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The College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at UIC is the University of Illinois System's home for the study of public policy and contemporary urban challenges. We are CUPPA.

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Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Assistant - Urban Institute (D.C.)

Who: At the nonprofit Urban Institute, we believe in the power of evidence to improve lives and strengthen communities. Our employees are empowered to open minds, shape decisions and offer solutions. We encourage intellectual honesty, innovation, diversity, and mutual respect, and our analysis elevates the debate, wherever it takes place.

Urban’s greatest asset is our people. We strive to attract and cultivate a vibrant, creative, and diverse community. Our employees drive Urban’s mission through entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, effective communication, results-orientation, and relationship cultivation. Our success depends on engaging individuals who possess and value these attributes.

Within the Urban Institute, the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center conducts research on how housing and place shape people’s lives. We believe that housing and place matter. Quality, affordable housing anchors families, and the communities where people live can influence nearly everything in their lives: where they work and how they get there, the quality of schools that their children attend, their health and safety, even their longevity.

 What: The Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center seeks a dynamic and highly motivated individual to work as a Policy Assistant to support projects on a variety of housing policy topics.This position plays a key support role on projects that include research, policy development and communications.

Responsibilities include:

  • Conduct background research on a range of topics including homelessness, affordable housing, urban planning and land use, community development, economic development, and other urban policy topics 
  • Support Center VP and other senior researchers in preparing written products such as literature reviews, op-eds, reports, policy briefs, blog posts and social media 
  • Produce Power Point presentations and various forms of data visualization including tables, maps, and graphics for reports 
  • Provide background support to Center VP for drafting letters, emails, memos, presentations 
  • Prepare talking points for internal and external audiences 
  • Support onsite and offsite meetings; manage meeting preparation and logistics 
  • Manage Metropolitan Housing and Communities center webpages and assist with Center VP social media 
  • Schedule, support, and manage follow up for center strategy and collaboration meetings. 
  • Develop and manage center citations database 
Qualifications: Prior work experience or public policy related internship experience in fast-paced office environments with federal, state, local policymakers, philanthropic and/or non-profits leaders is a plus.

The successful candidate will:
  • Possess a Bachelor's degree preferably in the field of Public Policy, Urban Studies, Political Science, or other social science field 
  • Demonstrate a strong interest in homelessness, affordable housing, housing as a platform, neighborhood revitalization, community and economic development, urban planning and land-use, evidence-based policymaking 
  • Express an insatiable appetite for public policy questions and research. 
  • Demonstrate excellent and versatile writing skills 
  • Exhibit excellent project and time management skills, with the ability to manage numerous requests/deliverables simultaneously all with outstanding attention to detail 
  • Utilize sophisticated problem solving capabilities and critical thinking to help address management challenges and program development 
  • Communicate with diplomacy, professionalism, and tact; excellent relationship management skills, including upward management 
  • Work with functional groups, internal stakeholders, and different levels of employees to effectively and professionally achieve results and promote a collaborative and supportive environment 
  • Have strong proficiency with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, mobile technology, and social media tools 
 For additional information, please find a full job description here.
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