Overview
Organizational Background
VOCAL-NY is building a movement of low-income people dedicated to ending the AIDS epidemic, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and homelessness. We fight for systemic change rooted in justice, compassion, and love. We approach this work with a firm belief in reducing harm and ending stigma, and the knowledge that the issues impacting our communities are driven by institutional oppression, not personal failings. Our campaigns have saved or improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers across the state. We accomplish our goals through community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct services, participatory research and direct action. We are based in New York City, with chapters in Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Westchester County.
Position Description
The Community Organizer will be responsible for building and coordinating VOCAL-NY’s presence in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse. This position will focus primarily on building a base of individuals directly impacted by VOCAL-NY’s core issue areas: HIV/AIDS, drug use, mass incarceration, and homelessness. The Community Organizer will work to build individual membership chapters in key cities, as well as assist with communications, coalition building, and other work to win VOCAL-NY statewide campaigns. VOCAL-NY is headquartered in Brooklyn, but the successful candidate will work from the organization’s Rochester office.
● Examples of current statewide campaigns include:
○ Winning rental assistance programs to house the homeless
○ Legalizing Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs) to prevent overdose deaths
○ Reforming parole to free people from prison
○ Winning affordable housing protections for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS that live outside of New York City
Job Responsibilities
● Membership Recruitment: Conduct base building activities and achieve targeted membership recruitment goals, especially through outreach at shelters, methadone and harm reduction programs, re-entry programs and other venues as directed.
● Leadership development: Conduct trainings that build the knowledge and skills of VOCAL-NY members to participate in planning and policymaking that affects their lives.
● Issue ID and campaign coordination: Assist members in identifying advocacy issues, developing advocacy strategy and implementation.
● Event Coordination and Mobilization: Implement a range of strategies, including hearings, press conferences, rallies, protests, lobby days, and in-district meetings. Turn out people living with HIV/AIDS, people impacted by mass incarceration, drug use, and homelessness, and allies to events.
● Media and Communications: Identify people directly affected by the issues we work on and allies for media and communications activities. Prep advocates speaking to the media.
● Support Other VOCAL-NY Campaigns: The position will be expected to periodically provide support for any and all community organizing and campaign work within VOCAL-NY. We have a highly collaborative office environment where staff members provide support for each other’s campaigns as needed.
● Other duties as assigned.
Requirements / Qualifications
The ideal candidate will be an energetic, self-motivated individual who has strong interpersonal, public speaking, writing, and problem solving skills. Candidates must demonstrate interest in HIV/AIDS, drug policy, homelessness, and/or criminal justice reform and a willingness to approach these issues through a racial justice analysis. A deep
commitment to social justice is required.
The ideal candidate will have:
● At least 2 years of community organizing, advocacy, or related experience.
● Demonstrated ability to plan, implement, and coordinate successful community outreach and public education campaigns.
● Experience facilitating meetings and trainings, coordinating coalitions, and developing partnerships among a wide and diverse array of stakeholders.
● A strong commitment to teamwork and to working with and promoting the leadership of people directly affected by the issues we work on.
● Willingness to work in a dynamic environment with sometimes unpredictable hours and shifting assignments.
● Ability to take initiative and drive one’s own work is a must.
● Excellent oral and written communication skills.
● Excellent organizational skills.
● A deep commitment to VOCAL-NY’s mission.
● Proficiency with common business software (e.g. MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Gmail).
This is a full-time position. The position will require regular travel across the Western New York region and occasional travel to Albany and NYC, including occasional overnight travel, as well as occasional attendance at evening and weekend meetings and events. A car and valid driver’s license is required, VOCAL-NY will reimburse for gas and mileage.
This position reports to the Director of Upstate Organizing.