Language Justice Organizer

TO APPLY Please send your resume, cover letter, and list of three references to jobs@waisn.org. All documents must be in a single PDF in one email with “Language Justice Organizer” in the subject heading. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Priority for applications received by March 28th, 2025. No phone calls please.

POSITION SUMMARY

This position will work closely with the Executive team, Media Consultants, and Policy Director to support the growth of language justice work. The Language Justice Organizer will be responsible for the coordination and implementation of internal and external strategies of multilingual interpretation, translation, and communication in alignment with WAISN’s vision, mission, organizing principles from the frame of language, power and its many intersections. Priority projects in 2025 include establishing infrastructure for assessing quality and political alignment of interpreters and translators, building regional Indigenous language interpreting capacity and councils, organizing community interpreting workshops, organizing a Language Justice advisory council, providing trainings for the WAISN team on language justice, deportation defense and access-related legislative initiatives, and representing WAISN in national Language Justice networks, and coordinating language access for ongoing campaigns and events such as our annual Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day. This position will report to the Public Affairs Director when hired and, until then, to the Executive Directors.

All organizer positions within WAISN are essential to bringing people together in building collective power and driving systemic change. At the heart of this work is relationship-building – connecting through one-on-one conversations in-person and virtually, community-based listening sessions, and participating in community gatherings to foster trust and solidarity. These interpersonal and communal relationships form the backbone of collective action. Beyond immediate wins, all WAISN organizers will focus on long-term movement building, creating lasting change by empowering our communities through knowledge and resource sharing.

Key Responsibilities:

STRUCTURE & DESIGN (20%)

• Refine and provide a Language Justice training curriculum for WAISN Staff, contractors, and volunteers, covering a variety of language justice topics, including but not limited:
  • Language Justice 101: Instilling language justice consciousness.
  • Zoom Interpretation Technology: How to plan and facilitate a meeting with remote simultaneous interpretation
  • How to prepare a document for translation.
  • How to use in-person interpretation equipment
  • Language and Border Imperialism
  • Know-your-Rights with interpretation in multiple languages
  • Rapid Response with interpretation in multiple languages
• Establish and refine protocols for vetting and contract value-aligned translators/interpreters, and assessing and improving interpretation and translation.
• Refine systems for requesting language access support and services with the goal of fulfilling requests in a timely manner and instilling language justice consciousness.
• Work across departments to develop a language justice implementation plan for the next 5 years.
• Integrate a train the trainer model into key language justice workshops and practices in order to build language justice literacy and habit into all departments and staff.
• Establish protocols to ensure community members are informed of what language services are available and how to access them.
• Create language justice centered glossaries and style guides for communications in multiple languages, under the lead of the Communications team.

PROJECT-BASED TRANSLATION & INTERPRETATION COORDINATION (30%)

• Manage procurement with:
  • Independent interpreters
  • Translators
  • Language agencies
  • Language justice consultants
  • Language video and/ or audio services and subscriptions
• Manage daily operations of language access, including preparing documents for translation, providing support to interpreters prior to, during, and after meetings, and providing technical support during meetings.
• Advise communications staff and communications in procedures and practices to ensure quality translation and interpretation, linguistic and cultural diversity, and cultural sensitivity in communications.
• Coordinate review sessions with multilingual community members to provide feedback on communications with comprehension, localization, and cultural sensitivity.
• Lead language access coordination, interpretation technology, volunteer management, and advice communications for WAISN’s annual events and gatherings, including our largest one Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day, a multilingual event attended by over 500 people.
• Provide timely translation of communications materials including, but not limited to, social media, flyers, and email content.

POLITICAL ED, ORGANIZING, COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING (25%)

• Develop multilingual organizing strategies across departments to identify, cultivate, and resource linguistically diverse community leaders and interpreters, particularly in Mixteco, Triqui, and Mam.
• Collaborate with language justice cooperatives to host skill-building workshops for community members and member organizations.
• Host regular workshops for membership organizations on language justice 101, working with interpreters, language justice technology, WAISN’s interpretation and translation request protocol, and equipment rental.
• Build, manage and foster relationships with Language justice workers, cooperatives, strategists, organizers, and service providers to inform internal processes, collectivize language justice knowledge and build a network of multilingual, multiethnic language justice leaders statewide.
• Design and organize a recurring advisory council for language justice and communications, made up of representation from impacted communities, to influence member-facing Language Justice and Communications priorities and act as a body of accountability and feedback.
• Monitor ongoing language access/justice legislative campaigns and legal initiatives, provide education to WAISN staff and membership organizations on the state of these initiatives, strategize with WAISN’s policy, communications, and organizing teams to mobilize WAISN audiences towards action around these initiatives.
• Actively participate and lead outreach activities such as flyering in the community to distribute information in multiple languages.

RESEARCH & DATA (10%)

• Compile bi-yearly language data from changing state demographics.
• Compile quarterly language data with the support of other departments from the bond fund, hotline, membership, and digital organizers.
  • Use this data to refine, update, and provide recommended priority language lists for multilingual communications.
• Conduct quarterly assessments with WAISN departments in order to identify areas of improvement and need and strategize on the further integration of language justice.
• Create accessible, partner-facing records and maps of languages spoken by immigrants in Washington state.

ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT (10%)

• Initiate individual contracts with the list of 20+ interpreters and 20+ translators that we work with regularly, as well as project based relationships with language agencies such as Respond Crisis Translation and NWI Global, and other language access services, such as but not limited to Cyracom International (on-demand interpretation service).
• Research fair and standardized fee structures and contractual expectations in order to inform or update existing operations standards around working conditions and standards of interpretation/translation for independent contractors.
• Act as the first point of contact for contractors, process invoices, and request payment from the Operations Manager to ensure timely payment of contractors.
• Co-create annual and project based budgets with the support of the Operations and Communications Managers in alignment with Language justice and organizational priorities. Use budgets as a guide for language justice decisions.