The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice seeks dedicated, highly qualified law and/or graduate students for summer and term internships. Term internships are part-time. Please submit inquiries or applications (comprised of a cover letter, resume, transcript (official or unofficial), three references, and a writing sample) to recruitment@njisj.org. Please indicate if you want to intern for course credit.

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The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (the “Institute”) is looking for a passionate, creative, and dynamic team player dedicated to racial and social justice to serve as an Associate Counsel in our Democracy & Justice pillar. The Associate Counsel will conduct legal research and writing, policy analysis, legal and legislative advocacy, and community-driven advocacy campaigns to help expand racial and social justice in New Jersey at a critical time in our history.

The Institute’s Democracy & Justice pillar advocates for a progressive, policy-driven agenda to create and protect an inclusive and multiracial democracy without barriers in New Jersey; to provide a space for robust discussion with policy makers and elected officials, focused on racial and social justice issues; and to engage with, prepare, and educate voters to confidently participate in the democratic process.

Over the coming years, the pillar will work on many initiatives to expand and build an inclusive, multiracial democracy in New Jersey, including, but not limited to: ensuring that voters, and especially voters of color, have equal access to a fair ballot; expanding the right to vote in elections, including to 16 and 17 year olds and those who are incarcerated; reducing barriers to participation, such as arbitrary voter registration deadlines, so that all eligible voters are able to cast a ballot; increasing civic education and engagement around voting and democracy; and exploring ways to incorporate voting rights protections into state law as federal voting rights protections continue to be threatened.

For more information, including how to apply, click here.

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (the “Institute”) is looking for a dynamic team player to serve as an Associate Counsel for Economic Justice to implement a program of policy advocacy to expand racial and social justice in New Jersey. The position combines rigorous research and policy analysis and carrying out community-driven advocacy campaigns to help strengthen and advance economic justice in New Jersey, with a focus on closing the racial wealth gap.

Our goal within the Economic Justice Program is to build in New Jersey the most inclusive economy in America that can serve as a national model for what is possible from the ground up in our communities.

This is an exciting opportunity, at a critical time in our history, to advance racial and social justice to topple load-bearing walls of structural inequality to create just, vibrant and healthy communities in New Jersey through the Institute’s Economic Justice Program.  Through the creation of inclusive policies and programs that support the financial security and mobility of economically vulnerable communities of color, our work serves to ensure that New Jersey’s historically marginalized families of color thrive, while growing the state’s economy for all.  Our evidence-driven, solutions-focused work targets several areas which are the root causes of economic vulnerability, poverty, and the racial wealth gap, including the following: (1) unemployment and lack of access to quality jobs, (2) a lack of affordable and non-discriminatory housing and homeownership options in safe and healthy neighborhoods, (3) inequality and discrimination in  access to affordable credit, (4) inequitable access to higher education and (5) disparities in access to intergenerational wealth. Our work is rooted in the knowledge that the racial wealth gap is a manifestation of generations of policy-generated inequalities in these areas, each of which has crucial influence on the ability of families to meet daily needs as well as to save for the future and grow wealth. This foundational understanding has also led to the Institute’s deep involvement in reparative policy solutions and our work to convene the New Jersey Reparations Council, a 50+ person council comprised of policy experts, academics, and advocates, that published its findings on Juneteenth 2025 and proposed substantial policy reforms that will shape the upcoming work of the Institute.

The Institute advocates for systemic reform that is at once transformative, achievable in the state, and replicable in communities across the nation. 

For more information, including how to apply, click here.

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (the “Institute”) is looking for a dynamic team player to serve as a Policy Analyst for Economic Justice to implement a program of policy advocacy to expand racial and social justice in New Jersey. The position combines rigorous research and policy analysis and carrying out community-driven advocacy campaigns to help strengthen and advance economic justice in New Jersey, with a focus on closing the racial wealth gap.

Our goal within the Economic Justice Program is to build in New Jersey the most inclusive economy in America that can serve as a national model for what is possible from the ground up in our communities.

This is an exciting opportunity, at a critical time in our history, to advance racial and social justice to topple load-bearing walls of structural inequality to create just, vibrant and healthy communities in New Jersey through the Institute’s Economic Justice Program.  Through the creation of inclusive policies and programs that support the financial security and mobility of economically vulnerable communities of color, our work serves to ensure that New Jersey’s historically marginalized families of color thrive, while growing the state’s economy for all.  Our evidence-driven, solutions-focused work targets several areas which are the root causes of economic vulnerability, poverty, and the racial wealth gap, including the following: (1) unemployment and lack of access to quality jobs, (2) a lack of affordable and non-discriminatory housing and homeownership options in safe and healthy neighborhoods, (3) inequality and discrimination in  access to affordable credit, (4) inequitable access to higher education and (5) disparities in access to intergenerational wealth. Our work is rooted in the knowledge that the racial wealth gap is a manifestation of generations of policy-generated inequalities in these areas, each of which has crucial influence on the ability of families to meet daily needs as well as to save for the future and grow wealth. This foundational understanding has also led to the Institute’s deep involvement in reparative policy solutions and our work to convene the New Jersey Reparations Council, a 50+ person council comprised of policy experts, academics, and advocates, that published its findings on Juneteenth 2025 and proposed substantial policy reforms that will shape the upcoming work of the Institute.

The Institute advocates for systemic reform that is at once transformative, achievable in the state, and replicable in communities across the nation. 

For more information, including how to apply, click here.