RESEARCH/SCIENTIFIC AIDE III/ ASSISTANT- GLHW Project RA

Greater Lawndale Healthy Work

Research Assistant Job Description 

Background

The Greater Lawndale Healthy Work (GLHW) Project is nearly a decade-old community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership between North and South Lawndale communities (together known as Greater Lawndale) and the University of Illinois in Chicago. GLHW Project is a research project in the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Healthy Work, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Total Worker Health Center of Excellence (Grant: U19OH010154). 

RA Position 

The GLHW Research Assistant (RA) will provide support of the GLHW community-driven, evidence-based interventions to foster a culture of healthy work at the neighborhood level.  Support will include assisting with intervention development, evaluation and academic-community partnership development. 

The RA will work closely with the Principal Investigator Jeni Hebert-Beirne, GLHW staff, and the GLHW Council co-chairs and members. The RA will join a large research team that includes two staff members, two student partners, four co-investigators and nearly a dozen community research partners.  This person should exhibit excellent time management skills and flexibility needed to work within the iterative, reflective, and emerging timelines of CBPR. 

The ideal candidate is bilingual in English/Spanish and is a resident of or has established connections to people and organizations in Little Village and North Lawndale. Graduate level UIC students preferred;  Experience working with community organizations highly preferred. 

Time commitment: The RA position is 10 hours per week for 12 weeks starting 05/16/24 until 08/15/24 with the possibility of continuing into the Fall 2024 semester.  There is no tuition waiver with this position. 

Responsibilities: 

• Assist in carrying out the following aim for GLHW Project Subcommittee #3 Photo Voice Project with Informal Workers (SC #3):
• Aim: To identify healing-centered interventions to support informal workers (street vendors, in-home candy stores, in-home hair stylists) through photovoice (a participatory research method in which participants use photography and narratives to identify priority issues) building off our policy analysis on informal work situations in Greater Lawndale.
  • Objective 1: Using a healing framework, design a photovoice study for informal workers in GL.
  • Objective 2: Use the findings of the photovoice study to engage policy makers
  • To increase community ownership and wealth through increasing GLHW cooperatives.  We will conduct a mixed-methods feasibility study including a neighborhood readiness survey, focus groups and case studies, building off of our community education workshops on cooperatives.
• Assist in carrying out the following aim for GLHW Project Subcommittee #2 Worker Cooperatives (SC #2):
  • To increase community ownership and wealth through increasing GLHW cooperatives.  We will conduct a mixed-methods feasibility study including a neighborhood readiness survey, focus groups and case studies, building off of our community education workshops on cooperatives.
• Assist SC #2 or #3 with gathering materials, data, and other information, to then convert into reports, graphs, and charts. 
• Design, distributes, collects, and analyzes questionnaires. 
• Administer surveys.
• Conducts interviews to assemble data.
• Assist SC #2 or #3 Lead with administrative tasks such as setting meetings, taking meeting minutes, and creating PPT meeting slides.
• Attend regular GLHW team meetings.
• Utilize Microsoft Teams and email for communication with team.

If interested in the position, please email Sylvia Gonzalez sgonza43@uic.edu and provide your CV/resume by Friday, April 19th