Leadership Development Specialist

Purpose

To create and oversee a framework for nurturing leadership development and volunteer engagement with national UUA justice campaigns. To establish and implement a volunteer engagement plan that supports skill development, leadership development, and spiritual deepening among individuals and teams involved in Side With Love programming. To create opportunities for Unitarian Universalist individuals and teams to connect with a network of volunteers across the country and deepen their impact through both national and local organizing in line with the UUA’s Intersectional Justice Priorities. To provide oversight, strategic direction, and integration of volunteer leadership projects into UUA field programs. 

Principal Responsibilities

1. Builds volunteer infrastructure including role descriptions, reporting and evaluation structure, organizational chart, workflows, and ladder of engagement for volunteer teams. 
2. Works with OST Field Team to build recruitment and engagement strategies to support the Side With Love Action Center, including identifying opportunities for volunteers to add capacity by contributing to specific projects and tasks. 
3. Works with supervisor to set organizational capacity building project priorities.
4. Works closely with all program staff to ensure volunteer positions are sufficiently filled to meet program needs and that volunteers and interns enjoy a positive experience.
5. Develops and hosts skills trainings to support leaders and teams participating in the Side With Love Action Center, creating evergreen content through videos, slides, and toolkits. 
6. Co-leads with the supervisor and Data, Communications, and Technology Specialist on national canvassing projects, including volunteer recruitment, script writing, research, and concept design.
7. Establishes processes and procedures for oversight of volunteers, including clarifying which tasks will be delegated to volunteers and which staff have ultimate oversight and/or approval of work product and quality.
8. Coordinates with supervisor and Data, Communications, and Technology Specialist to track and measure volunteer activities in database.
9. Develops and administers volunteer program evaluation strategies. Documents successes, lessons learned, and challenges in implementation and develops reports on program activities and impacts for UUA stakeholders.
10. Creates and deploys learning and evaluation opportunities with OST and other stakeholders to support a growing and well-integrated volunteer program throughout the UU ecosystem.
11. Creates and coordinates capacity building seminars/trainings/workshops to support, enhance, and improve leadership identification and development throughout the UU social justice ecosystem.
12. Coordinates with national and state UU organizations to assess needs, redundancies, and opportunities for collaboration.
13. Helps develop promotional and informational materials.
14. Performs other duties as requested by supervisor, the Director of Communications, 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. Requirements include:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• At least 3 years of experience leading volunteer engagement in faith-based social justice campaigns or programs. 
• At least 2 years of experience organizing in coalitions led by BIPOC or other frontline groups.
• Experience using CRM and volunteer management database likes EveryAction, Action Network, NGPVAN strongly preferred.
• Grassroots organizing experience with demonstrated ability to build leadership capacity and teams to achieve purpose and impact.
• Ability to design and facilitate training 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 verbal and written 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 occasionally to support field organizing and campaigns, and to provide in-person training and support to congregations and justice leaders.
• Understanding of issues around anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.
• Work or lived experience with BIPOC communities is of particular value.
• Eagerness to work in an organization in which the dismantling of white supremacy is a high priority.

* This is a remote, work-from-home position. 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 “Leadership Development Specialist” 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.