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Lead Organizer, Stand with Dignity

This job is no longer available

New Orleans, LA
Full-time

The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice seeks a highly talented and experienced Lead Organizer to build strategic grassroots organizing campaigns, expand membership participation, create and implement leadership development programs for members, and build and sustain alliances and coalitions. The Stand lead organizer will also supervise a team of two organizers and work with the legal department of the NOWCRJ to develop strategic interventions in policy and workplace campaigns. Stand lead organizer will report to the Organizing Director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice and will work collaboratively with a team of organizers across membership organizations within the Center.

About the Organization:

The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice is a multi-racial membership based organization dedicated to building the power and participation of poor people in order to expand democracy and transform the economy. We organize directly affected people, and couple their courage with strategic legal, policy, and communications work to build campaigns that advance racial justice, immigrant rights, and a fair economy. Our members are African American and immigrant workers and families in New Orleans and rural Louisiana. The Workers’ Center anchors three grassroots membership organizations: the Congress of Day Laborers, Stand With Dignity, and the Seafood Workers Alliance, as well as a strategic legal department that innovates law and policy strategies that build grassroots power. Over the last more then ten years, the Center’s organizing and policy victories have been highlighted in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek. For more information go to www.nowcrj.org.

About Stand with Dignity:  Stand with Dignity is a project of the NOWCRJ and is a grassroots membership organization of structurally unemployed and underemployed Black workers in New Orleans. Stand is a vehicle for black New Orleanians to build power and fight against the structural racism in employment, criminalization and housing. Stand’s grassroots organizing campaigns including the #BlackWorkersMatter campaign and the Warrant Clinic have won major victories for individuals and at the policy level including a living wage ordinance and a local hiring ordinance to address the Black jobs crisis in New Orleans.

About the Position: Lead Organizer, Stand with Dignity

This position is based in New Orleans.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

1.  Drive and co-develop strategic grassroots organizing campaigns that win concrete improvements in the lives of members

  • Drive a collaborative campaign development process that brings together the perspectives and wisdom of members, allies, organizers and legal team. 

  • Ensure that the campaign policy goals reflect the priorities of our members. 

  • Expand membership participation and create and implement leadership development programs for members. 

  • Build and develop systems to effectively monitor and enforce our policy victories. 

  • Encourage the use of direct action as necessary and strategic to advance campaigns 
and build power. 

  • Provide strategic direction and vision for power and influence on citywide policy issues and politics.

2.  Effectively supervise and develop Stand organizers to hit their membership and organizing goals.

  • Support the development and execution of the organizers’ work plans to ensure they are hitting their goals. 

  • Provide weekly coaching and feedback to drive support and accountability for the team.
  • Support Stand organizers in running effective weekly membership meetings. 

  • Provide leadership development opportunities for Stand organizers to help them 
grow their skills. 

  • Responsible for high performance and high production values of the team overall. 

3.  Work directly with the field team to grow the membership of Stand and deepen member participation

  • Assure you and the stand team are building, maintaining, and developing new contacts and signing up new members.
  • Support, expand and deepen member leadership and leadership structures through one on ones, membership meetings, leadership meetings and other fieldwork.
  • Support the political development of member leaders.
  • Support the team in managing lists, charts, and databases and assure that fieldwork is clearly and systematically carried out and recorded.

4.  Maintain, manage and develop Stand and the NOWCRJ’s strategic partners and allies

  • Work with the other organizers and staff to represent NOWCRJ and Stand in key coalitions, meetings and actions.
  • Develop and convene key organizations, allies and partners to support Stand members in organizing campaigns and programs.

5.  Coordinate and integrate Stand work the work of the other two organizing projects and with broader movement allies.

  • Work with the organizers of the other projects to actively cultivate and create opportunities for cross member collaboration that goes beyond solidarity.
  • Work with the other two projects to run popular education for all NOWCRJ members about the realities of each community.

Other duties as needed

This is not a 9 to 5 job—long and varied hours, with early morning, evening, weekend work is required.

Salary Range: Competitive, commensurate with experience

Key qualifications:

  • A strong organizer and campaigner with an unflappable attitude. You’ve played a key role in winning grassroots campaigns as an organizer and strategist. You know what it takes to win and you have a track record of effectively leading others to make things happen. 

  • An experienced supervisor. You have high standards for success and a healthy impatience for progress. You’re a good listener and can develop the leadership skills and ability of new and experienced organizers. 

  • Deep dedication to the leadership of directly affected people. You have a deep commitment to and respect for the expertise and ability of poor people to change the world. You are committed to racial justice and have the skills to effectively organize across race. You are committed to building grassroots power in the South.

NOWCRJ is an equal opportunity employer.  Women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals strongly encouraged to apply.

Applications will only be accepted electronically.  Please email a cover letter and resume to [email protected] and mention this job title in the subject line of your email.   Please include a daytime phone number where we can contact you.  Application process will be open until position is filled.

Organization Info

Listing Stats

Post Date: 
Dec 19 2019
Active Until: 
Jan 19 2020
Hiring Organization: 
NOWCRJ
industry: 
Nonprofit