The Program Assistant plays a critical role in AIUSA’s grassroots activism to free prisoners of conscience unjustly imprisoned around the world, stop torture and executions, and end abuses against specific human rights defenders and activists.
The position’s primary goal is to run and grow grassroots participation in Amnesty International USA’s Urgent Action Network (UAN) and its Case Commitment Initiative (CCI)--two pillars of AIUSA’s effort to end human rights abuses against specific people. The Urgent Action Network is Amnesty’s global rapid response mechanism to generate grassroots activism on specific emergency cases worldwide. The Case Commitment Initiative is AIUSA’s important project to support our local groups and student groups in long-term grassroots campaigning on specific cases. The UAN and CCI have already helped free over 150 prisoners of conscience this year—people jailed solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs or identity.
Responsibilities of the position include: ensuring that Urgent Actions are distributed efficiently and effectively to subscribers of the Urgent Action Network; ensuring that grassroots participation in the Urgent Action Network and Case Commitment Initiative increases; ensuring that AI student and local groups are supported and trained in effective activism on their Case Commitment Initiative cases; collecting, analyzing and reporting data from our supporters about the actions they have taken through the UAN and CCI; providing excellent support to our activists; assisting with the creation and distribution of materials; assistance with coordinating and training volunteers; and other tasks as assigned.
The position will also have a goal of supporting other work in the Department; including specific advocacy, research and activism efforts as assigned on AIUSA’s Programmatic human rights issues, including Criminal Justice, Individuals at Risk, Gender, Sexuality & Identity and National Security.
- Serves as the coordinator for all aspects of the Urgent Action Network, including emailing UAs to subscribers, posting UAs to the website, gathering, tracking and reporting UA activism data; and solving any problems with the UA database.
- Serves as the coordinator for all aspects of the Case Commitment Initiative—a project that recruits, trains and supports AIUSA’s student and local groups in taking effective, regular action on a long-term case. This includes maintaining the CCI chart of cases; helping groups choose a case; collaborating with country specialists to produce case dossiers; training groups in effective activism; ensuring groups have information about their case; and collecting and reporting data from groups about their activism.
- Ensures that AIUSA has effective and efficient processes for collecting, learning from and reporting activism data related to the UAN and CCI so that we can improve our human rights impact on cases.
- Provides excellent support to activists and groups, including answering questions, providing information and resolving problems
- Supporting advocacy, research and activism efforts on AIUSA’s Programmatic issues, including Criminal Justice, Individuals at Risk, Gender, Sexuality & Identity and National Security
- Assists with materials and other projects as assigned.
- At least 1 year of experience with detailed administrative work, including databases, data collection and writing and editing
Skills:
- Strong attention detail
- Demonstrated ability and interest in using databases, email clients and data analytics
- Strong written and spoken communication skills, including copy-editing
- Marketing skills to engage target audiences
- Strategic thinking to plan how to increase public participation in projects
- Proactivity and creativity in identifying cost-effective solutions to problems
- Experience providing excellent customer service