Congregational Justice Organizer

Purpose

To initiate and to manage outreach to congregations in order to expand engagement in grassroots social justice campaigns and UUA programs. To work with congregational teams to foster best practices in congregational justice ministries, to support congregations in bold prophetic action within local ecosystems, and to nurture partnerships between local/regional movement organizations and UU congregations. To support the development of relationships between key congregational justice leaders, religious professionals, UU State Action Networks (SANs), UUA field staff, and past participants in UUA programs. To work closely with the Justice Communications Associate, the OST Leadership Development Specialist, and UUA Congregational Life Field Staff to coordinate, prioritize, and track different forms of congregational contact and engagement.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Leads outreach, training, and mobilization of UU congregations to advance advocacy and engagement strategies and initiatives.
2. Supports congregations to increase local impact by building accountable partnerships and engaging in local movement ecosystems.
3. Develops infrastructure for coordination between congregations and OST.
4. Identifies, recruits, and engages UU congregations, activist networks, and individuals to grow hubs of intersectional, multiracial, multigenerational anti-racist justice organizing.
5. Engages in regular needs assessments of congregational justice leaders and other UU constituents, and uses the information gathered to help design new workshops, training programs, and study resources to meet such needs.
6. Provides organizing support to strategic local and state campaigns through coaching and facilitating stronger collaboration between UU congregations/activists and grassroots partners.
7. Develops, writes, and edits engagement and mobilization materials, such as toolkits, workbooks, newsletters, social media and web content, and how-to materials on specific tactics or issues.
8. Tracks, analyzes, reports on and assesses engagement strategies using our CRM (database) to prioritize constituencies and geographies, piloting, and testing new ways to engage.
9. Develops appropriate metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of our volunteer opportunities and engagement initiatives.
10. In addition to general congregational organizing responsibilities, serves as principal coordinator of UUA-related climate justice mobilizations, programs, and initiatives. Works closely with partners at UU Ministry for Earth and UU Service Committee to engage Unitarian Universalist congregations in climate and environmental justice organizing.
11. Performs other tasks and duties as needed or required by the supervisor, the Organizing Strategy Director, the Executive Vice President, or the President.

Qualifications

This is a Grade 12 position with an expected hiring range of $51,200-$64,700 depending on experience. Note that qualifications may be met as a result of lived experience, volunteer work, professional experience, and/or formal or informal training.

• Bachelor’s degree.
• At least 3 years of experience planning and winning mobilization and advocacy initiatives or campaigns on progressive social justice issues.
• Climate justice experience strongly preferred.
• Grassroots organizing experience with demonstrated ability to build leadership capacity and teams to achieve purpose and impact.
• Ability to design and facilitate trainings for a range of experience levels and different constituencies.
• Excellent skills in building and maintaining relationships. Experience working with ministers, faith leaders, congregations, and coalitions.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Must be able to work independently and be highly self-motivated, demonstrate creative problem-solving and excellent professional judgment, possess resiliency and ability to work in a rapidly changing and fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice, and a solid working knowledge of Unitarian Universalism or other liberal religious tradition.
• Experience with learning, monitoring, and evaluation methods.
• Skilled in delivering public presentations, including the use of tools such as PowerPoint.
• Proven success in the development and delivery of programs and workshops to deepen understanding of justice issues and articulation of a strong theory of change.
• Computer proficiency, especially in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Ability to travel 25% of the time to support field organizing and campaigns, and to provide in-person trainings and support to congregations and justice leaders.
• Understanding of issues around anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.
• Work or lived experience with communities of color or indigenous peoples is of particular value.
• Eagerness to work in an organization in which the dismantling of white supremacy is a high priority.

* Location is open in the continental United States. You should have easy access to a major airport due to the travel requirements of this position.

How to Apply

People with disabilities, people of color, indigenous people, Hispanic/Latinx, and LGBTQ candidates are encouraged to apply. The UUA is committed to developing a diverse and talented staff team. If you are excited about this role, but are unsure whether you meet 100% of the requirements, we encourage you to inquire and/or apply. Send cover letter and résumé—indicating “Congregational Justice Organizer” in the subject line—via e‑mail to careers@uua.org, via fax to (617) 948-6467, or to Human Resources, UUA, 24 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210. E‑mail submissions preferred.

About the UUA

The Unitarian Universalist Association is a progressive religious denomination headquartered in Boston’s waterfront Fort Point Innovation District. Our faith community of more than 1,000 self-governing congregations brings to the world a vision of religious freedom, tolerance, and social justice. Our normal workweek is 35 hours, we pay 80% contribution towards health insurance premiums, 10% towards retirement (after one year), and have generous paid time-off policies. We are a great place to work and we value diversity. The UUA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to the full inclusion of all. As part of this commitment, the UUA will ensure that applicants and staff with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact the Office of Human Resources at (617) 948-4648 or humanresources@uua.org. For more information on the UUA, visit us online at UUA.org and uuworld.org.

Support for the Mission and Values of the Association

The Unitarian Universalist Association is a progressive and historic religious denomination. While it is not generally required or expected that an applicant/employee identify as a Unitarian Universalist (UU) or be a member of a UU congregation in order to work at the UUA, all UUA staff members are expected to perform their job duties in accordance with the UUA’s values, principles and mission. In particular the following points, drawn from the Seven UU Principles, are of particular importance for the UUA’s work environment and staff culture:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every human being: We affirm the need for a human-centered workplace that allows our diverse staff to flourish. We also understand that our wider culture and society oppresses and denies human dignity, and we seek to counter the effects of that oppression in our hiring and workplace culture so that each person feels whole and valued.
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations, and the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all: We speak openly and publicly of our support for social and political issues, including LGBTQ equity, racial justice, climate justice, gender equity, and reproductive justice.
• The interdependent web of existence: We recognize that the liberation of all people is interwoven, and we work to counter patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, environmental exploitation, and other interrelated systems of marginalization.