Corps Member with Jewish Service Corps

Applications are open for the 2024-2025 Avodah's Jewish Service Corps, an immersive service year program running September 2024 - August 2025 for emerging changemakers ages 21-26.Spend a year serving full-time at a non-profit placement partner while living and learning in a justice-oriented Jewish community. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis until all open roles are filled. Some of our open positions with Avodah placement partners include:

• Intake Specialist at Equip for Equality: Equip for Equality’s mission is to advance the human and civil rights of people with disabilities in Illinois. The Intake Specialist will conduct initial interviews with people who contact our office seeking free legal services from the Civil Rights Team and meet with an attorney to discuss the request and the potential role for Equip for Equality. If a case is accepted for legal representation, the Corps Member may continue to work on the case in partnership with an attorney. Case work may include document request, document review, drafting client communication, attending client meetings, and gathering and recording additional client information.
• LGBT Project Avodah Fellow at National Immigrant Justice Center - Chicago: Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center’s (NIJC) mission is to ensure human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and ensure their ability to fully participate in our communities. LGBT Project Avodah Fellow will work with LGBT and/or HIV+ detained and non-detained individuals in the immigration system, who are seeking services of NIJC’s LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiative (LGBT Project) through screening individuals for eligibility for immigration relief, assisting in the representation of clients, documenting human rights abuses suffered by individuals in the immigration detention system and utilize NIJC database to compile and identify trends in detention conditions. 
• Immigrant Legal Defense Project Fellow at National Immigrant Justice Center - Chicago:  Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center’s (NIJC) mission is to ensure human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and ensure their ability to fully participate in our communities. The Immigrant Legal Defense Project Fellow will work on cases, screen for eligibility for immigration relief and assist in the preparation and filing of immigration applications, communicate with immigrant clients, and assist with other routine ILD Project case management tasks. Proficiency in Spanish preferred.
• Pro Bono Data Coordinator at National Immigrant Justice Center - Chicago: Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center’s (NIJC) mission is to ensure human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and ensure their ability to fully participate in our communities. The Pro Bono Coordinator will collaborate regularly across pro bono projects in reviewing and updating volunteer contact and partner organization information in NIJC’s client database, implement pro bono volunteer and client evaluations, produce bi-annual report of evaluation summary for internal use, analyze pro bono data for quarterly, calendar year and fiscal year reporting, coordinate across pro bono projects to ensure accurate data entry and final visualization of the data in order to show impact and identify trends in NIJC’s pro bono work, collect pro bono wins to celebrate in monthly pro bono newsletters and for semi-annual email stewardship, and participate in pro bono fairs and engagement events to provide logistical support as well as foster community advocates.

As a member of the Jewish Service Corps, you’ll: 

• Create lasting Jewish community. Home-cooked Shabbat dinners, late night conversations, and holiday celebrations make living in the bayit (communal home) memorable and meaningful. Corps Members co-create intentional, pluralistic communities that help them vision and embody how the world could be. 
• Launch your career in social justice.  After matching with a placement organization,, you'll contribute meaningfully to on-the-ground efforts on crucial justice issues such as immigration, housing insecurity, education, healthcare, the criminal legal system, and more. Gain a year of hands-on experience with a supportive community by your side.
• Dive into deep learning. Through experiential programming, you’ll explore different visions for movements for justice, the role of community in creating a more just world, and how you want to show up as a Jew in justice work.  Our dynamic curriculum will deepen and contextualize your day-to-day work, while supporting you in finding your place in broader justice movements. Jews of Color (JOCs) can also participate in JOC-specific programming and community building.
• Have your basic needs met. Avodah takes care of the most important things. Corps Members receive furnished housing, a monthly living stipend, health insurance, an exit stipend, and a travel allowance.  Corps Members can also tap into the economic access fund to support unmet financial needs.   
• Join our active alumni network for life. Our community of over 1,500 Jewish social justice professionals and activists across the country are there to help with apartment hunts, job references, Shabbat dinner invites, mentorship, and everything in between.

Avodah is committed to building a service corps that inclusively represents the diverse Jewish Community. Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Jews of Color, people of color, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBT2QIA people, and people who come from poor or working class backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply!