Job Posting - Stand for Children Salem Organizer (Full-Time)
Lindsay Harkins Raidbard
THE ROLE
Your role is to organize to change our education systems to create equity for children and families from under-resourced communities. As a key member of Stand’s Oregon team, you will be responsible for working with individuals to develop their advocacy skills and build an organization to effect change. The Organizer will be responsible for identifying, coaching, and developing the leadership skills of individuals, and building engaged teams. Stand members and teams are committed to taking local, district, and state action in support of improving education in their community; and initiating and leading campaigns to advocate for better education outcomes for students. You will work with colleagues who not only care deeply about racial justice and equity, but who are bold and strategic and take responsibility for achieving substantial progress toward our mission every year.
The Salem-Keizer School District is very diverse, with over 40% of students identifying as Latino/Latina and 70% of students are economically disadvantaged. These students are too often under-served and under-represented and have lower success rates and graduation rates. The Organizer will connect with students and families, listen to their concerns, and help build local advocacy campaigns to address these concerns.
THE ORGANIZATION
Stand is a non-profit education advocacy organization focused on ensuring all students receive a high quality, relevant education, especially those whose boundless potential is overlooked and under-tapped because of their skin color, zip code, first language, or disability.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Build a diverse and highly skilled base of parent and student leaders and supporters:
The Organizer will focus on key school communities to meet and engage parents and high school students concerned about the inequity, achievement, and opportunity gaps in schools.
- Develop a pipeline, identify, and recruit parents and supporters in the community. Use virtual, and in the future, face-to-face meetings to build relationships, strengthen communities, and recruit volunteers and leaders;
- Support advocacy and political skills to bring change in their communities through strategic electoral and issue campaigns;
- Deliver trainings and facilitate workshops that develop individual skills, and strengthen collective action for change;
- Develop, coach, and support potential leaders and leaders through:
- One-on-one coaching
- Debriefing what worked/didn’t and lessons learned
- Skill-building with role-playing and practice
- Work with volunteer leadership to set goals around team growth, action, and engagement, coaching them to successfully meet those goals;
Activate leaders and members to grow teams and win campaigns
- Support and maintain an organized leadership to expand membership base to strategically engage in campaigns aimed at improving educational outcomes for students;
- Coach leaders to help identify other potential leaders;
- Coach leaders to ensure a majority of all team members are taking regular action and that members are presented opportunities to remain engaged for multiple campaigns;
- Develop leaders to mobilize others in the community to advocate on state policies and school budgets during Oregon state legislative session;
- Recruit and develop leaders to engage in electoral work; School Board elections, local elections, local bonds, and ballot measures;
Build relationships in the community:
The Organizer will help develop and maintain relationships with community leaders, school staff, and local elected officials to work with us on change.
- Stand works with several community-based organizations that support communities of color. The Organizer will connect with these groups, build relationships, and support their advocacy for racial, cultural, and educational justice;
- Organizer will work with State Organizing Director to build and maintain these relationships.
QUALIFICATIONS
- A minimum of 1-2-years organizing with experience in campaigns, volunteer recruitment and leadership development, or similar experience;
- Passionate commitment to Stand for Children’s mission and strategy to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for and with access to a college education or career training;
- Fluency in Spanish Required;
- Experience working with diverse and/or bilingual communities;
- Proven ability to achieve measurable, meaningful results in a fast-paced environment;
- Passion for developing people; including experience delivering presentations and facilitating pre-designed curriculum;
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and team-building skills; ability to initiate, foster, and leverage contacts and networks to achieve strong, positive outcomes;
- Ability to be a flexible and self-motivated problem-solver, and critical thinker;
- Willingness to work flexible hours including evenings and occasional weekends; full-time access to a car;
- Ability to be in multiple locations in the course of a given day, the ability to transport items, and the ability to set up and take down meeting equipment (chairs, tables, projectors, screens, etc.); may require the ability to climb stairs.
Stand for Children consists of two separate entities. Stand for Children, Inc., a grassroots membership organization is exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, and Stand for Children Leadership Center, a leadership development organization is exempt under section 501(c)(3)
Stand for Children and Stand for Children Leadership Center provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression or marital status. We are committed to a diverse and culturally inclusive workplace in which our differences broaden our awareness, enrich our daily experiences and contribute to our collective strength. We predominantly partner with low-income communities of color. Therefore, though race and other legally protected characteristics are never used to make final hiring decisions, we focus on recruiting staff members who share the backgrounds of the communities we serve.