Project: Global TIES for Children – Primary Education and Learning in Emergencies (PELE)

Title: Communication Assistant

Division/Department: Steinhardt/ IHDSC – Global TIES for Children

Reports to: Douha Boulares, Budget & Communication Associate

Work Location: New York University, Washington Square

Work Schedule: Part-time 15 to 20 hours per week

Salary (Pay Range): $28.30/hr

Benefits Eligible: No

Start/End Date: October 15th, 2021 – October 15th, 2022 (Possibility of annual contract renewal contingent upon satisfactory performance and availability of funding)

About Global TIES's Primary Education and Learning in Emergencies (PELE)

Education can only contribute to inclusivity and equity in society by ensuring quality learning for the most marginalized children: those displaced by crisis and conflict as well as those in host communities under strain. Since 2016, the PELE team at NYU's Global TIES for Children has sought to support primary school-aged children's holistic learning and development in crisis contexts by facilitating stakeholders' ability to generate, communicate and use evidence for program and policy decision-making.

To contribute to such a vision, NYU-TIES is: 

• Conducting research in partnership on education program implementation and impact and on holistic child development in contexts of conflict and protracted crisis;
• Communicating to diverse, non-technical stakeholders to facilitate the uptake of evidence and measures
• Increasing the capacity of research-practice-policy partnerships to develop, adapt, test and use data from holistic learning measures at a national/sub-national scale;
• Developing and disseminating global public goods (e.g., measures of holistic learning, learning modules, open-source R packages) to support stakeholders' capacity to generate and use actionable data.

Position Summary

The Communication Assistant will serve as a key component of a small but growing communications team, working closely with the PELE Budget & Communication Associate. The position includes assisting with all aspects of internal and external communications for several PELE project activities, including:

• Creating diverse communication products (press releases, videos, blogs, pitches, etc.) to effectively communicate research goals and findings to technical and non-technical audiences
• Building and disseminating e-communications, utilizing a strong creative and media skill set to generate content for various social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Tracking projects' campaign exposure and pulling and assessing various reports, analytics.
• Coordinating with the team for newsletter/website updates.

The position will be at New York University's New York City campus.

Responsibilities

The Communications Assistant will report directly to the Budget & Communication Associate and will work closely with project Research Scientist(s) and Associate(s). The Assistant will be responsible for the following activities:

• Assist in planning and monitoring communications campaign
• Research, compile, update, and outreach to media lists.
• Assist in the creation of communications reports on communications campaign.
• Assist with writing press releases and organizing public relations (PR) materials
• Provide administrative support for PR events on-site, off-site, and virtually.
• Refine organizational systems for tracking and organizing communications products and dissemination materials and metrics using project management software such as Asana
• Support in the communication and dissemination of results of research activities:
• Coordinate with NYU-TIES core staff to disseminate materials via website and social media
• Develop and maintain a social media calendar of social media posts, events and important dates
• Collaborate with staff to brainstorm, design, and organize content
• Review communications materials to ensure adherence to the university and partner branding and style guide.
• Organize materials for dissemination on INEE and NYU-TIES websites and other platforms
• Provide analytics/metrics report on TIES social media and website.
• Research trends and best practices for utilizing various social media outlets
• Investigate and propose new social media platforms to utilize
• Complete other duties as assigned

The candidates should have:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in any discipline; major in marketing/advertising or communications a plus
• Ability to work well independently and in a multidisciplinary, multi-country team.
• Excellent organization skills, efficiency, and attention to detail.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Culturally and globally-minded with a strong interest in culture, news and current affairs

The ideal candidate will also have:

• Arabic/Spanish proficiency is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in utilizing social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) with scheduling software (Hootsuite, Later, etc.)
• Strong writing and technical editing skills
• Basic knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite products – especially Photoshop, InDesign, Caneva - or other graphic artistry experience is a plus.
• Mastery of database software (e.g., Excel, Google Sheets) and openness to adopting project management software (e.g., Asana, Copper).

Benefits and Employment Conditions:

• Competitive salary (salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience) and attractive fringe benefits (health, dental, vision, retirement, etc.) and support for conference/event travel related to Center projects.
• Minimum one-year commitment required, with the potential for renewal.

About Global TIES for Children

At New York University's Global TIES for Children we design, evaluate and advise on programs and policies to improve the lives of children and youth in the most vulnerable regions across the globe. Led by University Professors Larry Aber and Hiro Yoshikawa, we work with some of the world's leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and with governments in low-income (LI) and conflict-affected (CA) countries on developing and evaluating innovative approaches to promoting the health, education, and social development of children and their communities. Together with our key strategic partner organizations, our work leverages cutting-edge scientific methods and interdisciplinary collaboration to:

• Generate actionable evidence to promote child and youth development by conducting and evaluating powerful strategies to transform relevant