VOCAL-NY is seeking a talented community organizer interested in building grassroots political power to end the homelessness crisis in New York.

The community organizer will support leadership development, base-building and civic engagement among low income people who have direct experience with homelessness and housing insecurity. VOCAL-NY’s homelessness program includes policy, legislative, and community organizing campaigns that aim to rehouse homeless New Yorkers, break the cycle of homelessness, and remove barriers — such as source of income discrimination — for people who are experiencing homelessness. Examples of active campaigns include:

• Doubling the Mayor’s affordable housing commitments for homeless New Yorkers
• Ending landlord and broker discrimination against homeless New Yorkers
• Winning a statewide rental assistance program to help New Yorkers exit homelessness and to keep others from becoming homeless

Organizational Mission

Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) is a grassroots membership organization working to create healthy and just communities by building power among people affected by HIV, drug use, mass incarceration, and homelessness. We do this through community organizing, leadership development, participatory research, policy advocacy and direct action with the belief that true social change must come from the bottom up and be led by those most directly impacted.

Specific responsibilities include (but not limited to):

• Membership Recruitment: Conduct base building activities and achieve targeted membership recruitment goals, especially through outreach at soup kitchens, shelters, three-quarter houses, or methadone and harm reduction programs.
• Leadership Development: Conduct trainings that build the knowledge and skills of people who are impacted by homelessness with a history of incarceration and drug use to participate in planning and policymaking that affects their lives, as well as Know Your Rights trainings.
• Issue ID and Campaign Coordination: Assist members in identifying advocacy issues, developing advocacy strategy, and implementation.
• Mobilization: Turn out large numbers of members to rallies, meetings and other events through mass phone banking and relationship building.
• Phone-banking: In addition to directly phone-banking, the position will coordinate phone-banking for members.
• Membership Meetings: Convene regular membership meetings and smaller campaign/committee meetings.
• Database: Record and input data into our community organizing database
• Support: The position will also be expected to provide support for all community organizing and campaigns around the drug war, mass incarceration, and HIV/AIDS within VOCAL-NY as needed. We have a highly collaborative office environment where staff members provide regular support for each other’s campaigns, which is in part a function of our limited resources and ambitious scope of work.

Requirements / Qualifications: The ideal candidate will be an energetic, self-motivated individual who has strong interpersonal, public speaking and problem solving skills. Candidates must demonstrate interest in homelessness and affordable housing issues and a willingness to approach these issues through a racial justice analysis. Candidates must have at least two years of experience in community organizing and/or related fields – campaign experience is a plus. Interest in working as a member of a team and in a fast-paced, dynamic environment is essential. Basic computer skills, including ability to use the internet, email, word processing (e.g. Microsoft Word) and spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) programs are required.

Details at a glance

• On-site Location
• Full Time Schedule

Benefits

The salary range will be commensurate with experience. VOCAL-NY offers a generous benefits package of twenty days of paid vacation, 100% employer-covered health, dental and vision insurance plan, and 403(b) retirement plan.

How To Apply

Please send a cover letter and résumé tojobs@vocal-ny.org. In the subject line, please put “Housing Organizer [Your Name]”. No phone calls please.

Location: 80A Fourth Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217