Community Organizing

THE OPPORTUNITY

The North American Marine Alliance (NAMA) is seeking a full-time Community Organizer with experience in outreach, organizing, and power building within fishing communities, with an emphasis on but not limited to Indigenous, Black, and Latine communities.

The Community Organizer is an important member of our team at NAMA. Working with NAMA’s Organizing Director’s support for grassroots and other network members, as needed, to increase the visibility and success of our overarching goals.

The individual will report to the Organizing Director.

WHO WE ARE

Founded in 1997, NAMA is an organization led by people who fish, building a broad movement toward healthy fisheries and fishing communities. We build deep and trusting relationships with community-based fishers, crew, fishworkers, and allies to raise the profile of community-based fishermen as the stewards of the ocean; create innovative models such as Community Supported Fisheries; launch campaigns to end corporate control of our ocean, seafood, and fishing rights; collaborate closely with the family farm movements; and, ensure seafood is included in food system conversations. Our interconnected networks of the Fish Locally Collaborative (FLC), the Local Catch Network, and Slow Fish and our international partner the World Forum of Fisher People together represent hundreds of thousands of fishing families, fishing community advocates, food justice champions, scientists, new economy thinkers, and more across North America and beyond.

WHO YOU ARE

• You bring a deep commitment to racial equity and social, economic, environmental, and food justice
• You understand the significance of community organizing and movement building;
• You honor the voices of grassroots communities
• You are committed to NAMA’s mission, work, and philosophy
• You have exceptional interpersonal and deep listening skills and social-emotional intelligence
• You are eager to mobilize and organize our base to take action
• You have a desire to work collaboratively in support of building a team-based, problem-solving work culture
• You thrive in a multicultural environment
• You treat all persons with dignity and respect with high standards, integrity, and a sense of humor

PURPOSE

The Community Organizer will work in North American fishing communities to connect and build relationships with them to achieve the goals of NAMA's strategic plan.

The right person will work with the NAMA team and our network to identify, get to know, organize, and build up fishing communities. As well, they will strengthen existing work with food system advocates and seafood purchasers in the health care sector, universities and colleges, values-based seafood businesses, and anywhere else that is relevant to create a more equitable system. This organizer will have a particular focus on Indigenous fishing communities across Turtle Island.

The right community organizer will:

• Understand that we value collective achievement and radiate brighter as a constellation than as individual stars. As organizers, we serve a movement, taking our cues from the fisherfolks we serve and creating space for those in our networks to lead and shine.
• Listen to our members who know the community, and let people go at their own pace while also helping them develop the self-confidence to try new things.
• Always make time for follow-up. 90% of organizing is follow-up. Follow-up means both keeping in touch with people to get their jobs done, and planning for the fact that a few people won’t be able to complete their tasks.
• Familiarize the network with NAMA's work and philosophy, the policy transformations and market avenues we are pursuing.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Participate in organizational discussions regarding strategic issues, the production of materials and policy positions, and event planning.
• Have a special focus on our food sovereignty and market transformation work.
• Gather fisherfolks’ ideas for solutions that inform our work, and help create teams and infrastructure within our network to make the work progress.
• Keep the team informed of activities and recommend changes in tactics, or strategies, if necessary.
• Assist in information flow within the organization as well as throughout our networks.
• Assist the team in the design and implementation of strategies to educate and mobilize various constituencies about issues and goals important to healthy fishing communities.
• Work with the policy advocates to help inform policy positions, create advocacy materials and other documents as necessary.
• Maintain a working knowledge of the policy issues and be able to present the information to a variety of audiences in language they can understand.

SKILLS

• Be creative, and be open to finding and using dynamic and engaging campaign tools and techniques, and be able to combine those techniques strategically to achieve organizational goals.
• Experience using or ability to easily learn how to use Internet based tools for organizing, communications, outreach, and advocacy work.
• building and maintaining cross-cultural relationships
• Strong research and writing skills.
• Organizational skills, including experience with project management.
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral.
• Problem solving and analytical skills.
• Political organizing skills, especially in alliance building.
• Leadership skills.
• Strong listening skills.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• At least 5 years experience working in nonprofit setting and 3 years experience in community organizing
• Proven track record of skill in innovative storytelling
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and team-building skills
• Effective project manager, organized and able to prioritize and tackle multiple tasks often at once within established deadlines
• Proven ability to learn quickly, make decisions, follow through, and see tasks through to completion
• Ability to work independently in a remote/virtual environment sometimes with minimal in-person interaction with other team members
• Excellent conceptualization, problem-solving, and project leadership skills
• Demonstrated proficiency in web-based applications, various shared workplace tools, Google Suites, and Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

EXPERIENCE/ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• A history of campaigning for and implementing a vision
• Demonstrated commitment to equity and dismantling racism.
• Demonstrated ability to take on projects that are interlinked with other projects.
• Proven ability to work both independently and in close coordination with a team.
• Ability to travel.
• Ability to work in a remote office with minimum daily supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to work with a diverse range of people and groups.
• Strong skills and experience in research/writing, public speaking, and/or organizing people around an issue.
• Experience interacting successfully with media, including television.

LOCATION

North America; with the understanding that currently most of our base is in the United States.

SALARY and BENEFITS

We are an at-will and equal opportunity employer. The Community Organizer is a full-time non-exempt position with a salary range of $54,000 - $63,000 annually. Salary is commensurate with experience and location.

We reimburse staff for 100% of their health, dental, and vision insurance premium costs and 50% of their dependents. We offer a Simple IRA with a 3% employer match, generous holiday, sick leave, and personal time off.

APPLICATION PROCESS

To apply, please send a cover letter explaining why you want to work with us and why you are the right person for this job, a resume, and three references to jobs@namanet.org by November 15, 2024 or until we find the right candidate.

OUR COMMITMENT TO RACIAL EQUITY AND DIVERSITY

We are a national organization that has made an explicit commitment to ensuring equity across our food system and society as a whole. We are engaged in national and global movement-building to support the food providers - fishermen, farmers, ranchers, and workers - who lead our work. They range from rural to urban and, although primarily white, also include Black, Indigenous, Latino, and immigrants from around the world. It’s important to us that our team reflects the diversity needed to lead a movement of people from across the planet working for an equitable and sustainable food system. Food-providing businesses are perceived as mostly male-dominated operations, however, women and trans, nonbinary, lesbian, gay, queer, and bisexual people fish and farm. We cannot bring in the voices of the marginalized on the water and land without considering gender. We believe we can only succeed by building a diverse team full of fresh perspectives and original ideas, and we are committed to creating a working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. Our team includes native and non-native English speakers, self-taught and university-educated, people with all sorts of professional backgrounds.

If doing the job you just read about would make you excited to come to work every day, if you’re talented, hard-working, and committed to making a difference – we want you to apply.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, age, ancestry, citizenship, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, national origin, political affiliation, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you have suggestions for us on how to put these values into practice in our hiring process, we’d value your input. We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants with disabilities to participate in the application process, so please let us know if you have such a request when you apply.

Most of our communities speak English although we work across North America so anyone with proficiency in English - either as first or second language - who speaks other languages is encouraged to apply.