, families, schools, and community resources to support student success, highlights the need for intern support in designing the elements of such a role. The intern will create products that Coaches can utilize to optimally educate and empower families in choosing high-performing school districts, navigating the educational system, and adjusting to new schools and communities.

Requirements

• Studies in Education, Public Policy, Social Sciences (e.g. Sociology, Human Services, Social Work) or Public/Non-Profit Administration.
• An understanding of K-12 educational systems and district-level operations and/or rental assistance and affordable housing programs.
• Ability to identify and synthesize public information from various school district websites and other relevant data sources.
• Skill/experience designing engaging, interactive workshops or other educational materials.
• Some foundational knowledge/skill with digital content creation and presentation tools (PowerPoint, Canva, video editing software).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaboration skills: working effectively with cross-functional staff (e.g. Making Moves team, Marketing & Development), and diverse community stakeholders.
• Willingness to learn, take feedback, and solve issues independently as appropriate.

Nice To Haves

• Bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply (especially those who speak English and Spanish or Creole).

Responsibilities

• Research district websites, make calls/visits to the district, and gather families’ feedback to compile high-performing school district information (e.g., grade level structure, before/after school programs, transportation, key contacts, extracurriculars, school climate/communication, etc.).
• Adapt 'Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools: A Workshop for Parents' developed by PRRAC and Mobility Works for use on Long Island.
• Modify HUD Mobility Toolkit Renter’s Workshop to support families’ housing stability in high-performing school districts.
• Create multimedia/video delivery mechanism(s) for these workshops.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed