Position Summary
Great Oakland Public Schools Leadership Center, GO, organizes, aligns, and develops leaders to advance policies that ensure each and every child receives a quality education. We utilize a multifaceted approach collaborating with district and city leaders, and developing emerging leaders to advance sustained transformation in effective teaching, quality schools, and system governance. The GO community engages with local leaders to support Oakland students and public schools, and develops citywide community ownership of Oakland schools through information dissemination and education progress reports. As a result of GO’s advocacy work, Oakland Unified School District has passed and implemented policies and practices to improve Oakland schools.
GO seeks an inspirational 1.0 FTE Community Organizer to support community leaders to catalyze and sustain a movement to transform Oakland schools. The Community Organizer must be committed to equity and community power. They must also have a track record of winning campaigns in diverse communities. The Community Organizer will join GO’s staff and work under the supervision of the Director of Community Engagement to lead the strategy, development, and implementation of school-based family leadership organizations.
Responsibilities
Build community relationships; determine which schools to partnership with based on community assets and needs.
Identify, outreach to, and connect with families and community leaders from diverse backgrounds.
Guide families and community leaders to develop a school vision, goals, and strategy to energize families to actualize change.
Partner with families and community leaders to develop campaign goals and benchmarks; implement systems to track progress toward goals; work with families to modify objectives and refine goals as campaign needs change.
Coordinate weekly meetings with families and community leaders to organize actions, public and private meetings with decision makers, and larger community gatherings.
Build strong relationships within a diverse community; develop the leadership and capacity of individual leaders to increase individual and community self-determination.
Ensure the GO network (e.g., families, educators, and community members) continuously grows both in numbers and capacity to influence the creation and implementation of policies and practices that support children and education.
Develop and document engaging and culturally relevant organizing tools, lessons learned, and practices that deliver school transformations for families.
Develop and track progress to date using Salesforce, work plans, and regular checkpoints throughout the year.
Participate in activities in support of partner organization GO Public Schools (501c4)
Participate in key discussions to develop organization and city wide community engagement strategy.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate for this role will have the following characteristics:
3+ Years of Community Organizing Experience
Experience working in diverse communities – This leader will be working with our network of Oakland educators, parents, and city leaders, experience doing this work in Oakland or a similar environment with racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse populations is essential.
Strategic, long-term thinker – This leader will manage the short- and long-term strategies necessary to reach our vision. This leader must be able to balance a sense of urgency on behalf of children with an understanding that this is complicated, long-term work.
Influencer/motivator – This leader will have strong skills in building relationships, communication, and a history of motivating others to work together towards goals. This leader must be comfortable asking others to take action and to prioritize participation in GO’s work in the midst of many competing priorities.
Goal-driven and organized – This leader is driven to achieve GO’s vision. This leader sets and uses goals to help colleagues, teams, partners, and volunteers work toward that vision. She/he is motivated by goals as a tool to make sure we are spending time wisely. This leader must have strong follow-through supported by excellent organizational systems.
Critical thinking – This leader will have excellent judgment and be able to make strategic decisions in complicated situations.
Growth mindset – This leader believes that they can improve their leadership skills over time and is eager to ask for and receive feedback.
Team player – This leader will excel in a small-team environment that requires team members to wear many hats and support each other’s work (e.g., have “all hands on deck” for a particular project or event).
Positive attitude – This leader adjusts to obstacles that may present themselves in a dynamic and ambiguous organizing environment.
Other:
Connections in and love for West Oakland strongly preferred.
Bilingual preferred, must have access and use of personal car.
How to apply
Application Requirements and Process
Please send a resume, cover letter, and answers to the following questions to Mirella Rangel, Director of Community Engagement, at gina@gopublicschools.org.