A little about us:
The EdJ Coalition (Education Justice Coalition of Vermont) was formed in 2017 to address the lack of representation of historically marginalized cultures and social identities in school curriculums, and to advocate for equitable school policies and practices. In 2019 we helped pass Act 1, colloquially known as the Ethnic Studies bill. Our mission is to promote justice for all students in the Vermont education system through organizing, building community power, and developing and promoting Ethnic Studies, Disability studies, Native American Studies, and LGBTQIA+ curriculum and pedagogy.
Our Team:
We are a majority BIPOC group of 12 Core Members supported by one staff member. We prioritize the leadership of those most impacted by education injustice including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and individuals with disabilities. We are powered by several dozen volunteers throughout Vermont including caregivers, educators, students, and community members.
Our Work:
We do grassroots education justice organizing that is led by our organizing committees. Currently we have three organizing committees: The Police Out of Schools Coalition, Education Organizing Committee, and the Vermont Educators of Color Association. Many of our committees host events such as online workshops, retreats, and larger scale gatherings such as conferences. We hope to add a youth committee in the near future. In addition, we do incident response work to help families, students, and educators respond to critical incidents in their schools.
Our Internal Work:
The Coalition is a non-hierarchical organization where all employees receive equal pay. We believe that the internal health of our organization reflects our ability to do visionary work. We are looking for someone excited to co-build and co-nurture our organization.
We are hiring an experienced and self-directed community organizer to: 1) Coordinate volunteer driven organizing committees, 2) Lead communications work 3) Support with internal organization building.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Coordinate volunteer driven organizing committees which includes volunteer recruitment and management, bi-weekly meetings facilitation (or co-facilitation), and helping the group develop and meet their goals through implementing events, toolkits, and campaigns
- Virtual and in person event planning in coordination with volunteers
- Build relationships with and between volunteers and community groups
- Co-facilitate Core Member meetings
- Lead the communications work which includes social media, website, newsletters, and media strategy
- Support the internal building of the organization through building culture, policy, and spaces to do internal work
Required Skills and Experience:
- Community organizing and leadership skills; experience mobilizing groups of individuals around a common goal
- Strong facilitation skills
- Experience organizing events
- Experience working with youth
- Experience managing social media accounts
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Self starter able to work independently and collaboratively
- Experience/knowledge of the K-12 school system(s)
- Demonstrated commitment to racial and social justice, equity in education and an understanding of and appreciation for the values, mission, and goals of the EdJ Coalition
- Proven ability to work in a manner that respects differences in race, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, disability, and socio-economic circumstance.
- Ability to work evenings (average of 2-3 meetings a week in the 4:00-6:00 range) and occasional weekends
Bonus Skills and Experience:
- Experience with horizontal organizations and/or collective leadership structures
- The ideal candidate inspires collaboration, lifts up the work of others, and maintains balance and perspective with patience and a sense of humor
- Demonstrated experience using social media and other web-based communication in support of organizing or mobilizing; Proficiency with database management
- Understanding and experience with the Vermont school system(s)
Our Share Values:
Justice, Transformation, Flexibility, Community Healing, Joy, Growth, Truth, Love, and Personal Healing.
As a Coalition:
- We imagine worlds that don’t exist
- We include all voices without demanding commitment
- We acknowledge that what each member brings is enough
- We are still learning
- We believe that regardless of citizenship or residency, that we all belong
- We see and name the truth
- We are all part of the “us”
- We don’t leave people impacted by oppression behind
- We believe in process being more important than the product
- We believe that change is possible
- When stories are silenced, we can’t do the work
Compensation & Benefits:
This is a full time salaried position with a salary at the rate of $54,080/year.
Benefits include:
- Healthcare with premiums paid 99%
- Dental and eye care with fully paid premiums
- 24 vacation days a year
- 16 holidays a year
- Sick time
- $500/year professional development stipend
- $30/month technology stipend
- Flexible schedule
Application Procedure:
To apply, email a cover letter, resume to alyssa.edjvt@gmail.com
Deadline:
Applications close on Friday, October 7th at 4:00 pm.
The Education Justice Coalition of Vermont is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, and veteran status.
We understand racism as a systemic force that is driven by colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. We acknowledge that it affects all of us at the internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels. We feel that racism is deeply embedded in the culture and practices of our school systems, and causes harm to our children and our society as a whole by perpetuating false narratives of white supremacy. Our work is to counter racist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic and anti-Indigenous narratives and structures in schools by advocating for policies, practices, and curriculum that counter the dehumanization and erasure of our communities in their schools. We are working to advocate for and lift up curriculum that presents the authentic, historic, and lived experiences and contributions of our communities. We feel that embedding a more honest and accurate view of historically marginalized groups in schools helps to counter racism at all of it’s four levels. In addition, we are engaged in grassroots organizing for humanizing, anti-oppressive policies such as replacing police in schools with student-led restorative justice.
Internally, our organization is very aware of how White Supremacy culture often becomes the default organizational culture. We are building an organization that centers love and liberation. This culture impacts all our decisions from our structure to who we take money from to the pace of our work. We believe the quality of our internal relationships and the health or our organizational culture directly predicts and reflects the quality of our external relationships and the quality of work we are able to do in our community. We see our work as anti-racist culture building both internally and externally.