First 5 Alameda County
POLICY INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY

BACKGROUND
First 5 Alameda County (First 5) is an innovative public entity created to improve the early childhood system of care. Our vision is that every child in Alameda County will have optimal health, development and wellbeing to reach his or her greatest potential. Our mission is that in partnership with the community, we support a county-wide continuous prevention and early intervention system that promotes optimal health and development, narrows disparities and improves the lives of children 0 to 5 and their families. As we celebrate our twentieth anniversary, we are more strongly embracing our role as a catalyst, collaborator, capacity builder, and policy advocate.

First 5’s policy efforts advance our vision and mission in a variety of ways. We lead and participate in key initiatives in Alameda County and the state, and bringing together local funders and stakeholders around early childhood policy and fund development. We believe it is fundamental to support the efforts of parent/family-led organizations to advocate for the needs of young children as they cultivate, support, and train parent leaders. At a state and federal level, we partner with the First 5 Association on around important legislative initiatives that advance or threaten the development of strong, effective, and stable family-serving systems, and working to build awareness among partners and families about those initiatives. Our policy work is driven by short-term data collection and long-term evaluation to show the impact of our work on young children with policy makers and identify gaps that will inform future policy goals. For more information, please go to: http://www.first5alameda.org/.

POLICY INTERN
All policy interns will have a project to complete and also assist in the ongoing policy work of the organization.

DUTIES:
- Assist with getting stakeholder and partner feedback in the First 5 Alameda County Policy Agenda
- Assist in the development of a Call to Action Policy Event
- Provide support during the event and help processing information received post event
- Assist in the development of internal and external processes for creating the First 5 Alameda County Policy Agenda:
- Research best practices in engaging with community and parents in designing a policy agenda for children
- Develop meeting agendas and tools for collecting policy agenda priorities from First 5 Alameda County partners
- Assist with drafting the policy agenda
- Assist with regular and ongoing tasks related to federal, state and local policy at First 5 Alameda County. This includes:
- Provide background research and memos relating to current legislative efforts at a state and federal level
- Contribute to the development of issue briefs, fact sheets, and other materials relevant to First 5 policy work
- Draft blogs, tweets, and talking points relating to early childhood policy topics
- Draft letters of support to state and federal officials

QUALIFICATIONS:
- Completed college with four year degree and a graduate of or currently enrolled in a Master’s level graduate school program in the social sciences, business, health care, public policy, public health or public administration field preferred.
- Familiarity with researching and locating data (socioeconomic, education, general population, health, etc.) and doing data analysis.
- Work collaboratively with community agencies and stakeholders
- Organize and prioritize work, multi-task, and work well under deadline pressure in a fast-paced, growing organization
- Communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, including ability to write reports
- Collect, compile and summarize varied information, consider alternatives and reach sound conclusions
- Exercise sound judgment within generally established policies and procedures
- Take initiative and work independently with little supervision
- Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work, work as part of a team

DURATION AND COMPENSATION:
All internship opportunities can be one semester, for the summer or school year- long. Compensation is $20 per hour, estimated 10 hours per week.

TO APPLY:
Please send a cover letter/email and resume to Page Tomblin, Senior Administrator – Policy, page.tomblin@first5alameda.org.