The North Carolina Industrial Areas Foundation (NC IAF) seeks an Associate Organizer to work with one of our three organizations in the NC Triangle.
NC IAF is creating a network of broad-based organizations capable of representing the diversity of the Triangle area. In building this network, we strive to address the critical issues inflicting pain on our communities such as crime, healthcare access, ineffective schools, immigration or living wage jobs.
We make this happen by building relationships between everyday people across the many divides in our community, i.e. race, income, geography, party affiliation. In doing so, we listen to develop an action agenda. With power, we engage and negotiate with other powerful people in government and corporations.
NC IAF is part of The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the oldest and largest national, institution-based, community organizing network in the United States. Founded over sixty years ago by Saul Alinsky, the IAF works with 63 institution-based community organizations across the United States, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These organizations have produced impressive results in training thousands of African-American, White, Latino and Asian, poor, working and middle class leaders to take action on community, city and state issues. Some of these issues include living wage, public education, after-school programs, large scale blight removal, revitalization, healthcare reform.
NC IAF is seeking a candidate who possesses
- NATIVE INTELLIGENCE – not necessarily degrees, but the ability to think, reflect, communicate, challenge the conventional wisdom, make judgments in complicated situations, and show flexibility.
- ANGER AND EDGE – not temper, not ideological fervor, not an abstract commitment to “the people,” but a clear sense of what’s wrong, impatience in the face of that wrong, and a drive to address it.
- A WILLINGNESS TO CROSS RACE AND CULTURE – to be willing to work with people unlike oneself, people of other races, classes, orientations, faiths.
- A TRACK RECORD – some evidence, in high school, college, the local community, the workplace of attempting to relate to people and to respond to situations that seemed to demand responses; and some success in whatever field or career or endeavor has occupied the individual’s time.
- HUSTLE
Responsibilities of this position include
- Following direction from an NC IAF lead organizer
- Setting up and conducting 15-20 one to one meetings per week (A one to one meeting is a focused 40 minute meeting with a person to begin to build a relationship and to look for leaders for public action)
- Ability to build organizing teams in 5-8 institutions or community groups
- Building networks of leaders within existing and new member units
- Writing a weekly report and participating in a weekly check-in with the Lead Organizer
Compensation
- Competitive based on experience
- Health insurance stipend
- Expenses and auto reimbursement covered
To Apply
Send a cover letter, resume, and three references (two professional and one character) to [email protected].
In your cover letter, please share a story where you were the principal player in making change, including: what motivated you to act, one key lesson you learned from the experience, and if/how the qualities listed above assisted you in making change.