Justice Impacted Data Fellow

Organization Overview: The Goddard Riverside Community Center (Goddard Riverside) and the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center (Isaacs Center) are well-established Manhattan community-based agencies that support services to approximately 30,000 New Yorkers. We are two of New York City’s leading human services organizations meeting the needs of children, youth and families, homeless individuals, and older adults through-out Manhattan and New York City. We work every day for a fair and just society where all people have the opportunity to make choices that lead to better lives for themselves and their families.

Introduction/Program Description: #DegreesNYC is a data-informed collective impact movement co-led with young people to achieve education equity in NYC. The Data Fellowship is a crucial part of our growing Data and Research Hub. They participate in research projects about educational equity issues relevant to NYC youth. They help to shape research questions, gather and analyze data, and present findings. 

The Data Fellows also participate in the Youth Council. The #DegreesNYC Youth Council draws upon the lived experiences of young people to educate, advocate, and create positive change in their communities. They seek to enhance #DegreesNYC’s work toward a more just, equitable and student-ready education system. They do this by elevating youth voice, promoting civic engagement and developing youth leadership. 

Position Summary: #DegreesNYC is the primary driver of Goddard Riverside’s educational equity agenda. The Data Fellows work under the Data and Research Coordinator and the Youth Council Co-Coordinator for Data and Research, to participate in research projects related to #DegreesNYC’s policy priorities.  

The Data Fellowship was created to investigate the student readiness of CUNY institutions. Student readiness refers to the extent that a school, college, or university is “ready” to support all students, instead of the traditional narrative that students must become ready to fit within the mold of a school. The previous cohort of Fellows participated in and completed the now published Student-Ready Schools and Campuses Report. The current cohort of Data Fellows is working on a subsequent research project to advance the findings in our first report and investigate different facets of student readiness and/or the specific needs of students from varying backgrounds. To support our understanding of the unique experiences of justice-impacted students, we are looking to hire a fifth Data Fellow to join our team. The new Fellow would join our current projects and lead our research on the educational experiences of justice-involved students over the course of the next year and a half, culminating with a finished report and presentation in the spring of 2026. Partnered with our Advocacy Fellows, the new Data Fellow would help to increase awareness around the unmet needs of justice-impacted students, ultimately supporting college enrollment, retention, and graduation rates for justice-involved students. Uniquely, the new Data Fellow would join the team from January of 2025 until June of 2026, and would participate in two Youth Council cohorts.  

Schedule: Duration from January 2025- June 2026, up to 10 hours a week. 

Hourly Rate: $16.50

Purpose: The Data Fellows ground #DegreesNYC’s research and advocacy priorities in youth voice. As our research focuses on the experiences of youth, the Data Fellows undertake an important role in narrating their experiences as high school and/or college students and uplifting others’ experiences through focus groups. The Data Fellows have the responsibility and power to help shape the design of our research projects to best reflect the values and concerns of young people and communicate findings in a meaningful way.  

Role, Responsibilities, and Essential Duties 

• Participate in research trainings, led by the Data and Research Coordinator or partner researchers 

• Participate in the research process through the collection of data, data analysis, synthesis of findings, and report writing  

• Recruit NYC students to participate in focus groups about the experiences of justice-involved students  

• Lead focus groups and analyze focus group data 

• Collect and create a bank and archive of student stories  

• Complete work assigned by partner organizations, such as the Research Alliance for NYC Schools, focused on developing research skills and participating in the research process 

• Present findings to partner organizations, the community, or at conferences 

• Attend weekly check-in meetings with the Data and Research Coordinator and Youth Council Co-Coordinator for Data and Research 

• Attend the #DegreesNYC team meeting at least once a month, weekly meetings with the Youth Council, and the monthly #DegreesNYC Strategy Meetings in person 

Qualifications/Educational Requirements 

• Justice-involved (preferred)- Students who are court-involved or formerly incarcerated 

• Current NYC college students, or taking a gap year 

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:   

• Excellent communication skills 

• Interested in youth advocacy/empowerment 

• Able to commit to working 10 hours a week and join regular, recurrent meetings  

• Able to attend the in-person strategy meetings once a month at the Options Center 

• Access to Wi-Fi and a computer 

• Community organizing and political activism experience is a plus 

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions 

• Hybrid 

Contact : If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Bork (rbork@goddard.org). 

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace community grounded in respect for differences. We support hiring a broadly diverse team of qualified individuals who will contribute to our organizations.

Goddard Riverside and Isaacs Center provide equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of duties and responsibilities that will be required of this position and title and shall not be construed as a declaration of the specific duties and responsibilities of any particular position. Employees may be requested to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description. This job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee and is subject to change by the employer. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.