SR California- State Organizer

Organizational Overview:

 

URGE plays a unique and critical role as a reproductive justice organization that engages young people and catalyzes their power to fight for the ability of all people to build the families they want, access the healthcare they need, and to live and love in a way that’s true to who they are. Working with young people ages 18-30, and the leadership of young people of color, women, queer, trans, and nonbinary folks, and people of low-income, URGE provides training, field mobilization and national leadership to move policy, systemic, and cultural change.

 

At the core of URGE’s mission are our values, commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, disrupting anti-Blackness and dismantling white supremacy. We seek candidates whose values are aligned with those of our organization. 

 

Position Summary:

URGE seeks a committed, experienced individual who is passionate about reproductive and social justice to organize and develop our field and civic engagement programs.

 

At the core of URGE’s mission are our values, commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, disrupting anti-Blackness and dismantling white supremacy. We seek candidates whose values are aligned with those of our organization.

 

URGE’s field program identifies, organizes, and mobilizes young people who care about issues of sexual health, reproductive justice, racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, and gender equity. We provide programming, engagement, and leadership opportunities that enable young people to build visibility and political power to impact policy and culture change across the state and nationally.

 

The Senior Organizer will work in collaboration with state organizers and will be responsible for leading and managing projects as well as holding coalition and partner relationships.

 

Qualified candidates will have knowledge of and commitment to reproductive justice, racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, and/or gender equity. Qualified candidates will have 3-5 years or more experience with national and/or state organizing, some experience with issue campaigns, member development and civic engagement. Qualified candidates will have management experience, as well as excellent project management and training skills.

 

Placement: This is a remote position based in California with a preference for someone living in Northern California and surrounding areas. Candidates must be able to drive, have personal transportation and the ability to travel to organizing sites across the state. Candidates must be prepared to work from a home office with equipment provided by URGE. This is a full-time exempt position that reports to the Western States Field Director. 

 

 Responsibilities:  

 

Organizational Leadership:

• Champion URGE internally and externally, maintaining a focus on URGE's responsibilities to its employees as well as URGE's place in the ecosystem of the reproductive justice movement, prioritizing URGE's goal of living into its mission, vision, and values.  
• Promote positive and proactive organizational culture of commitment to mission, vision, and values with authentic and holistic perspective regarding the organization’s work. 
• Promote positive employee morale through an organizational culture of compassion, open communication, collaboration, and solution-oriented engagement around internal and external organizational challenges.  
• Effectively convey organizational strategy, priorities, and progress to peers and junior staff.
• Step into high-level meetings & coalition spaces in place of a manager or director level staff, as necessary.

 

Project Management   

• Work directly with regional state Field Director to develop, implement, lead and evaluate special programs and projects   
• Act as collaborator or support to regional state Field Director on high level projects
• Seek out new leadership development opportunities for state organizers and URGE members   
• Research and develop curriculum as needed   
• Develop educational practices to increase staff grounding in URGE values, and historical and movement context   
• Identify & implement cultural organizing programming   

 

Chapter Management   

• Provide regular guidance and management to chapter leaders   

• Build and deepen relationships with individuals to increase their leadership and investment in URGE   

 

Build and manage multiple URGE chapters throughout the state 

• Track and report chapter progress, leadership development and all outreach activities     
• Represent URGE at campus and community events and at local, state, and national conferences   
• Spearhead training and internal educational resource building for chapters in collaboration with the Training and Curriculum Manager
• Coordinate and manage chapter’s grant application and activity      

 

Facilitation   

• Develop subject-specific programming including agendas, meeting notes, workplans, simple budgets, etc.

• Skillfully facilitate both virtual and in-person workshops with various sized groups, including staff, membership, and external coalition partners
• Move groups smoothly through hours or days of programming   
• Articulate and teach reproductive justice values-based programming   
• Modulate trainings for audiences of varying levels of experience and education  

 

Base Building and Outreach    

• Continuously outreach to communities to recruit new URGE membership   
• Maintain relationships with URGE Alumni  
• Recruit attendees to numerous URGE events throughout the year   
• Cultivate knowledge of tools and technologies to increase constituent engagement     
• Move event attendees into deeper engagement via URGE’s leadership ladder   

 

Build an URGE base of supporters through social media and other digital tools 

• Analyze performance of online engagement and communications with digital outreach 
• Continually update and create digital content on social media or other digital tools
• Move graduating chapter members into Community Activation Networks   

 

Chapter Campaigns 

• Identify regional, local, state and campus issues and develop campaign strategies
• Identify, build, train and develop a diverse base of young leaders and activists to create, run local, state, and national reproductive justice campaigns
• Inspire grassroots activism for the purpose of building active, visible local support for sexual health, reproductive rights, and gender justice 
• Work with URGE staff to plan, develop, and implement training 
• Facilitate campaign meetings and strategy sessions with URGE members and coalition partners
• Provide technical assistance, training, materials, and resources to members and chapters 

 

Intern Management as needed

• Ability to meaningfully develop a project for an intern   
• Work alongside the Field Director(s) to establish best practices for supervision of intern   
• Ability to consistently seek out and offer leadership development opportunities for an intern   

 

Other duties as assigned

 

Qualifications:  

• Strong commitment to URGE’s mission and values, particularly supporting reproductive freedom and promoting youth activism and leadership. 
• Commitment to reproductive and gender justice, abortion access for all, queer and trans liberation, building young people’s political power, and dismantling white supremacy. 
• Commitment to co-creating a work environment that is just, equitable, and inclusive to all, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, women, and people with disabilities.  
• 3-5 years or more experience with national and/or state organizing, some experience with issue campaigns, member development and civic engagement or related fields. Experience with digital organizing is a plus
• Experience working at people of color -centered and -lead organizations  
• Experience and expertise organizing and working with people of color  
• Experience and expertise organizing and working with LGBTQIA+ individuals and communities  
• Experience building coalitions and effectively participating in coalition spaces  
• Demonstrated commitment to youth organizing  
• Knowledge and experience with organizing in the state and a commitment to working for progressive issues in conservative areas
• Knowledge of state reproductive, gender, and racial justice issues, political landscape, and cultural complexity  
• Willingness to travel at least 2 weeks out of the month  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English  
• Proficiency with social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram  
• Ability to juggle multiple tasks with attention to detail  
• Flexibility and adaptability to change  
• Ability to work well with a team, take direction and feedback, and share skills and knowledge  
• Willingness to identify, develop and take on new opportunities to further URGE’s mission  
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office programs, Google Drive  
• Comfort learning new tools and skills online  
• Ability to consider and plan for the good of the entire URGE team and organization   
• History of taking initiative, seeking responsibilities above and beyond those of a state organizer   
• Examples of internal and external relationship-building, teaching & mentorship with fellow team members and strong collaboration with coalition partners
• Proven leadership in field-specific and cross departmental projects
• Ability to initiate and follow-through with independent project implementation
• History of consistent dependability, responsiveness, as well as prompt and open communication

  

Salary: $52,000 – $78,000 annually with excellent benefits, including health and dental coverage for staff fully paid by URGE. Because of the differences in cost of living based on location, URGE utilizes location in determining salary, among many factors.