Are you passionate about building Black and Brown youth power to ensure that historically underserved students in Oakland have access to a high-quality public education? Join us as an Organizing Fellow to find, train and coach youth leaders so they can advocate effectively for access to high-quality public schools.
Key Responsibilities
This is a part-time consultant role, paid hourly. This role will be paid hourly at $25-30/hour, for 10-12 hours per week.
In this role, you will report to the Director of 6-12 Organizing and receive coaching from FIA staff in order to:
- Recruit, train, and lead a core set of youth leaders to develop school-based youth-led organizing teams (YLT’s) to empower English and Spanish-speaking youths to act in the public arena to promote and defend their interests and values.
- Use 1:1 meetings to build relationships and identify youth/community leaders. Use a variety of outreach methods to recruit leaders and allies through 1:1 meetings, door-to-door canvassing, house visits, school visits, school events and/or house meetings.
- Develop the knowledge and skill of youth leaders in the data, Oakland public education landscape, principles and practices of community organizing.
- Support in our A-G Campaign, including training/facilitating student-led workshops
Additional skills, duties and responsibilities:
- Plan and coordinate outreach and youth organizing meetings in order to build effective, ongoing organizations and to maintain the involvement of grassroots leaders.
- Build strong coalitional relationships among diverse groups of organizational stakeholders and neighborhood leaders.
- Organize participation in community meetings, public events and demonstrations, voter education and mobilization initiatives, and other forms of civic engagement.
- Develop and manage relationships with a broad base of constituents from targeted communities (including community based institutions, public officials, local government agencies, social service agencies, teachers and school leaders), and build their support for education reform efforts.
- Receive weekly coaching and development from our lead youth organizer.
- Perform other duties as required to support the work of the organization as a whole
Sample “Week in the Life” of a FIA Youth Organizing Fellow
- Meet 1-1 with 8-10 of your youth leaders to strategize about the next steps in your campaign to expand educational options in the district.
- Meet 1:1 with 2-4 potential new leaders in order to understand their self-interest and share the mission and vision of FIA.
- Recruit and train youths to speak at a meeting with their local school board president, and coach her to think through the appropriate tone and level of challenge the group should bring to the board member about their issue
- Make calls to invite youths to attend an upcoming meeting and schedule 1-1 visits with them for the next week
- Meet with your supervisor to evaluate your previous youth leader team meeting
Your Qualifications:
- Familiarity with Oakland politics and education
- Familiarity with the historical & root causes of educational disparities in the United States (ie., racism, systemic issues to maintain white privilege and power
- Demonstrated ability to build strong relationships with diverse stakeholders and communities
- Experience with and sensitivity to multicultural work environments
- Willingness to work as member of and contribute to a team in a dynamic, learning environment
- Passion for creating more high-quality school options for working families
- Eagerness to learn and engage in community organizing
- Proof of eligibility to work in the United States
- Highly-organized and able to manage multiple priorities
- Proficiency in Spanish
Work Environment:
FIA is a hybrid work organization. We have 2-3 in-office work days and 2-3 remote work days per week, in addition to some in-person and virtual evening meetings. We will offer flexibility around in-person work days based on health protocols on any given day or week. We are an equal opportunity employer.