Lead Organizer

Do you:

• Support building an anti-hunger movement in Colorado?
• Like working as part of a team and developing leadership in others?
• Approach your work with an intersectional, anti-oppression lens?
• Understand the difference between activism and community organizing and enjoy organizing?
• Understand the difference between demonstrating and organizing and bring a focus on organizing?
• Bring a power analysis to social and economic problems and seek to drive root cause change?
• Like channeling anger and frustration into productive conflict and change?
• Thrive in a mission-driven environment where the work you do really matters?

Metro Caring, Colorado’s leading anti-hunger organization, is accepting applications for our Lead Organizer role. This is a new position within our growing team. They will oversee the planning, coordination, and supervision of the Community Organizing team and help build an equitable movement building and root cause policy agenda with community and leadership.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS/ABILITIES

While training and onboarding will be provided, we are interested in applicants who possess the following skills, abilities, and experience:

•  At least 3-5 years successfully mobilizing, organizing, and engaging community around justice issues
• Highly fluent in community organizing strategy and tactics within a long-term movement building framework
• Comfortable with conflict, and adept at training community leaders in civic engagement and social change tactics
• Track record of tangible community or policy level wins through organizing strategies and tactics, in partnership with community leaders
• Deep experience identifying, training, and supporting community leaders
• Strong grasp on local, state and national governmental structures, where to find and how to pressure power points, and exploit possible levers and opportunities for concrete change
• Energized by interacting with various people across lines of difference and the ability to communicate with a diverse groups of community stakeholders to help them connect to their power and develop them as leaders
• Understanding of systemic equity and inclusivity issues as it relates to poverty/hunger and a grounding in systems level solutions needed to tackle these issues
• Familiarity with communities that are impacted by food apartheid and economic injustice
• Highly motivated and a self-starter; able to motivate and inspire others
• Can connect and frame individual and community issues to the structural context, and harness individual and community level grief, anger, and frustration toward broad grounding and motivations to work for policy and systems change
• Experience managing, coaching, and/or developing organizers
• Strong interpersonal and intercultural communication skills with diverse community members
• Bilingual Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, or Rohingya strongly preferred
• Looking to be a part of a diverse, dedicated, smart, and passionate team

To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter to job@metrocaring.org with “Metro Caring Lead Organizer” in the subject line, and title your documents “First Name_Last Name_LO_Resume” and “First Name_Last Name_LO_Cover Letter”. Please use your cover letter to communicate why you are excited to work to help build a sustainable anti-hunger movement in Colorado, highlighting any of the above skills, abilities, and experience above that you have. This position will be filled on an ongoing basis. Applications will be accepted until positions are filled; however, priority will be given to those applicants who submit their materials before 5:00 PM MT on February 4, 2022.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

POSITION TITLE: Metro Caring Lead Organizer

REPORTING TO: Senior Manager of Community Activation

LOCATION: The Metro Caring office is located at 1100 E 18th Ave, Denver, CO 80218. Onboarding and training will take place at the office, with work taking place flexibly (a hybrid of remote and in-person)

STARTING DATES: To be negotiated. We are committed to finding the right addition to our amazing team.

COMPENSATION: $60,000 - $75,000 full time, exempt, annual salary. Metro Caring offers a fulfilling workplace and comprehensive benefits package, including: joining a diverse, passionate, enthusiastic and collaborative team; 120 hours per year of paid time off; paid sick leave; paid holidays; 401K retirement plan with a 5 percent employer-paid match; and competitive employee health, dental, short-term disability and family leave plans. Metro Caring supports flexible work schedules, offers 2 hours of wellness time per week, and culture that centers our mission, the pursuit of equity, continuous improvement, and community leadership in all we do.

More Details:

The Metro Caring Lead Organizer duties include:

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Oversee the community organizing team to organize community members around issues they are passionate about for structural change  
• Set the vision and direction with the community organizing team and community leaders
• Responsible for hiring, onboarding, performance management, professional development, coaching, and termination as needed for team
• Cultivate positive, values-aligned team culture
• Work with team to create ongoing education and capacity building opportunities for the community around the issues that they care about to mobilize them toward action and civic engagement- this includes workshops, seminars and other opportunities
• Track program outputs and outcomes with an eye towards tracking the transformational difference that organizing makes
• Develop and maintain relationships with strategic partners who engage in coalition work around systems and policy change and other equity/justice impacts as determined
• Partner with Metro Caring’s Sr. Manager Team to design and implement community leadership development opportunities, evaluation, and continuous improvement
• Identify and develop opportunities for leaders to take bold action leading to the amelioration of hunger

BUDGET AND GRANT MANAGEMENT

• Cultivate the stories and data needed for any related grant writing and reporting
• Develop and manage team budget in partnership with Senior Manager of Community Activation and Chief Financial Officer
• Identify and pursue new opportunities to grow the department’s budget and impact
• Write grants and grant reports for team, working with the Senior Manager of Community Activation to raise funding for current work and growth goals  

CULTURE OF ENGAGEMENT

• Participate in applicable team meetings, weekly all-staff meetings, and monthly all-staff meetings/retreats
• Attend a Planting Seeds tour within first month of employment and invite at least 2 contacts per year to attend
• Complete a quarterly shift in another program or department
• Join volunteer gatherings (brief, twice daily meetings for shift volunteers) at least weekly

OTHER

The Metro Caring Lead Organizer must be self-motivated and be able to maintain composure in a busy environment with a lot of commotion. They should possess the ability to juggle multiple priorities and projects and meet deadlines under pressure. They must have a desire to learn on the job and meet any challenge with a positive attitude and the ability to hold oneself and others accountable for reaching goals. Values-alignment is a must, especially a commitment to pursue equity, rise together, and champion the mission. Metro Caring is a growth phase organization; the Lead Organizer must be adaptable and thrive in an environment where change is constant as we co-create our movement with our community.

Applicants must have reliable transportation. Relocation costs are not covered by Metro Caring.

Metro Caring is an equal opportunity employer. The organization is dedicated to the goal of building and maintaining a diverse staff and we encourage applications from qualified individuals of all backgrounds. Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), veterans, first-generation Americans, and those that identify as LGBTQ and non-binary are strongly encouraged to apply.