Senior Organizer, Civil Rights & Racial Justice

About the Legal Aid Justice Center:

The Legal Aid Justice Center is a nationally recognized, non\-profit organization that partners with low\-income clients and communities of color in Virginia to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We understand that the harms our clients endure are inextricably linked to overarching systems of injustice. Together we are dismantling those systems through a combination of community organizing, litigation, policy advocacy, public relations, and individual legal services.

Founded in 1967, LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, Falls Church, and Norfolk and provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights \& Racial Justice (focuses on the criminal legal system), Housing \& Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, Health Justice \& Public Benefits, Immigrant Justice, and Worker Justice. As examples of LAJC’s recent work, our lawsuit and organizing against the state forced reform of Virginia’s unemployment insurance system, including advocacy that resulted in the distribution of over $1 billion in illegally withheld payments to over 160,000 Virginians. During the pandemic, we demanded and secured a statewide eviction moratorium and emergency pandemic protections that helped hundreds of families avoid eviction. We reduced incarceration across the state, including reducing the population of a local immigration detention center down to historically low levels through a coordinated effort of organizing paired with impact and individual litigation. Our staff are on the front lines of some of the most important anti\-poverty fights happening today.

With a staff of over 90, the past few years have been a time of exciting growth and opportunity for the organization. In addition to the growth of programmatic efforts including increased organizing capacity, LAJC has expanded its operations and administrative capacity, created new opportunities for professional growth and leadership among staff, engaged in ongoing race equity work, and explored changes to organizational structure to deepen its efforts to create long\-term, sustainable, community\-driven change.

LAJC’s latest strategic plan is available at https://www.justice4all.org/lajc\-strategic\-plan\-2022\-2026/\#area%20d.

For more information about LAJC’s work and programs, visit www.justice4all.org.

About the Position:

This position reports to the Program Director of the Civil Rights \& Racial Justice Program. This position will also work closely with attorneys and community organizers in all of our offices.

The LAJC Senior Organizer supports and leads campaigns by forging authentic relationships with directly impacted individuals in the communities we serve (namely, low\-income, low\-wealth people in Virginia) and continually comes back to these relationships for partnership and accountability in our campaigns. Our organizers listen deeply, learn from community members, and amplify the needs and expertise of the individuals and groups we work with. Campaigns are community\-driven and the goal is for the campaigns to be community\-led. LAJC organizers are expected to lead or support campaigns depending on the leadership development of the group or community. LAJC organizers lead and support various strategic campaigns, including expanding statewide efforts to advocate alongside those impacted by the criminal legal system against the harms of policing, incarceration, and the courts; end the criminalization of poverty by exposing and addressing criminal legal system policies that target people because of poverty and race; eliminate unjustified law enforcement contact; ensure courts are fair for low\-income people and people of color; protect against harsh fines and fees; support employment and housing access through expungement efforts; fight mass incarceration while protecting incarcerated Virginians; and build community power through policing accountability initiatives, challenges to harmful bail practices, and advocacy to dismantle burdensome court debt costs. This is achieved through outreach, legislative and policy change, working in coalition with attorneys and advocates, and building power in directly impacted communities. The work addresses important intersections of race, immigration, and criminal justice that disproportionately impact Black and Brown low\-income communities of Virginia. You’ll engage in various statewide efforts at both grassroots and grass\-tops levels and work closely with community partners in communities seeking to reduce the harms of policing, incarceration, and the courts, and to dismantle policies that criminalize poverty.

As a Senior Organizer, the ideal candidate should have at least 3 years of experience organizing. The ideal candidate can work successfully at both grassroots and grass\-tops level, and understand organizing on policies across local, statewide, and federal levels.

Job Duties:

Campaign Development \& Strategy

• Support and lead strategic campaigns and organizing initiatives
• Build new campaigns from the ground up
• Work within teams to develop and implement organizing strategies incorporating impact litigation, direct legal representation, and policy advocacy, and narrative change
• Evaluate campaign progress and measures of effectiveness through data collection and key metrics

Community Engagement \& Relationship Building

• Build leadership and power among directly impacted community members
• Conduct relationship building, outreach, and community education with individuals, organizations, and coalitions active in relevant program areas
• Conduct face\-to\-face meetings with impaired community residents
• Refer individuals to other community resources and legal services as appropriate
• Connect impacted community members with the policy process as needed

Leadership Development \& Training

• Prepare leaders for meetings, public speaking, and media interviews
• Mobilize and support community groups to win policy change, including events, and actions such as campaign rallies, town hall events, and lobby days

Communications \& Media

• Work with the communications department to use multiple forms of media to educate community members on their rights and relevant policies
• Represent organizational priorities (including campaign and coalition priorities to public officials, partner organizations, and media

Legal Support \& Client Services

• Work in partnership with attorneys and legal assistants to support clients and case work as needed to advance campaign goals by:

+ Serving as a point of contact for clients for campaigns or impact litigation

+ Performing specialized intake (using online intake form) and client interviews in the field when doing so supports organizing and campaign goals

+ Translating and interpreting legal documents or information

+ Providing pre\-approved legal advice, collect documents, and provide other client support as needed

Racial Equity: Promote racial equity across all dimensions, including within LAJC by doing the following:

• Helping to recruit, retain, and support both staff and leadership that reflect the racial composition of our community
• Cultivating respect for the work of and expanding resources for non\-attorney staff that are disproportionately people of color
• Creating spaces for staff to discuss issues of racial, gender, and all other issues of marginalization; and
• Pushing for institutional and cultural changes by management, the board, and staff to further promote racial equity.

Administrative Duties

• Complete administrative task, including work plans and activity reports, thoroughly and promptly
• Perform miscellaneous duties as directed, including administrative and clerical duties as assigned by supervisor
• Enter outreach events, campaign activities, and relevant case notes in Legal Server
• Organizers may be assigned to cross\-program teams or to assist other programs as needed

Required Qualifications:

• Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice
• Demonstrated experience working with people impacted by mass incarceration
• Strong understanding of the systemic challenges face by low\-income people impacted by the criminal legal system with a commitment to addressing these issues through organizing and advocacy
• Minimum of 3 years of lived or working experience with community organizing, advocacy, or strategic campaigns \- knowing how to identify an issue, bring a community together, and achieve lasting change
• Serve as the subject matter expert on the criminal legal system and provide valuable insights, recommendations, and problem\-solving support as needed
• Ability to work in teams and own or delegate task define by the team's roles
• Access to reliable transportation and willingness to occasionally travel to other parts of the state and to LAJC's other offices
• Ability/willingness to work outside traditional working hours when needed

Preferred Qualifications:

• Lived or professional experience in communities historically marginalized due to race, immigration status, gender, etc.
• Experience in using media to amplify the needs of a community
• Legislative advocacy experience, either on the local or statewide level
• Ability to use a variety of tools to reach the community, account for accessibility needs, and keep people engage (ex. Online tools, door\-knocking, social media)
• Experience coordinating organizing strategies with legal advocacy strategies (ex. Organizing a public pressure campaign alongside a lawsuit or legislation)

A Note to Potential Candidates: Studies have shown that women, trans, non\-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don't believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

Location: This role will be based in our Richmond office. Occasional travel between offices will be required. Although a regular presence in the office is required, LAJC offers a remote work policy to support employees in co\-creating schedules and arrangements that allow us all to do our best work.

Application Review Date: We'll begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis, but all applications must be submitted by Thursday, April 30\. While our review process can take some time, this doesn't mean you're not being considered—please be patient as we carefully evaluate each candidate. We'll continue to accept and review applications until the position is filled; however, if we receive a high volume of applications, the posting may close earlier than the stated review date.

Application Instructions: Complete the online application. This position requires a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references. Please address the cover letter to the hiring manager, Anna Kurien, but submit all materials through the online application system. We will not contact references without advance consent from candidates.

Salary: The salary scale for this position is $64,521\.60\- $86,394\.42 based on the LAJC salary scale. To allow for salary growth within the position over time, the anticipated hiring range for this position is between $64,521\.60 \- $75,458\.01\.

Loan Repayment Assistance Program: Employees of Legal Aid Justice Center with qualifying student loan debt are eligible to enroll in the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) funded by the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, which provides annual assistance of up to $7,500 for attorneys and up to $2,500 for non\-attorney staff, paid directly to student loan servicers.

Benefits: Our mission is compelling, and our team members are passionate about their work, and so we recognize the need to provide generous benefits and encourage rest and a healthy work environment. For example, we provide:

• Generous paid time off every year, including 3 to 6 weeks of vacation, 12 days of health leave, 16 weeks parental leave, and 14 holidays (not including bonus holidays/rest days allocated as needed)
• 100% employer paid health, dental, and vision insurance, plus excellent family insurance with annual max of $2,400 premium contribution to LAJC\-sponsored health plan
• 403(b) retirement plan with 4% employer contribution (no required match)
• Strong commitment to professional development
• Student loan repayment assistance program

The Legal Aid Justice Center is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, experiences, and communities to apply. The Legal Aid Justice Center is committed to strengthening the voices of our low\-income clients, working in collaboration with community partners, and rooting out the inequities that keep people in poverty. We strive to take on the issues that have broad impact on our client communities and to be responsive to client input. Recognizing the particular impact of racism on our clients and staff, we devote special attention to dismantling racial injustice. All applicants must be dedicated to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe. In reviewing applications, we look for evidence that applicants have experience and/or thoughtfulness in working with traditionally marginalized populations.