Rights and Justice Internship

Summary

• Strengthening health and ending the pandemic
• Building an economy for all
• Tackling climate change and environmental injustice
• Advancing racial equity and justice
• Restoring social trust in democracy

• Criminal Justice Reform: The Criminal Justice Reform team is dedicated to developing policies that shrink the footprint of the criminal justice system while improving public health and safety; promote equity and accountability within the justice system; and provide opportunities for people directly affected by a criminal conviction.
• Disability Justice Initiative (DJI): The DJI team focuses on developing disability policy goals and finding solutions to promote the application of principles of disability justice throughout American Progress’ work—including but not limited to cross-movement organizing, interdependence, collective liberation, and cross-disability solidarity. This work is both proactive and defensive, and it includes seeking opportunities to advance good policy, making progressive gains where possible, and attempting to prevent rollbacks of positive policies when necessary.
• Gun Violence Prevention: More than 100 people die from gun violence in the United States each day, and hundreds more are injured with a firearm. American Progress’ Gun Violence Prevention team advocates for commonsense gun violence prevention policies to reduce the number of deaths and nonfatal firearm injuries through research and advocacy efforts.
• Immigration Policy: The Immigration Policy team provides leadership on research, advocacy, and communications in all aspects of immigration and refugee policy in the United States. The team crafts and supports positive immigration policies and refutes negative and biased anti-immigrant sentiment and policy. The Immigration Policy team works closely with a broad coalition of advocacy organizations as well as congressional and government offices to promote real solutions to the nation’s immigration challenges.
• LGBTQI+ Research and Communications Project: The team works to ensure that LGBTQI+ people achieve full legal and social equality, particularly by highlighting the ways in which these communities are a part of and served by the broader progressive policy agenda.
• Racial Equity and Justice: The Racial Equity and Justice team develops, communicates, and implements policy ideas that provide a new way forward for a range of racial equity challenges in an increasingly diverse America.

• Contribute to writing memos, blog posts, columns, event summaries, and reports.
• Monitor and summarize relevant congressional activities, such as hearings.
• Help identify opportunities to affect agency actions by monitoring the Federal Register.
• Carry out web-based research and compile news clips on issue areas.
• Compile and manipulate data in Microsoft Excel.
• Draft rapid-response communications.
• Update fact sheets, talking points, and documents on pertinent topics.
• Track and develop content for social media and enhance the department’s social media presence.
• Perform other duties, such as conducting targeted research and reporting on policy meetings, seminars, hearings, and lectures. Whenever possible, interns are encouraged to write on a subject of their choice, either as the individual author of a column for the website or as a contributor to a larger piece.

• Current pursuance of an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, or recent graduate.
• Excellent research, writing, and editing skills.
• Interest in public policy, advocacy, and communications.
• Familiarity with different types of traditional and social media.
• Ability to work well under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills.
• Self-starter who takes initiative and seeks direction as needed.
• Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.
• Ability to diagnose problems and identify creative solutions.
• Commitment to American Progress’ mission and goals.