The TESA Collective (The Toolbox for Education and Social Action) is an award-winning organization that creates educational resources and programs for social and economic change. We are a worker-owned cooperative. This means that each worker has one equal ownership share of the company and one equal vote in its governance.

Over the past five years, we have helped dozens of organizations and movements achieve their mission through the development of social justice-based education tools and efforts. We’ve collaborated nationwide: in NYC, California, Phoenix, Chicago, Seattle, Connecticut, and much more. The groups we’ve teamed up with have been locally focused as well as national operations, and we’ve worked on issues ranging from building the cooperative movement, immigrant rights, anti-war efforts, environmental justice, and more. See a small sample of our collaborations here.

Our other primary effort is creating tools for social and economic change in house, which we then distribute. This includes games such Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, Loud & Proud, and our in progress game RISE as well as books, teaching guides, and more. Visit our website to find out more about us.

JOB DESCRIPTION

TESA is looking to add a Communications Specialist to our collective. While we’ve outlined several responsibilities for this position below, we are looking for a creative individual who can bring new, exciting ideas to our collective. The existing responsibilities are:

Social media, newsletter, and digital outreach: TESA has a significant social media and online presence that we’d like to expand. We’re always looking to engage our communities and allies – whether it’s to share news, update people about our work, get their involvement in the creation of our resources (see here for example), and more.

Article and blog writing: One of TESA’s significant communications strategies is writing for media outlets and regularly updating our own blog. You can read a sample article here and check out our blog here. We’re looking for someone who can help us expand upon this strategy and who is interested in writing as well.

Cultivating and maintaining partnerships: Conducting outreach to maintain and expand our partnerships with other organizations will be a critical component for this position. You’ll get to meet with individuals and organizations doing some of the most interesting organizing and community work around the country!

Supporting Sales: This position will support in the distribution of TESA’s resources. This will happen through outreach to individuals, organizations, and the above mentioned digital strategies such as social media and article writing.

Project Support and Content Creation: This position will occasionally be called on to support the creation of new tools from TESA as well as support in our work with partners.

Your ideas: This position will be responsible for coming up with new, exciting ways to connect TESA with more partners and communities as well as get the word out about our work.

WORKER-OWNERSHIP TRACK, BENEFITS OF WORKER-OWNERSHIP, AND BEING IN A COLLECTIVE

This position is for a worker-ownership track at TESA. After eight months of working at TESA, the person filling this position will be eligible to become a member of the collective (a worker-owner).

• Members get one equal share in the collective and have one equal vote in its governance.
• Members equitably share the benefits in the good times and share the burden in the hard times. The collective members equitably share profits at the end of the year.

We govern TESA on a consensus basis while empowering individual positions to oversee their operations. This position will have the opportunity to grow and expand.

QUALIFICATIONS, HOURS, LOCATION, AND PAY

Skills, Experience, Qualifications

• Deep passion for social and economic change
• Ability to work within a collective, a good collaborator, and also self-motivated
• Able to dream up and implement ideas
• Computer skills
• Strong writing
• Previous communications experience
• Able to juggle more than one project at a time
• Connections to any existing movements is considered a plus
• Any other skills/qualities you bring that we haven’t listed

Hours and pay: TESA defines full-time as 30 hours a week (though we sometimes work over this), given our dedication to ensuring that collective members have the ability to lead happy, healthy, well-rested lives outside of work. We are looking for someone who will start part-time at 20 hours a week but we are hopeful this position will grow into full time. Part-time pay is $17.50 an hour. Full-time pay is $20 an hour. Once this position becomes a worker-owner, they will also receive an equitable share of the collective’s profits alongside the rest of the members.

Other benefits:

• Two-weeks paid vacation
• 10 paid holiday days
• Two weeks off at the end of December through the start of January
• A flexible work schedule

Location: This is a work-from-home or shared office job, which means there is no required location. However, the other collective members of TESA are based in Western Massachusetts as well as Chicago, so proximity to those locations will be considered a plus.

This is not a contractor position – it is an employee position on a worker-owner track. However, we are open to discussing that if it is a candidate’s preference.

HIRING PROCESS TIMELINE

We will be accepting applications through April 15th. Two rounds of interviews will take place between April 13th – April 22nd. We will make the final decision the following week, and we are hoping the new position will begin by the start or middle of May.

TO APPLY

Please send a resume, cover letter, a sample of your writing, and at least two references to contact@toolboxfored.org. The title of your e-mail should be “Communications Specialist Application – Your Last Name”. You can make out the cover letter to the Hiring Committee. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!