Data/Technology internship for the Participation Lab
The Participatory Budgeting Project, Inc. (PBP), a nonprofit organization based primarily in New York City and Oakland, is seeking part-time interns for Fall 2017.
Our mission is to empower people to decide together how to spend public money. We work with elected officials, government agencies, and community groups in the US and Canada to set up participatory budgeting (PB) processes that give local people real power over taxpayer money. Through our work in cities such as New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, and Vallejo (CA), we have engaged over 200,000 people and 500 organizations in deciding how to spend $230 million.
The internship is ideal for individuals interested in exploring the potential of civic technology and data management as it relates to participatory democracy and gaining experience in the internal operations of a growing nonprofit while furthering their skills in Excel, Google Sheets or SPSS skills. The position(s) will be based in our Brooklyn, NY location.
Interns may be current or recently graduated students in any relevant degree- or certificate-granting program (2-year or 4-year college, graduate level), or professionals in transition (of any educational level) who are looking to develop new skills. The Data/Technology intern will learn about the ecosystem of civic technology and civic data in this role with PBP.
Responsibilities:
- Perform research, dataset cleaning, and data collection support in general;
- Research, test, and document technology and data visualization platforms and processes;
- Ask questions about equity with localized civic data
- Build meaningful data visualizations to support equitable civic projects.
- Intake/Process civic tech tools for our resource lists
- Help support Program Managers with technical aspects of data management
- If applicable relative to skillset: Clean up PHP code and documentation for an open-source voter registration system codebase and post on GitHub
- If applicable relative to skillset: Update page content on a WordPress website
- If applicable relative to skillset: Assist in building a pilot map and data viz display interface for PB open data
The ideal candidate will have:
- An interest in nonprofit technology and workflow
- An interest in civic tech or open source software
- Excel, Google Sheets or SPSS skills
- Excellent attention to detail
- Light Experience using WordPress or a similar website CMS
- High level of familiarity with Google Apps (Docs, Sheets, Gmail)
PBP is an Equal Opportunity Employer, strongly committed to building a staff that represents the diversity of communities we work in.
Interns will be paid $11/hr. For more information, visit our website at www.participatorybudgeting.org.
To apply, send a cover letter and resume to jobs@participatorybudgeting.org by Aug 31, 2017 for priority review. Please indicate in the subject line Fall 2017 Participation Lab Data/Technology Internship . Early applications are encouraged — applications will be reviewed and interviews scheduled on a rolling basis starting in mid-August.