Chapin Hall

Watch an information session about the program

For decades, Chapin Hall has documented persistent racial inequities in child and family wellbeing. 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 is launching the  Equity First Summer Associates Program in the summer of 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 life barriers due to racial discrimination; and 
• want to apply their scholarship and lived expertise toward equity and social justice. 

The Equity First Summer Associates will be exposed to human service system change work in an applied research and policy organization. The Associates will use this six-week period to learn and apply racial equity principles in a non-academic environment and develop a personal action plan for implementing these principles in their work beyond this summer program.  

A maximum of five associates will be selected for the program, which will run June 10 – July 25, 2024 (with a break the week of July 1st).  The program will be 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: 1) orientation on Monday, June 10th and 2) a culminating session on Thursday, July 25th in Chicago. Associates who completed the program will receive a $10,000 stipend. 

The application period for this summer’s program closed on February 23. 

Stay Informed

Flyer about program

The Equity First Summer Associates Program builds on Chapin Hall’s Equity First Fellows initiative launched in January 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.