Associate Community Organizer

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The DART Center

Posted 3 months ago

Full Time

Olathe, Kansas

In Person

Smart Summary

Responsibilities

The organizer will build relationships within the faith community to identify and address root causes of local issues through collective action. Responsibilities include conducting research, developing leadership, and coordinating direct action assemblies to hold decision-makers accountable.

Qualifications

The Good Faith Network is seeking an Associate Community Organizer to build relationships with people of faith and unite diverse communities to address local injustices. This role involves community engagement, leadership development, and organizing direct action assemblies. No prior organizing experience is required, but a passion for justice and the ability to work evenings/weekends are essential.

Job Description

Who We Are & What We Stand For

Are you angry about the injustices your community faces? Do you want to learn how to build the people power necessary to fight those injustices and make real, local change? As a community organizer with the Good Faith Network, you’ll learn how to bring together our area's diverse faith community to address the root causes of serious community problems.

The Good Faith Network is a constituent-led, grassroots organization that is part of the Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART), one of the largest faith-based community organizing networks in the country. At DART, we stand against narratives of fear, scarcity, and division, and instead bring people together across lines of difference to take action off our shared values of abundance, love, hope, and promise. We believe that fighting for racial and economic justice is fundamental to our identity as people of faith, and we know that winning justice requires having power in the public arena. We've been organizing interfaith coalitions to build that power and win since 1982.  

What We Do

Organizers in the DART network go beyond the symptoms of community problems to change the unjust systems that cause these issues in the first place. A few of our victories include:

  • Over $1 billion invested in affordable housing
  • $950 million invested in public transportation 
  • More than $22 million secured for communities to address the climate crisis and increase resiliency
  • Criminal justice reforms resulting in 50,000 fewer arrests of children

The Work

As an organizer in the DART network, you’ll spend most of your time in the community, building relationships of trust with everyday people of faith. Through one-on-one conversations, you’ll invite people to be part of something bigger than themselves, moving them from solitary struggle to the pursuit of collective power. You’ll engage them in claiming their own powerful voice and developing their leadership as you guide them through conducting research into community problems. You’ll organize direct action assemblies involving hundreds or even thousands of people to demand action and hold decision makers accountable, winning changes that will greatly impact your community.  You’ll also recruit new congregations, organize local trainings, and coordinate an annual fundraising drive.

Who You Are

  • You have a passion for justice, and have acted on it.
  • You can build strong relationships with people from all walks of life. 
  • You may or may not be personally religious. Either way, you have a genuine respect for all faith traditions and are excited about uniting faith communities to live out their call to “do justice.”
  • Organizers should be comfortable working with people with whom they may have deep disagreements, be able to hold their own beliefs without being restricted by them, and be willing to invest in overcoming differences and finding common ground.
  • DART organizations are diverse coalitions that include communities of color, low-to-moderate-income communities and immigrant communities. We strongly encourage people from these backgrounds, as well as fluent speakers of Spanish, to apply.

Other Requirements

  • Ability to work some evenings and weekends to accommodate community members who work during the day.
  • A valid driver’s license and access to a reliable car.
  • No prior organizing experience is necessary, as we provide the training you’ll need to be successful.
  • Ability to travel for several training events throughout the year.

Training and Development

DART invests heavily in training and development of our team members. During your first year, we provide comprehensive professional development through an initial five-day classroom-style training; five-months of intensive, on-the-job training; one-on-one mentoring from experienced DART consultants; and three multi-day trainings with organizers across the country. Ongoing professional development continues through individualized coaching and mentoring, as well as local, regional, and national staff trainings.

Compensation and Benefits

We value organizers as whole people and want to ensure that they are compensated for the incredible work they do. Benefits include:

  • Starting salary of $52,000
  • Generous annual employer retirement contribution of 10% after one year - no match required
  • Health insurance reimbursement of $500/month
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Parental leave
  • Generous vacation leave
  • Mileage reimbursement
  • Comprehensive, on-the-job training through the DART Organizers Institute

Learn more

Visit www.thedartcenter.org to learn more about the work of DART and the Good Faith Network.

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The DART Center

We believe that communities should determine their own futures. We bring this belief to life by training organizers and grassroots leaders how to uncover, research, and take action on problems plaguing their communities. DART is one of the largest faith-based community organizing networks in the country, with 28 affiliated organizations spanning 10 states. By harnessing the power of organized people, these organizations hold political and economic systems accountable for acting fairly—pushing them to become more equitable and just. Since 1982 our network has fought for and won policy changes that have addressed systemic failures which disproportionately harm low-income communities as well as communities of color. Some of our collective victories include: - Over $450 million invested in affordable housing - Implementation of fair discipline policies in more than 650 schools, breaking the school-to-prison pipeline - Nearly $950 million invested in public transit - Criminal justice reforms resulting in 60,000 fewer arrests of children in Florida since 2014. DART is a network of doers. We understand that the road to a society free of racism and economic injustice is a long one that requires dedication and persistence. To create lasting change, we must do work that extends beyond charity and advocacy. While important, these efforts generally only serve as temporary solutions to permanent, systemic problems. In a world where the interests of the wealthy are prioritized, DART seeks to create communities that honor people power as the true catalyst for change. Each local affiliate organization is its own autonomous entity, with their own 501c3 certification and a board of directors made up of local grassroots members. DART serves as a “helpmate” to our affiliates, providing a proven model for organizing and training on that model. We help find and train professional Community Organizers, but all Organizers are directly employed by the local affiliate, not DART itself.
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