Make the Road New Jersey

New York City Area (Elizabeth, NJ), NY

This is the 2024 fellowship description for this mentor organization.

Make the Road New Jersey builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and respect. We do that through four key components that reach thousands of families every year:

Community Organizing to change the systems and power structures affecting our communities;
Legal and Support Services to tackle discrimination, abuse, and poverty;
Policy Innovation to rewrite unfair laws/policies and make our democracy accountable to all of us;
Transformative Education to develop leadership by amplifying our community members’ abilities to become leaders and lead in our movement.

Our legal team provides legal representation in a range of employment matters including wage and hour and discrimination cases, as well as class actions and strategic enforcement of laws Make the Road New Jersey developed and won including the New Jersey Wage Theft Act, and the first in the nation Temporary Workers Bill of Rights. Fellows will have the opportunity to develop pro-worker policy at the state level, assist in the direct representation of low wage immigrant, temporary, and logistics workers, on a range of employment law matters before administrative agencies and in court, and to engage in meaningful community education with Make the Road New Jersey’s membership via know your rights trainings and more. Through these various projects, Fellows will support organizing and policy efforts to build worker power.

Spanish proficiency preferred.

The total ten-week stipend for this fellowship will be $7,000.

Make the Road New Jersey is currently operating in a hybrid of in-person and remote work, but summer interns will be expected to be available as needed for in-person meetings at the primary office where they are assigned throughout the summer. We will be able to provide more information on work arrangements as the summer approaches.

Address cover letter to:

Lauren Herman & Joseph Niver
Make the Road New Jersey
42 Broad Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07093