| Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and a world leader in experiential learning. The commitment to connecting with the world drives our use-inspired research enterprise. On its Boston campus, the university offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Our campuses in Charlotte, N.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver are regional platforms for undergraduate and graduate learning and collaborative research.
The Mission of the Center on Crime and Community Resilience (CCR) is to help disadvantaged communities by using research to support innovation of new policy solutions. We see research as something that can play an invaluable role in breaking cycles of poverty and disadvantage.
Many communities suffer from problems that cause sharp inequalities of opportunity: we have strong evidence that where individuals grow up directly influences their income, education, and likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system, regardless of factors such as family history.
We believe that better policies can change the dynamics of communities and improve the prospects of vulnerable people in society. Unfortunately, many policymakers believe they have little choice but to stick with “tried and true” approaches that have failed to make significant progress, or have harsh negative consequences. Research is one way to convincingly demonstrate the potential of new ideas. |
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| About the Opportunity: |
The Center for Crime and Community Resilience (CCR) at Northeastern University seeks a Research and Policy Associate to support ongoing projects for CCR, including (1) the Center’s newest project, focused on researching and tracking illegal guns in the US (2) work being done in Massachusetts to better understand and respond to the opioid epidemic and (3) CCR’s ongoing collaboration with USAID to develop new research and knowledge-sharing between North America and Latin America and the Caribbean. This position will fill a mix of different roles in the Center, ranging from project management support, assisting on research projects, and supporting the Program Officer/Executive Director with administrative tasks and events that keep CCR running. This is an excellent role for someone who is interested in and familiar with research and data but also wants to be engaged in a variety of other work focused on interacting with others. Valuable skills include the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, training in quantitative research methods and ability to work with data, experience working with government and international partners, and having excellent verbal and written communication skills. This position is based in Boston at Northeastern University, is eligible for full Northeastern benefits, and will report to the Program Officer/Executive Director of the CCR. The position runs until 8/31/22 with the possibility of extension based on funding availability.
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| Responsibilities: |
1. Project management support: Each project CCR works on has a wide range of products and outputs. This ranges from attending events with community stakeholders to writing policy briefs and doing literature reviews to support our projects to helping plan strategy on how research tasks are implemented.
2. Data analysis: Our research projects span everything from complex quantitative analyses to one-on-one interviews with community members. This role will assist with everything from data cleaning and basic analysis tasks to interviews and interview transcriptions.
3. Administrative support: Everyone at CCR takes a hand in making sure the organization runs smoothly day-to-day. This could include assisting the Program Officer/Executive Director and Director on completing last minute tasks, arranging events connected to our projects, or building systems that help CCR operations stay organized.
About the CCR
Projects Supported
This role will be supporting the general operations of the Center, and will also heavily support a few particular projects:
1. Research on illegal gun markets: This latest CCR project is a coordinated approach by several research teams and government agencies to comprehensively look at different ways illegal guns are being bought and sold across the US. The end goal of the project is developing accessible policy recommendations that could be implemented nationally and in different jurisdictions across the country. The proposed project would consider the problem of illegal firearms markets from a number of different lenses of study with a particular focus on better understanding the financing of illegally sourced guns, and would work with many of the leading researchers studying the subject.
2. Developing new solutions to the opioid epidemic: To combat the ongoing opioid epidemic, better research and data may not just be helpful, but necessary. In all cases, strategies we develop have to be focused on reducing harm: preventing overdose deaths, encouraging people suffering from OUD to seek treatment, and mitigating the harms to communities done by drug markets. This project has two related components: first, convening a variety of federal, state and local partners—from both law enforcement and public health—in the cities of Boston, Lawrence, and Woburn. These partners meet in working groups that bridge disciplines (including law, criminology and public health) to discuss shared challenges and to identify the most pressing open questions and areas for exploration. Synthesis of the working group activities guides the second set of activities: problem analysis research that can inform and identify policy interventions.
3. Reducing crime and violence among youth is a high priority for citizens and governments in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. While considerable progress has been made to understand the factors that contribute to youth violence, there is a lack of high quality data pertaining to effective practices and approaches to counter this issue in the Caribbean. To this end, USAID awarded a grant to the CCR to work in close collaboration with government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in 10 Caribbean countries to:
a. Assess promising practices through rigorous evaluations conducted by Northeastern University or other U.S. universities.
b. Strengthen the monitoring and evaluation practices of select local partners through workshops, trainings, and customized technical assistance.
c. Disseminate knowledge on youth crime and violence prevention by drawing upon evidence gathered through scoping and other assessments. |
| Qualifications: |
The ideal candidate will have:
Education: A Bachelor’s degree, with some training in public policy, economics or quantitative methods of program evaluation, and some knowledge and background related to public policy around crime, violence and juvenile justice issues.
Experience: 1-3 years’ work experience demonstrating flexibility in work capabilities and strong ability to manage work effectively.
Skills: An understanding of research on public policies and how evaluation can benefit new or existing policies. Strong professional written and verbal proficiency in English and an understanding of how to communicate with policy and practitioner audiences.
Organization: The ability to think strategically, handle multiple projects at once, meet deadlines, and effectively manage your time.
Ability to travel: This position may involve sporadic travel to different CCR project sites, including California, Mexico and the Caribbean. |
