All Things Urban

The Department of Urban Studies & Planning (DUSP), a department within the School of Architecture + Planning at MIT, was founded in 1933. The Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs once again ranked DUSP #1 in the U.S. and Canada

The Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) is a center for planning and development within the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. CoLab supports the development and use of knowledge from excluded communities to deepen civic engagement, improve community practice, inform policy, mobilize community assets, and generate shared wealth. CoLab believes that community knowledge can drive powerful innovation and can help make markets an arena for supporting social justice.

CoLab builds strategic partnerships and works to implement strategies that enable communities to harness their existing assets and capture the value they create to promote inclusive economic development that is environmentally sustainable, socially just, and deeply democratic. CoLab brings multi-disciplinary expertise from the urban planning discipline, municipal government, business, community media, civil rights advocacy, and community and labor organizing.

CoLab seeks a Project Manager for Stakeholder Engagement to join the team conducting a Comprehensive Planning Process for Wellness Empowerment for Brooklyn, a multi-year effort to improve community health and grow community wealth in Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Stakeholder Engagement (50%):

• Bring considerable knowledge of local community context to map and activate social networks that undergird WEB
• Build relationships with key stakeholders, including community residents, elected officials, CBO leaders, healthcare leaders, civic leaders, cultural leaders, youth leaders and others
• Help channel input from, and build consensus among stakeholders around strategy and focus of WEB
• Cultivate stakeholder and community support for WEB initiatives

Education and Outreach (15%):

• Organize and facilitate workshops and other convenings of community stakeholders
• Conduct interviews and focus groups with community stakeholders in order to develop buy-in for the Comprehensive Planning Process

Planning and Technical Support (35%):

• With key stakeholders, develop a participatory asset map of key Brooklyn neighborhoods
• With key stakeholders, compile key neighborhood indicators to inform the asset mapping and planning process
• Provide technical assistance to community collaborators
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data collected over the course of the study
• With the CoLab team, help prepare a development study based on the results of the participatory asset
  map findings to identify synergies among assets, needs and aspirations in Brooklyn communities in order to create the conditions for health and the development of shared wealth
• Manage the student team that will assist with the mapping and development study

Ideal Candidate:

• Has a minimum of three years’ relevant experience
• Has a degree in urban planning, public health or a related field (Masters degree preferred), or equivalent relevant experience
• Has excellent project management skills
• Is able to develop strong rapport with colleagues from a range of backgrounds and levels of experience
• Is familiar with Brooklyn neighborhoods, organizations, institutions and stakeholders
• Has excellent oral and written communication skills and strong relational intelligence
• Has experience working in neighborhoods to collect survey, interview and focus group data
• Has experience in conducting participatory action research or using similar methodologies
• Is a strong presenter and able to generate creative reporting tools
• Is experienced in quantitative and qualitative data analysis
• Is familiar with mapping software

$65-70K

We’re not fully sure whether this role is open to international candidates. If you would need visa sponsorship or work authorisation, we recommend checking directly with the employer before applying.