General Summary: 

The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston and partners at the Disability Policy Consortium are looking for members of the disability community to work in a paid research internship as part of a research team studying employment for people with disabilities. The goal of the project is to study the Progressive Employment model, an emerging evidence-based practice that helps job seekers with disabilities to obtain competitive integrated employment. The ICI has a five-year research grant to explore the impact of the Progressive Employment model.

Progressive Employment (PE) is a dual-customer service delivery model that uses work-based learning strategies (activities in real workplaces) to introduce job seekers to businesses to meet their collective needs. Progressive Employment rapidly engages job seekers in work settings to aid informed choice as they develop their career goals. The underlying premise is that “everyone is ready for something.” This model, developed in 2009 by the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, offers businesses a variety of options for meeting, interacting with, and trying out a new pool of potential job applicants.

The Research Internship is designed to provide hands-on experience in qualitative research and scholarly dissemination. The primary goal of the internship is to enhance interns’ skills in qualitative research methods and processes while supporting the development and submission of a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Interns will work closely with research staff and contribute to various stages of the research process, depending on project needs, internship timing, and the availability of research activities.

Examples of Duties: 

ICI and partners will provide learning opportunities for interns to gain experience with:

• Working on federally-funded research grants

• Qualitative research methods and analysis.
• Developing skills in literature review, data synthesis, and academic writing.
• Increasing understanding of the research publication process.
• Contributed to the preparation and submission of a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Interns will:

1. Assist with outreach and communication efforts to research participants.
2. Support the planning and implementation of qualitative research activities.
3. Conduct qualitative data collection activities, such as interviews or focus groups, community conversations as appropriate.
4. Participate in qualitative data coding, analysis, and interpretation.
5. Conduct literature reviews and desk reviews to inform research objectives and manuscript development.
6. Summarize and synthesize research findings from academic and gray literature sources.
7. Contribute to the drafting, editing, and revision of sections of research manuscripts, reports, and related dissemination products.
8. Collaborate with research team members and attend project meetings as appropriate.

9. Maintain human subjects certification (CITI) and follow ethical principles in conducting interviews, focus groups and observations.

Note: Specific responsibilities may vary based on the timing of the internship, project phase, and the availability of research activities.

Qualifications: 

• Identify as a person with lived experience of any type of disability
• Strong knowledge of and experience in using a computer. Including using: email, online calendars, the Zoom video conference platform, search engines to gather information, Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Teams.
• Willingness to develop new skills. Skills may include, learning new computer applications, co-facilitating meetings, writing in plain language, doing accessibility checks, creating alt tags, etc.

• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to review, interpret, and synthesize information from multiple sources.

• Willingness to learn about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the Rehabilitation Act and other federal legislation impacting individuals with disabilities

• Strong interest in contributing to scholarly research and gaining experience with the process of preparing and submitting manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals.

   

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Interest in learning qualitative research methods, data analysis techniques, and research software such as Atlas.ti.
• Interest in conducting literature reviews and synthesizing findings from published research.
• Interest in academic writing, knowledge translation, and research dissemination activities.

• Graduate students, or undergraduate students with a demonstrated interest in research and scholarly writing, are strongly encouraged to apply. This position is particularly well suited for individuals seeking to develop a scholarly presence and gain experience contributing to peer-reviewed research publications.

Supervision:  

Interns will be supervised by ICI staff and will also have access to a mentor from the Disability Policy Consortium on this project. We do not provide job coaches or support people. You can bring your own support person or job coach if you need one. 

Tell us if you have any other accommodation needs. Let us know if you need anything to make the internship more accessible. We will provide accommodations, such as assistive technology or sign language interpreters.  

Other Information: 

The ICI is hiring up to two intern positions. Each intern will be paid to work for up to 400 hours during a one-year period (e.g., 10-week full time paid internships @ 40 hours/week; or 20-week part-time paid internship @ 20 hours/week, etc.). The hourly rate is commensurate with experience. Hiring range $25.00 – 31.00/hour.  

ICI will provide the interns with a laptop and necessary software to use for work on this project. Remote candidates are required to have access to high-speed internet and a quiet work environment.  

UMass Boston requires background checks for all employees.  The background checks will be conducted upon hire.  

We will provide disability related accommodations in the interview process. Let us know if you will need an accommodation for the interview.    

Application Instructions:

Please apply online with your resume, cover letter and list of three references. 

This is a non-union exempt position. 

All official salary offers must be approved by Human Resources.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HR@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.