Community Organizer - Lane County

Job Description

Job Description

Application Guidelines:

Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis - please apply promptly.

We recognize that people gain skills and experience in many different ways. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t meet each and every position requirement – instead, use your application to let us know what excites you about the role and what transferable skills or other qualities you would like to bring to OFB! Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background.

Who We Are:

Oregon Food Bank (OFB) believes that no one should be hungry. Our mission is to eliminate hunger and its root causes.  We believe that food and health are basic human rights for all. We know that hunger is not just an individual experience; it is also a community-wide symptom of systemic barriers to employment, education, housing and health care such as systemic racism, sexism, and cissexism. That’s why we work systemically to achieve our mission to end hunger: we foster community connections to help people access nutritious food, and we build community power and strengthen networks of support and the safety net to eliminate the root causes of hunger for good.

We build community power to dismantle systems and policies that drive hunger and poverty.

Oregon Food Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we strongly encourage applications from candidates who can increase the diversity of our organization and strengthen our capacity to eliminate hunger. We believe strongly in the power of lived experience — and we actively seek individuals who have experienced hunger and its root causes to join our team. Our organization is stronger because of the leadership of people who have faced food insecurity in their own lives and/or hail from historically under-represented communities. Learn more about our commitment at  oregonfoodbank.org/equity.  

Who You Are:

You care deeply about community, about people experiencing hunger and hold them in the center of all that you do. You are committed to apply equity as a process and an outcome of your work to disrupt systemic social patterns that promote hunger such as racism, sexism, and cissexism.  You have a strong affinity with OFB’s 10 Year Vision and are profoundly excited to achieve this vision for and with our community.

Position Summary:

As a Community Organizer (Lane County), you will contribute to the organization’s success through building an ever growing base of community leaders in Lane County and moving these leaders through increasing levels of commitment.  From recruitment, to political education, non-partisan electoral organizing,  to leadership development - the Community Organizer ensures that we are building political power to advance systems and policy change to end hunger and its root causes.  

Primary Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

• Build and support a community leadership team that co-creates and implements grassroots organizing strategies & tactics in support of our priority policy change campaigns.     

• Engage community members in all aspects of our statewide field organizing program, including Ending Hunger Power Nights, 1 on 1s, Leader Camps, phone banks, relational organizing and other analysis, skills building and action tactics that increase levels of commitment and leadership.  

• Lead and/or participate in programmatic elements of statewide field organizing program such as Ending Hunger Power Nights, community forums, and educational workshops and other community-building events & activities  with a focus on building political power. 

• Mobilize people to actions and events through phone banking, texting, canvassing (door-to-door), & digital organizing, etc.

• Participate in co-leading organizing trainings within OFB, with our organizational partners or with community members.  

• Identify leaders who want to participate in sharing their stories and expertise in media, legislative testimony or other communications and advocacy strategies.  

• Based on capacity and as assigned, provide on the ground support to local organizing campaigns & coalitions aligned with our priorities.

• Participate fully in cross-department teams as assigned or as critical to position responsibilities.   

• Participate fully in OFB’s Organizing & Advocacy Team, share leadership across the team in peer to peer collaboration and team development.  

• Participate fully in OFB’s organizational planning processes, data and technology systems, lobbying and finance tracking processes and organizational equity journey.  

• Organizational level responsibilities of exempt employees include:

  • To be an ambassador and a leader for OFB’s vision and mission, a cross-departmental collaborator, and an active contributor to building a movement to end hunger for good by addressing the root causes of hunger: systemic oppressions such as racism, xenophobia, sexism, and cisexism. 

  • In consultation and coordination with the supervisor, actively contribute to:

    • cross-departmental efforts

    • work culture activities and programming

    • advisory and consultative groups such as the compensation committee, affinity groups, Equity Ambassadors, Equity Think Tank meetings, among others

    • plan and engage in professional development activities that strengthen your capacity for your specific role as well as your capacity to contribute and advance organizational goals, OFB’s vision and mission.  

• Identify, share, engage in, and collaboratively adjust and make necessary changes to this description of duties according to the inevitable evolution of the role over time.

Skills and Experience Required:

• Deep passion for eliminating hunger and its root causes.

• 2-3 years experience in community engagement.

• Experience living and/or organizing in rural, small town communities or in Lane County 

• Ability to learn and develop community organizing skills and to apply skills in a range of contexts.