Associate Community Organizer

Who We Are & What We Stand For

Are you angry about the injustices your community faces Do you want to learn how to build the people power necessary to fight those injustices and make real local change As a community organizer with Topeka JUMP youll learn how to bring together our areas diverse faith community to address the root causes of serious community problems.

Topeka JUMP is a constituentled grassroots organization that is part of the Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART) one of the largest faithbased community organizing networks in the country. At DART we stand against narratives of fear scarcity and division and instead bring people together across lines of difference to take action off our shared values of abundance love hope and promise. We believe that fighting for racial and economic justice is fundamental to our identity as people of faith and we know that winning justice requires having power in the public arena. Weve been organizing interfaith coalitions to build that power and win since 1982.

What We Do

Organizers in the DART network go beyond the symptoms of community problems to change the unjust systems that cause these issues in the first place. A few of our victories include:

• Over $450 million invested in affordable housing
• $950 million invested in public transportation
• More than $22 million secured for communities to address the climate crisis and increase resiliency
• Criminal justice reforms resulting in 50000 fewer arrests of children

The Work

As an organizer in the DART network youll spend most of your time in the community building relationships of trust with everyday people of faith. Through oneonone conversations youll invite people to be part of something bigger than themselves moving them from solitary struggle to the pursuit of collective power. Youll engage them in claiming their own powerful voice and developing their leadership as you guide them through conducting research into community problems. Youll organize direct action assemblies involving hundreds or even thousands of people to demand action and hold decision makers accountable winning changes that will greatly impact your community. Youll also recruit new congregations organize local trainings and coordinate an annual fundraising drive.

Who You Are

• You have a passion for justice and have acted on it.
• You can build strong relationships with people from all walks of life.
• You may or may not be personally religious. Either way you have a genuine respect for all faith traditions and are excited about uniting faith communities to live out their call to do justice.
• DART organizations are diverse coalitions that include communities of color lowtomoderateincome communities and immigrant communities. We strongly encourage people from these backgrounds as well as fluent speakers of Spanish to apply.

Other Requirements

• Ability to work some evenings and weekends to accommodate community members who work during the day.
• A valid drivers license and access to a reliable car.
• No prior organizing experience is necessary as we provide the training youll need to be successful.
• Ability to travel for several training events throughout the year.

Training and Development

DART invests heavily in training and development of our team members. During your first year we provide comprehensive professional development through an initial fiveday classroomstyle training; fivemonths of intensive onthejob training; oneonone mentoring from experienced DART consultants; and three multiday trainings with organizers across the country. Ongoing professional development continues through individualized coaching and mentoring as well as local regional and national staff trainings.

Compensation and Benefits

We value organizers as whole people and want to ensure that they are compensated for the incredible work they do. Benefits include:

• Starting salary $50500
• Generous annual employer retirement contribution of 10 beginning after one year of employment no match required
• Health insurance reimbursement of up to $550
• Flexible scheduling
• Parental leave
• Generous vacation leave
• Mileage reimbursement
• Relocation assistance
• Comprehensive onthejob training through the DART Organizers Institute

Learn more

Visit www.thedartcenter to learn more about the work of DART and Topeka JUMP.