Bilingual Base-building and Leadership Development Organizer

Location: Chicago, IL

Position Type: Full-time; Salaried; Non-Exempt

Reports to: Organizing Manager

Timeline: Preference for applications received by December 6, 2024. Position open until filled.

About the Opportunity

Founded in 2016, Healing to Action is a young, dynamic organization that is creating a new model of survivor-led organizing. Our mission is to end gender-based violence through building the leadership and collective power of the communities most impacted-survivors from Black, indigenous, immigrant, and communities of color; low-income survivors; survivors with disabilities, immigrant survivors, and LGBTQ survivors. We combine organizing, healing justice, leadership development, and capacity-building to collaborate with survivors in developing powerful solutions that address the intersections of gender-based violence, racial oppression, and economic injustice. HTA’s innovative model has gained distinction for putting power back in the hands of marginalized communities, and made a compelling case for the transformative change that survivors are uniquely positioned to lead.

Healing to Action is hiring a bilingual Base-building and Leadership Development Organizer to support in developing a powerful network of leaders who can provide support to marginalized survivors and initiate creative grassroots campaigns to reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence in their communities. The Organizer will combine strategies of peer support, base-building and leadership development to build strong and thriving relationships between survivors in our Community Support Circle, recruit survivors from impacted communities to join HTA’s programs, and develop supportive resources to sustain survivors’ leadership in their communities. This role will work closely with HTA’s Organizing Manager and Campaign Organizer to sustain survivors’ leadership in community-based campaigns and ensure that HTA’s model of survivor-led organizing is healing and transformative for all program participants.

Core Responsibilities

Leadership Development

• Support in planning and implementation of Healing Generations leadership development program
• Maintain HTA member engagement through intensive relationship-building and planning responsive, meaningful and accessible programming around gender-based violence, gender equity, and racial and economic justice;
• Document and track HTA leader activities to measure program impacts
• For all leadership development activities, implement language/learning/physical accessibility plans for leaders from diverse identity backgrounds (this may include providing or coordinating interpretation, finding accessible transportation and assistive technologies, setting up childcare, and ordering food)

Basebuilding

• Nurture organizational partnerships and community relationships with survivor-facing stakeholders (survivor agencies, spiritual and community leaders, organizing collectives, etc)
• Meet with survivors through stakeholder outreach and recruit into HTA programs and activities
• Conduct 1-1s, small group meetings, and healing justice activities with Community Support Circleto cultivate and nurture relationships, and sustain survivor leadership
• For all recruitment and engagement activities, implement language/learning/physical accessibility plans for leaders from diverse identity backgrounds

Peer Support

• Support leaders in accessing resources for issues related to gender-based violence, both for themselves and in their broader community
• Work with existing membership base to reach and support marginalized survivors in their communities through survivor-led outreach
• Keep a detailed record of program impact metrics including community contacts, referrals and disclosures received by leaders
• Maintain accurate and accessible standalone resources for leaders to independently connect to mutual aid opportunities
• Collaborate with Co-director to showcase impact of and need for peer support strategies in broader gender-based violence ecosystem.

Program Ambassador

• As needed, represent and communicate HTA’s mission and objectives in a variety of external settings, including community events, media interviews, and public meetings
• As needed, participate in fundraising efforts for the organization
• Promote a work culture that embraces diversity, inclusion, and fair and respectful treatment of all persons
• Engage in program storytelling and communications through social media and other narrative strategies.

Who We’re Looking for:

Qualifications

• 6+ Years of experience and/or education with skills transferable to the role such as community organizing, working with survivors of gender-based violence, or related social justice work
• Strong verbal and written bilingual communication skills in English and Spanish
• Excellent time-management, organizational, and event planning skills
• Ability to use or learn to use Google apps; Slack; Trello; Canva; text messaging applications; and social media applications including Facebook, Instagram, Hootsuite, YouTube and Twitter
• Access to a phone with text messaging capabilities
• Access to reliable transportation with a strong preference for a car and valid driver’s license
• A commitment to HTA’s core values: survivor-led and survivor-centered, working towards liberation, rooted in healing, interconnected struggle, unity, and the power to transform.

Qualities

• You’re a relationship weaver. You are a deep listener, and expert at being present with others, and strive to make those around you feel seen, heard, and understood. You enjoy meeting new people and learning their stories. You are good at finding points of connection between yourself and others, and connecting people who ought to know each other.You carefully cultivate spaces you facilitate to feel welcoming, and are highly attuned to creating a sense of belonging for the communities HTA works with. You’re skilled at holding your own boundaries while creating safe, affirming spaces for people from different backgrounds and experiences.
• You Know How to Build Trust. You take the time that’s needed to build trust, and put in the work. You understand the critical importance of showing up when you say you will, following through, and keeping your word. You approach conflict and misunderstandings as opportunities to deepen relationships, and you act on those opportunities.
• You make a way out of no way. You are a mover and a shaker. You understand the challenges of building a model that is shifting existing paradigms to return power to the hands of survivors. You approach problems with ownership, curiosity, and new ideas to adapt and improve. Even when things feel tough, you recognize that ending gender-based violence is a multi-generational project, and are committed to moving the work forward, step by step.
• You seek the learning edges. You see transformation as a lifelong project, and meet people where they are at in their learning journeys. You acknowledge the limits of your own knowledge, and see other perspectives as a gift to enrich your own understanding. You value debriefing, evaluating, and reflecting on how to do better. You offer feedback with compassion and thoughtfulness, and receive it with openness and humility. You are able to place feedback in a larger context to act on it in generative ways.

Travel & Hours

This position requires regular travel within the city of Chicago. Overnight travel may be required on an occasional basis. The organizer will need to work occasional nights and weekends. Examples of after-hours work may include facilitating or attending community partner workshops/meetings, participating in weekend workshops, and staff retreats. However, non-exempt employees are not permitted to work more than 40 hours a week and flexible schedules are available to all employees to accommodate night and weekend work.

COVID-19 Considerations

HTA is a mostly virtual office with some community and staff functions regularly happening in-person in Chicago. Most daily work can be done remotely, but staff can expect in-person meetings with the team and community members several times per month when public health conditions allow. We require all employees to be fully vaccinated.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should forward at least two references, a resume, and thoughtful cover letter to hr@healingtoaction.org with the subject BASE-BUILDING ORGANIZER as the subject of the email. In your cover letter, please explain:

• What attracts you to HTA’s mission;
• Which skills and experiences you are most excited to bring to HTA; and
• How you would contribute to our organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion

Healing to Action provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Salary Non-negotiation policy: In the spirit of honoring our organizational practices to be inclusive and equitable, all Healing to Action compensation packages are determined prior to the start of recruitment. This practice, along with a structured interview process, is intended to mitigate the effects of both shifting criteria bias (judging candidates based on differing standards due to biases) and the ask gap (for example the extent to which women ask for lower salaries than comparable men) on wages within Healing to Action, and is an essential element of our equity, diversity, and inclusion strategy. We will give you the best possible, non-negotiable offer based on our compensation framework, which aligns organizational sustainability, requirements of the role, and the skills and experience of the candidate. ttt