Chapin Hall

For decades, Chapin Hall has documented persistent racial inequities in child and family well-being. While we have worked to provide evidence to inform how to address these inequities, we also acknowledge that it matters who does the research. Studies are shaped by who establishes the research questions, how they collect the data, and what life experiences and perspectives they bring to frame the results.  

To expand the pool of researchers who are informed by life experiences, Chapin Hall launched the Equity First Summer Associates Program in 2024. This program is a six-week summer career-building opportunity for PhD students in the Chicago area who: 

• have completed a minimum of two years of their course of study (slight preference for those who have completed comprehensive exams, though this is not required); 
• have experienced education, career, and other barriers due to racial discrimination; and 
• want to apply their scholarship and lived expertise toward equity and social justice. 

View slide deck from January 30, 2025 webinar

The Equity First Summer Associates are exposed to human service system change work in an applied research and policy organization. The Associates use this eight-week period to learn and apply racial equity principles in a non-academic environment and submit a capstone project implementing these principles in a specific context.  They deepen their understanding of the culturally responsive racial equity (CRRE) approach to research,  and apply that approach to their own equity action plans for their future research.

'What really drew me to the program was the opportunity to learn more formally how to translate my work in a way that is actionable that can bring about change in real time.'

Evelyn Coker, Equity First Summer Associate, 2024

The program is a hybrid model (approx. 30 hours/week) with weekly virtual cohort meetings with content delivery and discussion, practical application exercises, videos, and readings outside of structured time, and two required in-person events for orientation to and culmination of the program. The program will run from June 6 to July 22, 2025. Associates who complete the program receive a $10,000 stipend. 

Stay informed about the program

Flyer about program

The Equity First Summer Associates Program builds on Chapin Hall’s Equity First Fellows initiative launched in 2022. Chapin Hall’s Equity First Fellows bring expertise in racial equity, child well-being, public systems transformation, and community change and work with Chapin Hall leaders and staff on promising policies, interventions and systems change efforts. 

Learn more about this and other racial equity initiatives at Chapin Hall, explore Chapin Hall’s Racial Equity Principles, or write to us at EquityFirstSummerAssociates@ChapinHall.org.