Research Assistant, Child Welfare (Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population)
Location: Washington, DC
Job ID: R-801501
About Urban Institute:
At the Urban Institute, we believe in the power of evidence to improve lives and strengthen communities. As a nonprofit focusing on social and economic policy, our researchers and policy entrepreneurs open minds, shape decisions, and identify transformative solutions to the most pressing issues of our time.
Our Mission
To open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions through economic and social policy research.
Our Values
Collaboration, Equity, Inclusivity, Independence, and Integrity
For more information on the Urban Institute, please visit https://www.urban.org.
The Opportunity:
Central to Urban’s mission is fostering a truly inclusive community that ensures ongoing relevance to a changing world. The Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population of the Urban Institute seeks a talented Research Assistant to support our child welfare research team. We are looking for enthusiastic, intellectually curious candidates who want the opportunity to contribute to innovative, policy-relevant research. Ideal candidates will have interest in areas related to children and youth with a history of foster care, including services and outcomes for youth aging out of foster care, and preventing child maltreatment.
What You’ll Do:
Contribute to literature reviews.
Assist with cleaning and analyzing administrative, program, and survey data.
Perform quantitative and/or qualitative analysis and programming tasks.
Assist with survey, interview, and focus group protocol design and data collection.
Help to organize web-based and in-person project meetings.
Support project management including taking meeting notes, scheduling meetings, scheduling and planning site visits, tracking and planning for project deadlines and deliverables, and tracking budgets.
Help to prepare proposals, presentations, reports, articles, policy briefs, blogs and other written materials.
Communicate effectively with multiple research teams and project leaders
Suggest and apply innovative techniques and software to support other project management, data visualization or presentation needs.
Who You Are:
The successful candidate will:
Possess a bachelor’s degree, preferably in public policy, economics, sociology, political science, social work, social sciences, mathematics, statistics, public health, or related fields (required).
Have some prior research assistant experience or a research-related internship (a plus, not required).
Express a strong interest in policies related to child maltreatment and protection and foster care, particularly youth with a history of foster care.
Exhibit strong organizational skills and be detail-oriented.
Be self-motivated, capable of working independently and in teams, and able to juggle multiple projects and responsibilities concurrently.
Respect diverse perspectives and value collaborating with colleagues to create a mutually respectful work environment.
Demonstrate strong English-language writing and oral communication skills.
Show proficiency in word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software.
Demostrate developing expertise in developing protocols for interviews, focus groups, or other qualitative methods (preferred, not required).
Demonstrate developing expertise with NVivo, ATLAS.ti, or other qualitative coding software (preferred, not required).
Demonstrate developing expertise with Stata, R or other statistical analysis software (a plus, not required).
Those with experience in quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods research are strongly encouraged to apply, as the Center's work includes a mix of techniques.
