Announcement of Open Position
Community Organizer
Lawrenceville United is seeking a highly passionate, productive, strategic individual to join our team of dedicated community advocates and professionals to staff the PEP Rally program, which works with families and community partners to strengthen and support Lawrenceville’s neighborhood public schools.
About Lawrenceville United
Lawrenceville United (LU) is an inclusive, resident-driven community-based non-profit organization that works to improve and protect the quality of life of all Lawrenceville residents and stakeholders. LU envisions a safe, clean, green, healthy and diverse community where residents work together to shape the neighborhood’s future, while honoring Lawrenceville’s past. For more information on LU, please visit www.LUnited.org.
Summary of Position
The community organizer position is responsible for leading all aspects of the PEP Rally program, which began in 2013 as a pilot program and has since grown to be a key program of Lawrenceville United, in collaboration with school leaders and other community partners. PEP Rally aims to support and strengthen target neighborhood public schools by engaging parents as agents of positive change within the schools and community, and by facilitating partnerships to fuel community-supported initiatives that address student, school, family, and community needs. Goals of the program include:
- Build meaningful parent engagement at target schools.
- Create conditions within schools and the community to retain and attract families by fostering community-supported initiatives.
- Educate families on the school choices and resources available, guiding parents through the navigation process, and building collective trust in the neighborhood schools.
- Develop leadership of families to share in decision making and affect positive change in Pittsburgh Public Schools and in the community.
This position requires a learning mindset, outstanding relationship-building abilities, and a strong generalist skill set. The ideal candidate has high energy, time management skills, patience, listening skills, and experience working with diverse communities and managing partnerships. To achieve program outcomes, the community organizer works closely with LU staff, school staff, community organizations and partners, and families.
Reporting Relationship
The community organizer reports to and is evaluated by the Executive Director of Lawrenceville United.
Essential Functions
Community Organizing:
- Building and managing an engaged base of parent and community stakeholders and members by building relationships with individuals in the community, engaging and recruiting parents and community members to serve as leaders, and to participate in events, projects, and campaigns.
- Initiating and leading project: strategic thinking and planning, issue identification, coalition building, building mobilization plan with community contacts and leaders, mobilizing parents and community members, identifying recommendations for moving forward
Community Engagement:
- Delivering information to the community that is accurate, grounded in data, and easy to understand
- Being familiar and able to discuss current community and educational issues
- Recruiting community members to participate in projects in meaningful ways
- Facilitating conversations with, and presenting to, community groups and families
- Developing and maintaining community relationships and partnerships to achieve outcomes
- Engaging with school staff and administrators to build meaningful engagement with the community and supporting school initiatives
Administrative:
- Completing monthly reports and timesheets
- Updating contacts and records regularly in LU database
- Participating in the development and execution of other complimentary community programs
- Managing budgets
- Reporting on outcomes and completing grant updates
- Other duties as required to support LU’s mission
Supervisory:
- Managing and coaching three part-time parents to lead campaign focused on improving school climate and educational equity
- Program management of specific projects (e.g. after school and community programs)
- Overseeing interns and volunteers
Qualifications
- A bachelor’s degree or at least three years of relevant experience
- Track record of leadership
- Experience working with diverse populations and underserved groups
- A passion for educational equity and social justice
- Successful experience working with groups through processes such as facilitation and consensus building
- A comfort level with being in the spotlight, but not having the spotlight be about them; rather it being about the larger education issues and relevant concerns
- A respect for and comfort level with rigorous and healthy debate about issues
- A desire to continually learn, and an ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment
- Ability to work flexible schedule
Skills
- Demonstrated organizational skills with project management
- Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to build relationships with diverse populations
- Analysis and synthesis skills, including the ability to collect information, determine key objectives, and act strategically and decisively
- Excellent communication skills, including verbal, written and public speaking
- Coalition building skills, including the ability to motivate, negotiate, and persuade stakeholders into a course of action
- Demonstrated skills in community organizing such as identifying actionable issues within a larger problem, building the leadership of others, mobilizing groups of people and choosing when to follow
- Experience working with (or ability to learn) Microsoft Office suite, social media, SalesForce, Google Drive.
- Foreign language skills and knowledge of Pittsburgh educational landscape preferred
A starting salary of $40,000-45,000 (commensurate with experience) and full benefits package will be provided. LU is an equal opportunity employer, committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. Qualified individuals who bring diverse perspectives and represent marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply.
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to Dave Breingan at HR@LUnited.org by December 29, 2017. Please use your cover letter to describe what aspects of the job interest you most.
