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 (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 grassroots leadership and power in Los Angeles County. This lead organizer will be responsible for a geographic region that includes Greater Long Beach in addition to leadership on one of our core campaigns. 

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:

• 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 national and local leadership development trainings.
• Engages grassroots leaders in collective action for social change through identifying issues, training leaders and getting them into direct action with policy-makers and decision- makers at a local, county-wide and state levels
• Builds intentional relationships with clergy and religious 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.

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

• Build 1:1 relationships with congregational leaders across a wide geography, focused in Long Beach and surrounding communities
• Organize up to twelve local organizing committees at partner or member congregations
• 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 these skills.
• Train and support grassroots leaders in LA Voice collective campaign work, including strategic goal setting, preparing leaders for visits to advocate with elected officials, gathering signatures, and turning out their friends and family for 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; experience nurturing, managing, and guiding teams of people successfully toward shared goals
• Facility working with clergy and people of faith
• Effective interpersonal and relational skills; self-reflective and hungry for growth
• Experience effectively managing and developing skills of staff team members
• Demonstrated success developing and leading organizing campaigns to win tangible benefits for the community.
• Commitment and track record of bridging across difference--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 Long Beach, CA and surrounding communities
• More than five years of impactful community organizing
• Fluency in Spanish or other language (e.g. Khmer) related to our work
• Experience doing integrated voter engagement work, including canvassing, phone banking, and 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