LA Voice Lead Community Organizer

LA Voice Lead Community Organizer
Organization:
LA Voice believes all people have power and a voice. Every day we amplify that power by uniting diverse faith voices and equipping grassroots leaders to organize for what their communities need, winning systemic changes that improve the lives of all county residents. We are an interfaith, multi-racial, multi-cultural organization of 70 faith and spiritual communities that represent more than 50,000 families in Los Angeles County. (See our Facebook page L.A. Voice or website www.lavoice.org). Our core strategic values are: exponential growth of grassroots leadership; bridging to belong across differences; and confrontation with power for social transformation leading to racial equity and inclusion.
Our diverse and experienced team works with communities across the county to create a Los Angeles with racial equity and abundant life for all.
LA Voice is a member of Faith in Action Network (formerly PICO National Network), the largest grassroots spiritual and congregational organizing network in the U.S. and a member of PICO California, an effective, highly respected grassroots organization playing a significant role to turn the tide toward inclusion and equity and create a true state of belonging.
Position Summary:
LA Voice is seeking to hire a full-time Lead Community Organizer to support and develop spiritually-centered/faith-based grassroots leadership and power in Los Angeles County. The ideal candidate will have significant experience and training in community organizing, ideally as a Lead Organizer or other management role; effective communication skills (including those relevant to the communities with whom we organize); emotional intelligence; comfort or fluency in multiple ethnic and religious communities; a passion for people’s leadership and growth; a track record of developing other people’s leadership; and clarity that undoing racism is central to the struggle for our shared future. This is an amazing opportunity to be a part of a diverse and growing team that is creating positive, systemic change in Los Angeles and California.
An LA Voice Lead Organizer:

• Works on a collaborative strategy team with fellow lead organizers, the clergy lead, and the Executive Director.
• Demonstrates a disciplined focus on intentional leadership development through 1:1 conversation, identifying interest, inviting grassroots leaders into roles in the public arena and engaging them in opportunities to learn and grow.
• Organizes with grassroots leaders for collective action for social change through identifying issues, training leaders, and getting them into direct action with policy-makers and decision makers at local, countywide, and state levels.
• Builds intentional relationships with clergy and religious/spiritual leaders: identifying interests and challenges in congregations, exploring how LA Voice membership meets congregational needs and constructing strategies for congregational development.
• Co-creates and implements long term strategic plans for building county-wide power for racial and economic justice in alignment with LA Voice’s organization-wide strategy.

Essential Functions (to Include, but not limited to):

• Build 1:1 relationships with congregational leaders across a wide geography
• Organize up to twelve local organizing committees at member congregations
• Recruit new congregations to LA Voice
• Develop and conduct training on effective community organizing: research meetings, team building, mobilization, power analysis, voter engagement, coalitions, structural racism, storytelling, one-to-ones, etc.
• Develop others’ ability to teach the aforementioned skills to fellow volunteers.
• Train and support grassroots leaders in LA Voice collective campaign work, including strategic goal setting, preparing leaders for visits to advocate with elected officials, 100% voting congregations, and bringing their community members into actions, press conferences, voter work, etc.
• Lead work with partner organizations and coalitions toward shared goals

Qualifications Required:

• Minimum four years experience in community organizing
• Driven, self-disciplined and flexible; able to work independently and on a team
• Group leadership skills; track record that includes nurturing, managing, and guiding teams of people successfully toward shared goals
• Facility working with clergy and people of faith from different communities
• Effective interpersonal and relational skills; self-reflective and hungry for growth
• Experience effectively managing and developing skills of past staff team members
• Demonstrated success developing and leading organizing campaigns to win tangible benefits for the community.
• Commitment and track record of bridging across differences-including race, faith, and life experience-in order to nurture a staff team, an organization, and a county of belonging.

Other Possible Qualifications:

• Knowledge of and experience organizing in Los Angeles County
• More than six years of impactful community organizing
• Experience organizing in the San Fernando Valley
• Experience organizing within African-American churches
• Fluency in Spanish or Asian language
• Experience doing integrated voter engagement work, including canvassing, phone banking, and/or using PDI
• Experience organizing with people who have been incarcerated, people without immigration documents, or people experiencing homelessness/housing displacement/severe rent burden
• Life experience with incarceration, being without immigration documents, or homelessness/housing displacement/severe rent burden
• Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or other advanced coursework

Compensation and Benefits:

• A full-time, exempt position
• Job includes regular evening work and some weekend work.
• Salary is competitive for the region and based on experience and demonstrated capacities, in a range from $60,000- $85,000
• Benefits include a comprehensive health plan, generous personal days, and matching retirement account.

LA Voice is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against otherwise qualified applicants on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, age, sex, marital status, national origin, disability or handicap, or veteran status.
Application Procedure:
All applicants must apply for this position online via organizingcareers.org. Please have the following two (2) documents ready to upload to your online application:

• An electronic file of your resume (preferably in PDF format)

• A cover letter stating why this is a fit for you and for LA Voice

Application/Hiring Deadline:

• Applications and interviews will occur on a rolling basis.

If you need assistance or experience any technical difficulties with your online application, please contact [email protected]. Resumes will not be accepted via this email address. You may encounter difficulties if using Google Chrome as your browser. If so, please try another browser.

FAITH IN ACTION provides Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, FAITH IN ACTION complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Job Type: Full-time