Lead Organizer

The Lead Organizer reports to the Senior Director of Organizing. The Lead Organizer will work closely with the Director of Movement Building to provide support, strategy input and execution around the Organizing department’s priorities, campaigns, actions, and events. The Lead Organizer will work with a subset of established ICIRR members to deepen engagement, investment and ownership in ICIRR’s issue campaigns and provide support for their involvement. The Lead Organizer will participate in strategy development across ICIRR’s local, state and national campaigns, (both by providing staff support and leading efforts). The Lead Organizer will be able to craft strategy for, own and lead organizational wide events/actions/activities, and campaigns. Like all organizing department staff, the lead organizer will provide general support in ICIRR’s day-to-day organizing functions, and represent ICIRR externally as needed.

Additionally, the Lead Organizer will support the advancement of ICIRR’s “organizing institute” under the direction of the Director of Movement Building. The Organizing Institute aims to build the organizing capacity of our membership through training and individualized support. The Lead Organizer will conduct organizing training, and will provide support to a set of Organizing Institute participants on an ongoing basis. As the department grows, the Lead Organizer will also provide informal guidance and leadership to incoming organizing staff around their work plans and priorities. The Lead Organizer will also provide organizing support around individual deportation cases we engage in with external partners.

Like all of our staff, they will be ultimately accountable to our member organizations and Board of Directors. The Lead Organizer will be responsible for helping us grow our organization and build our base and membership who engage in our organizing campaigns including state budget matters, equitable expansion of public and benefits to all Illinois residents, health equity, pushing back against immigration enforcement and more. This includes working with a diverse set of members including service providers, community based organizations and external partners.

The Lead Organizer will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Engage and organize a subset of ICIRR member organizations around ICIRR’s campaigns and strategies
• Work in close collaboration with ICIRR’s Senior Organizing Director, Movement Building Director, Political Director, Communications Director and Policy team to provide support around ICIRR’s state, local and federal campaign. Specifically assist in the development and execution of campaign strategy, organizing events, supporting within partner tables as needed, and more.
• Support in the development and build out of ICIRR’s emerging “Organizing Institute” which provides training, professional development and capacity building for ICIRR members around organizing. The Lead Organizer will engage a team of ICIRR’s membership to build organizing capacity through their involvement in the Organizing Institute
• Work closely with ICIRR’s Family Support Network (FSN) Coordinator to ensure that FSN hotline cases are being integrated into ICIRR’s campaigns and/or leadership development efforts led by our membership.
• Provide support for ICIRR’s yearly platform engagement efforts to engage ICIRR members around our campaign priorities on an annual basis
• Actively build relationships with ICIRR member who are engaged within ICIRR’s organizing and advocacy efforts as part of our collective base building efforts, and bring new institutional members into ICIRR’s formal membership structure
• Help execute Springfield legislative strategy including supporting the execution of legislative advocacy in district and in Springfield, electoral organizing activities through ICIRR’s Immigrant Voter empowerment program known as Democracy Project
• Support in the creation of leadership development opportunities for directly impacted leaders from ICIRR’s membership throughout all of ICIRR’s organizing activities
• Support, initiate and drive organization‐wide initiatives in partnership with the organizing team and the organization as a whole.
• Work with ICIRR’s digital organizer to help build ICIRR’s list of 'digital advocates' to engage in ICIRR’s online organizing tactics in service to our campaign.
• Provide support around engaging ICIRR membership around campaign updates and other organizing related functions
• Provide informal strategic guidance and support to ICIRR’s growing organizing team.
• Maintain working knowledge of the entire range of issue areas addressed by ICIRR.

Qualifications: We are looking for someone who is self‐sufficient, reliable, reflective, comfortable with accountability, highly communicative, high energy, excellent at building relationships, bilingual and is a self‐starter. Our organizers need to be willing to take charge of driving their own campaigns, represent ICIRR within strategic tables relevant to our campaigns, meet tight deadlines, and make their own schedules

Additionally:

• The Lead Organizer would have a minimum of 5 years of community organizing experience and a willingness to build upon their experience to potentially take on Director level responsibilities in the future
• We seek to hire people with deep experience living and/or working in immigrant communities, especially immigrants themselves and the children of immigrants.
• Bilingual language capacity in Spanish is required
• Excellent interpersonal and writing skills; experience and comfort in public speaking in English and Spanish; excellent leadership abilities and superior organizational skills; detail‐oriented with the ability to juggle many different tasks simultaneously and complete them in a timely manner; A good sense of humor is a definite plus
• Knowledge and awareness of policies, and experience working with immigrants and/or refugees preferred; Some knowledge of the legislative and public policy processes at the local, state or federal levels preferred;

A car and valid driver’s license are required. Because the organizer must be available when our leaders are, evening and weekend work are a part of this job.