Communications Associate

About the Legal Aid Justice Center:

The Legal Aid Justice Center is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that partners with low-income clients and communities of color in Virginia to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We understand that the harms our clients endure are inextricably linked to overarching systems of injustice. Together we are dismantling those systems through a combination of community organizing, litigation, policy advocacy, public relations, and individual legal services.

Founded in 1967, LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, and Falls Church and provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights & Racial Justice (focuses on the criminal legal system), Housing & Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, Health Justice & Public Benefits, Immigrant Justice, and Worker Justice. As examples of LAJC’s recent work, our lawsuit and organizing against the state forced reform of Virginia’s unemployment insurance system, including advocacy that resulted in the distribution of over $1 billion in illegally withheld payments to over 160,000 Virginians. During the pandemic, we demanded and secured a statewide eviction moratorium and emergency pandemic protections that helped hundreds of families avoid eviction. We reduced incarceration across the state, including reducing the population of a local immigration detention center down to historically low levels through a coordinated effort of organizing paired with impact and individual litigation. Our staff are on the front lines of some of the most important anti-poverty fights happening today.

With a staff of over 90, the past few years have been a time of exciting growth and opportunity for the organization. In addition to the growth of programmatic efforts including increased organizing capacity, LAJC has expanded its operations and administrative capacity, created new opportunities for professional growth and leadership among staff, engaged in ongoing race equity work, and explored changes to organizational structure to deepen its efforts to create long-term, sustainable, community-driven change.

LAJC’s latest strategic plan is available at https://www.justice4all.org/lajc-strategic-plan-2022-2026/#area%20d.

For more information about LAJC’s work and programs, visit www.justice4all.org.

About the Position:

Legal Aid Justice Center seeks a Communications Associate to help advance LAJC’s ambitious agenda to achieve economic, social, and racial justice. This position will support communications work across multiple areas including social media, digital projects including website content, internal communications, donor communications, earned media, and branding and marketing. The ideal candidate will have experience working with advocacy campaigns, writing, creating digital content for social media and web, and experience working with community members to facilitate storytelling and other communications activities. The ideal candidate will have experience communicating through diverse media, and promoting work in earned media, utilizing a race-equity lens. This position offers a chance to help grow the communications capabilities and activities of an active and multifaceted advocacy organization that is working to create meaningful change in our service areas, the state of Virginia, and nationwide. This is an excellent opportunity for an early-career communication professional to get deep and diverse experience in nonprofit communications.

Required Qualifications:

• Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice.
• Excellent writing, proofreading, editing skills
• A high degree of comfort with technology, including social media platforms.
• Ability to maintain a high degree of organization in a fast-paced environment.
• At least one year of experience in a similar role, including internships and volunteer positions, at a mission-driven organization.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working on social, economic, or racial justice campaigns in a communications role.
• Spanish fluency
• Experience working with press/earned media.
• Experience with email marketing tools, like Constant Contact.
• Experience managing website content on platforms such as WordPress
• Experience managing and growing multiple social media accounts for an organization.
• Experience working in coalitions.
• Storytelling skills and a demonstrated ability to work with members of diverse communities.
• Experience with Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator and InDesign in particular) and video and audio editing experience

A Note to Potential Candidates: Studies have shown that women, trans, non-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don't believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

Salary: The salary scale for this position is $51,500.00 - $66,950.00 based on the LAJC salary scale. To allow for salary growth within the position over time, the anticipated hiring range for this position is between $51,500.00 - $59,225.00. Positions based in Falls Church receive an upward 12% cost-of-living adjustment, which translates to the following range: $57,680.00 - $74,984.00, and the anticipated hiring range is $57,680.00 - $66,332.00.

Vaccination Requirement: The Legal Aid Justice Center requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have an approved medical or religious exemption as a qualification of employment. Proof of vaccination or accommodation request must be provided within one day of employment.

The Legal Aid Justice Center is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, experiences, and communities to apply. The Legal Aid Justice Center is committed to strengthening the voices of our low-income clients, working in collaboration with community partners, and rooting out the inequities that keep people in poverty. We strive to take on the issues that have broad impact on our client communities and to be responsive to client input. Recognizing the particular impact of racism on our clients and staff, we devote special attention to dismantling racial injustice. All applicants must be dedicated to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe. In reviewing applications, we look for evidence that applicants have experience and/or thoughtfulness in working with traditionally marginalized populations.