Senior Community Organizer

The Opportunity

Essie Justice Group (Essie) is building grassroots power to dismantle the US incarceration system, the most egregious creator of racial and gender injustice of our time. We are a loving and powerful community of women with incarcerated loved ones. Our community includes cisgender women, transgender women, formerly incarcerated women, gender expansive people, elders, and young people. 

After twelve years of building an active membership across California and beyond, Essie is deepening its base-building and leadership development strategies with the 1 in 4 women with incarcerated loved ones to propel bold decarceration agendas across the nation. We seek to transform the criminal legal system and create a Black feminist future rooted in care, equity, community safety, and liberation. Essie is waging ever more ambitious campaigns to divest from state-sponsored punitive control and invest in structures that support the self-determination, freedom, and dignity of Black women and gender nonconforming people.
In a period of continued organizational growth, Essie seeks a people-oriented, adaptable, and highly motivated Senior Community Organizer to join us in building and implementing campaigns to upend systems of control and confinement. 

The Senior Community Organizer brings clarity to organizing strategy, rigor to tracking member engagement, and deep care to building a strong and connected membership base. They recruit women with incarcerated loved ones into Essie’s political home and steward their continued participation through meaningful organizing opportunities, leadership pathways, and campaign involvement. Building strong, relational connections with members, they get to know individuals’ strengths, stories, and interests in order to support their leadership in committees, advocacy efforts, and public actions. They track participation trends, analyze engagement data, and use these insights to strengthen retention and organizing strategy. Working cross-functionally, they manage organizing projects, create member- and partner-facing materials, and help ensure our organizing work advances Essie’s campaign priorities and builds the political power of families impacted by incarceration.

Core Responsibilities

Member Recruitment and Retention: Recruit women with incarcerated loved ones to join our membership and use effective techniques in relational organizing to continuously engage and create a political home for our members. 

• Recruit new members and steward participation of existing members in Essie’s programming and campaign tactics, including monitoring progress toward turnout goals. 
• Track and proactively respond to trends in member retention. 
• Plan and track member leadership development via committee participation.
• Get to know members’ strengths, stories, passions, and interests in order to support them in assuming more leadership in relevant program/campaign-related activities (e.g. committee leadership, spokesperson training, etc.).   
• Actively problem-solve and support with logistics to reduce barriers to member participation.
• Work alongside members to facilitate member meetings and gatherings in an engaging and values-aligned way. 
• Hold complex spaces and facilitate discussions with skill, fostering inclusive and meaningful participation.

Member Activation & Engagement in Campaign Tactics: Carry out activations, mobilizations, and other tactics to achieve advocacy objectives. 

• Implement campaign tactics (direct actions, press conferences, rallies, meeting with electeds, etc.) in a way that is aligned with the overall campaign strategy. 
• Engage members meaningfully in the planning for and execution of campaign tactics. 
• Prep members to speak at public hearings, actions, or with electeds. 
• Lead and train members in canvassing and door-knocking efforts to engage with the community around issues and grow our membership.
• Create member- and partner-facing written materials. 
• Support in holding relationships with select partners. 

Strategic Stewardship & Data-Driven Project Ownership: Lead high-level planning and execution of member engagement and campaign initiatives by leveraging data and insights to inform strategy.

• Analyze trends in member participation, campaign outcomes, and community engagement to make actionable recommendations for program improvement and growth.
• Develop and manage complex projects end-to-end, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, timelines, and resource needs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to set priorities, define metrics for success, and track progress toward strategic objectives.
• Serve as a thought partner in shaping campaign strategy, identifying opportunities for innovation, and recommending solutions to strengthen member impact and organizational effectiveness.

Who We’re Looking For 

Ideal Qualifications

• 3-4+ years of experience in organizing (community-based, issue-based, electoral, and/or labor); previous experience in decarceration advocacy a strong plus.
• Commitment to supporting the leadership of women and gender expansive people with incarcerated loved ones and our families. 
• Excellent time-management, organizational, and event-planning skills.
• Effective writing, editing, and verbal communication skills.
• Track record as a collaborative team player who excels in managing multiple projects and is comfortable working in a fast-paced and non-traditional work environment. 
• Adept with Mac operating systems, Google Suite, and MS Office Suite (especially Excel, PowerPoint, and Word).
• Commitment to the beliefs and values of Essie with a demonstrated passion for progressive politics, specifically in gender justice, race justice, and ending mass incarceration.

Qualities

• Connecting with others is your superpower. You find tremendous joy in building relationships and supporting the leadership development of others. 
• A determined, methodical executor. You are extremely organized and coordinate meetings and events with skill and grace, especially in a fast-paced, focused environment. You relish strong work plans and time management tools to support your and the project’s success. You anticipate needs and take initiative to address them. “I persist despite obstacles” is one of your mottos.
• Discernment and honesty we can trust. You are a thoughtful team member who acts in alignment with your integrity and are unfailingly trustworthy. 
• Committed to evolution. You are committed to continuously deepening and evolving your own understanding of systems of oppression through study, openness, and humility. And you easily recognize your own relationship to privilege and power, examining and shifting your behaviors as appropriate.
• Uplifting and additive. You see mistakes as opportunities for growth; problems as catalysts for solutions, and inspire others along the journey. You carry a positive approach, can-do attitude, a sense of humor, and authentic kindness wherever you go.

The Position

The Senior Community Organizer is a full-time, salaried, exempt position. This position is supervised by the
Director of Organizing Programs. The salary for this position is between $75,000- $80,000 depending on experience, with full medical, dental, and vision benefits, optional 401(k), a substantial vacation package, and a monthly personal wellness stipend. The position is based at Essie’s Los Angeles office. 

To Apply

Please address a personal, specific, and thoughtful cover letter to the “Essie Hiring Committee” and submit along with a resume through our hiring portal (https://essiejusticegroup.bamboohr.com/jobs). Your resume tells us what you can do; your cover letter should tell us who you are and why you want to work with Essie.

Essie Justice Group provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all staff members. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and skills. Essie does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, immigration status, socioeconomic status, ancestry, age, size, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, familial status, veteran status, disability, AIDS/HIV status, medical condition, prior conviction, arrest history, traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Essie values and specifically seeks applicants who are people with incarcerated loved ones; formerly incarcerated people; people of color; women; queer, transgender, gender expansive, and gender fluid people. 

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, performance assessment, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

About Essie Justice Group

Essie Justice Group is a non profit organization of women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration. Our award-winning Healing to Advocacy Model brings women together to heal, build collective power, and drive social change. Essie is
Great Place to Work-Certified™ by Great Place to Work. 

Learn more at www.essiejusticegroup.org.