KIDS COUNT Research and Data Summer Intern

Application Deadline: March 2, 2012

Action for Children North Carolina is a non-partisan, non-profit research and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all children in North Carolina are healthy, safe, well-educated and have every opportunity for success. Action for Children pursues this mission through independent research, policy analysis and development, public education, advocacy and technical assistance.

KIDS COUNT is a national and state-level initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation designed to provide the latest and most accurate child well-being data to stakeholders and decision makers. Action for Children serves as the North Carolina KIDS COUNT partner.  The NC KIDS COUNT project seeks to enrich local and state discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children by producing and disseminating cutting-edge state and community-level research on child well-being.

Internship Description

Action for Children North Carolina seeks a graduate-level student intern to work directly with the Director of Research and Data. The intern will assist with several projects including our annual report on child health, the Child Health Report Card.

Serving 20 hours per week, the intern will learn how to work with large secondary data sets, analyze policy implications of the data, and assist in the development of related deliverables and corresponding events. Specific tasks may include:

• Assisting with data analyses and draft KIDS COUNT data and policy briefs, the Children’s Health Report Card and other projects as relevant;
• Conducting background research on child well-being issue areas;
• Collecting, managing, and analyzing data from state and federal agencies;
• Assisting with dissemination of all materials from Action for Children’s research and data department;
• Assisting with preparation and execution of product releases and events;
• Completing data and technical assistance requests from stakeholders and media;
• Communicating and coordinating with other organizations involved in child policy;
•  Other necessary tasks as they arise.

The KIDS COUNT Research and Data intern has the opportunity to work with, and learn from, Action for Children’s staff who oversees various policy and research activities while acquiring an understanding of how a non-profit policy organization works.

 Time and Dates Needed: Summer 2012.

Location: 3109 Poplarwood Court, Ste. 300, Raleigh, NC 27604

Minimum Qualifications:

• Experience with social science research methods;
• Keen interest and curiosity in social policy and the well-being of children and families;
• Experience with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets;
• Experience conducting literature reviews; and
• Strong organizational, social, written, proofreading, and oral communication skills.

 Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience with ArcMaps or other mapping software;
• Experience conducting basic statistical analyses (means, percentages, z scores, standard deviation, etc.); and
• Willingness to travel within North Carolina, as needed, to events and conferences held by Action for Children (expenses covered).
•  How to apply:  Please submit a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and two references by C.O.B. Friday, March 2, 2012 to:  Randi Munns, Operations Manager at Randi@ncchild.org. Interviewing will commence immediately, so please submit your application early.

To learn more about this experience we encourage you to visit our website http://www.ncchild.org  and the North Carolina state profile on the KIDS COUNT Data Center at http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/StateLanding.aspx?state=NC.