Education Lead Organizer

Organization Background

The Action Council of Monterey County was created in 1994 to address unmet needs of

low-income residents due to welfare reform. It has since evolved into a hub for social

innovation, incubation, and cross-sector collaboration. Action’s mission is to empower

people to transform their communities by incubating leaders, ideas, organizations, and

collaborative action. It has incubated Building Healthy Communities (BHC), Mujeres en

Acción, and other grassroots organizations.

Building Healthy Communities Monterey County (BHCMC) engages and develops

community leadership to achieve equitable outcomes in health, education, and economic

opportunity. Coordinated through Action Teams, BHCMC works towards policy and systems

change grounded in a healing-informed racial justice framework.

Position Overview

Under the general supervision of the Education Equity Policy and Strategy Director, the

Education Lead Organizer (ELO) will be committed to ensuring that residents have a voice

and leadership in addressing racial justice issues related to education and public policy in

Monterey County. The ELO is committed to effectively engage multiple partners to advance

a racial equity framework with policy or systems change outcomes, and assumes a high

level of responsibility for connecting people from diverse constituency groups within the

community around education related issues. The ELO is also responsible for lifting up the

intersection of all BHCMC work with the education work.

The ELO is the staff responsible for supporting all organizers and interns focused on

education. The ELO will be primarily focused on supporting the current base building and

healing-informed organizing within education as well as its expansion/growth. The ELO has

high-level skills and experience in community organizing, project management, group

facilitation, group development, and conflict resolution. The ELO will be the connector for

organizing work and the racial equity for systems change work.

Primary Job Functions

Organizing and base-building:

• Supervise organizers in Salinas and South County as they coordinate and facilitate the growth and evolution of their resident committees
• Ensure all education organizing and base building work across Monterey County is implemented (currently engaged in: Salinas, Peninsula, Soledad and Greenfield)
• Support the development of strategies with organizers
• Support base-building and healing-informed organizing capacity of organizers and interns
• Support the development of each education resident committee strategy chart and individual work plans.
• Support organizers to develop leadership pathway opportunities to increase resident engagement in shift policies and practices
• In collaboration with Directors support personal and professional leadership development of education organizers

Coordination and Facilitation of the Education Equity and Justice Action Team:

• Coordinate, convene, and facilitate the Education Equity and Justice Action Team composed of education organizers, leaders, and other relevant stakeholders
• Support the Education Equity Action Team with strategy building, cross-team capacity building, and communication
• Support the Education Equity and Justice Team to embody the work of Dismantling the School to the Prison Pipeline and build Black and Brown Solidarity and Power
• Identify opportunities to link the BHC Action Teams to each other and to external partners
• Maintain progress of Action Team and resident committee policy and systems change goals
• Use platform to monitor evaluation/progress of the Action Teams and support learning and evaluation goals in partnership Directors
• In collaboration with Directors, play a leadership role in the statewide coalitions

Strategic Relationships:

• Cultivate and maintain working relationships with a diverse set of stakeholders

(residents, CBO’s, government, funders, etc.) in Monterey County toward supporting

the implementation of an inclusive decision-making culture within education

• Play a role in external communications regarding Education Equity and Justice events and initiatives as needed

Capacity Building, Advocacy, and Education:

• In collaboration with the Education Equity Policy and Strategy Director, support in

engaging and building capacity of system leaders in modifying practices, policies and

culture to advance racial equity and justice

• In collaboration with Directors support the development of capacity building

trainings, offer analysis to support shift towards equitable budgets and decision

making in education

• Support the development of opportunities for expanding knowledge and expertise

in areas related to Action Team issues, as needed

Leadership in Racial Equity & Systems Change

• Maintain a working knowledge of racial equity practices to engage system leaders in

modifying practices to advance racial equity and justice

• Engage a framework for understanding and disrupting structural bias and inequities

and actively apply it to the work in the community

Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bilingual English and Spanish
• 3+ years of experience in community organizing
• 2+ experience in education and policy advocacy
• 2+ years of experience of supervising staff
• 1+ years of experience facilitating meetings and/or workshops using collaborative and participatory methods
• 1+ years of experience managing projects
• 1+ years working with community members and with systems leaders
• Experience as a lead organizer preferred
• Must reside in Monterey County and have the ability to travel across Monterey County

Skills/Abilities

• Basic computer skills [(Google Applications, social media (FB, twitter, Instagram)]
• Active knowledge and interest in racial equity, public policy and systems change
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects
• Flexibility of schedule, ability to work some nights and weekends
• Ability to create and foster a supportive learning environment
• Creative thinker and problem‐solver who is also open to the insight of others
• Friendly communications skills in person and over phone
• Comfortable and skilled at facilitating difficult conversations and managing conflict
• Active listening skills, including the ability to summarize or articulate key points
• Ability to give, receive and incorporate constructive feedback
• Ability to translate complex information to diverse audiences
• A willingness to deepen healing informed practices
• Ability to travel occasionally to meetings, trainings, and conferences
• Must possess a valid California Driver’s License and verifiable automobile insurance and have the use of a reasonably reliable automobile for use on the job

Benefits:

Benefits include Medical, Dental, Vision and 403(b). We also provide competitive vacation,

and sick leave. We value the well-being and health of our employees, which is why our

benefits package also includes two yearly office closures of the organization mid-year and

at the end of the year that will be considered paid holiday time off. Benefits are available

when an employee completes the introductory period and meets eligibility.

Physical Demands

• The employee should be able to successfully perform the essential functions of this

job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit,

talk and hear, use hands, handle, feel or operate objects, tools, or controls; and

reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to walk.

• Able to lift a 30-pound box and carry it 100 feet; push a hand truck/ dolly with a load

of 150 pounds a distance of 100 yards; and access items on shelves in files located 0

to 60 inches above the floor.

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Values: Resident centered / Resident voice, Power building, Equity, Compassion, Healing,

Dignity, Authenticity, Love, Unity, Solidarity, Justice, Affirmation, Inclusion, and People

matter and are valued.

How to Apply: Please fill out the application, send resume, and 3 references with contact

information to HR@actioncouncil.org.The job posting can be found on

www.actioncouncil.org/careers and https://bhcmontereycounty.org/careers/.

Application deadline: Until filled, priority screening deadline September 18th.

Benefits include Medical, Dental, Vision and 403(b). We also provide competitive vacation,

and sick leave. We value the well-being and health of our employees, which is why our

benefits package also includes two yearly office closures of the organization mid-year and

at the end of the year that will be considered paid holiday time off. Benefits are available

when an employee completes the introductory period and meets eligibility.

Bilingual English and Spanish