Community / Coalition Organizer - part-time

Help build the grassroots movement for: Disability Justice. Worker Rights. Human Need over Corporate Greed. Public Health/Education/Welfare. Better Medicaid & Medicare.

Are you an experienced organizer/activist that wants to do movement work, but can't work full time due to other responsibilities?

The Alliance for Community Services is a community-labor coalition of people with disabilities, low income families, seniors, unions and community organizations promoting social, racial, disability and economic justice, with a focus on expanding and improving public sector services that meet human needs for health, education, welfare.

The Alliance brings together front-line service workers with consumers of those services to learn from each other, and take action together for the benefit of all. Current issue priorities include

• Organizing people with disabilities, including residents of long term care institutions (e.g. nursing homes) to win person-centered care, freedom, dignity
• Protect and improve public health (e.g. Medicaid, Medicare, mental health, long term care), public education , disability services, SNAP, including safe/healthy service offices
• Win democracy, accountability and justice for students and teachers at Chicago City Colleges
• Progressive tax/revenue, fair budgets, fair union contracts

To build people power, organizers:

• identify and recruit persons directly affected by these issues, especially people with disabilities, seniors, rank-and-file union members, Medicaid consumers
• organize meetings and protest actions (remote and in-person)
• build campaigns by getting people more involved (doorknocking, phone calls, one-on-ones, et al)
• collect and publicize stories of persons being harmed by austerity
• engage community and union allies
• initiate/promote on-line activism
• research, list building, fundraising, and misc support tasks (note: This is an organizing position that is mostly reaching out to and mobilizing members. Admin tasks are in support of that, not a central part of the job)

Specific schedule negotiable, but will include some evenings and weekends.

 Required qualifications: 

Commitment to racial/social/economic/disability justice. Courage. Strong verbal and written communication skills, facility with phone/computer technology, shared documents, email. Experience with organizing/advocacy. Ability to: act independently, juggle multiple tasks, respectfully listen to and engage diverse constituencies, show initiative, motivate others to act on shared values, get yourself to activities/meetings throughout Chicagoland. Willing to recruit/engage persons of diverse abilities and backgrounds.

Preferred: 

Lived experience with issues of the Alliance agenda. Three years experience with public policy, legislative campaigns or community organizing. Language other than English (including ASL). Familiar with Chicago or Illinois progressive community.

Location: Staff work remotely but must be based in Illinois, preferably Chicago metro, and participate in required in-person activities. Local grassroots community outreach is a core part of the work.