FEEST is Hiring an Organizing Director!

FEEST JOB OPPORTUNITY: Organizing Director

Priority Deadline: Open until filled but applications received before May 18th 2018 will be prioritized.

Please submit cover letter, resume and three references to:
Email: [email protected]
Subject: Organizing Director (FULL NAME)

No calls please.

About FEEST FEEST (Food Empowerment Education & Sustainability Team) organizes low income high school youth and youth of color in Southwest Seattle to become leaders for food justice and health equity. Our unique model is rooted in the value that systemic change must occur hand-in-hand with culture shift work, and that young people most impacted by institutional oppression must be at the center of creating schools and neighborhoods that are healthy, thriving spaces for all. Our goal is to create a food justice movement that is grounded in racial justice, radical joy and youth power. Community Dinners Through our weekly youth-led improvisational dinners we fundamentally change young people’s relationship to food and promote creative risk-taking and connection through community building. FEEST hosts 54 dinners annually where we gather youth to cook an entire dinner from scratch using fresh fruits, vegetables, and halal meat from local markets. These dinners foster skills and appreciation for healthy cooking, cultural sharing, and experiential learning centered in our principles of holistic health and creativity. We strive to reclaim ancestral and traditional ways of cooking and eating together. Food Justice Leadership Cohort Dinners serve as a pipeline to recruit and develop emerging youth food justice leaders. Youth leaders receive over 400 hours of mentorship, leadership training, health education, and organizing skills. Throughout the school year FEEST youth lead the community dinners and organize their peers and families in a food justice campaign. Successes from these campaigns have included an expanded school salad bar, new, culturally-relevant school lunch items, and a youth-led marketing campaign to promote healthy eating. Recently, we established an unprecedented youth advisory committee with the Highline School District Nutrition Services Director.

What we are looking for:

We want a fierce and skilled Organizing Director with on-the-ground grassroots organizing experience who authentically partners with young people to execute their vision for a healthy school and neighborhood. We also want someone who is creative, energetic, optimistic, and full of laughter and joy and understands the importance of organizing in ways that are sustainable for the long-haul and wants to integrate art making with systems change. However, if we must name a few prioritized qualifications, we’d like to ensure the Organizing Director of FEEST has style, skills and experience working with the values we cherish most.

Required Experience

• Minimum 2 years of experience (paid or volunteer) leading or participating in a community, political, or union organizing campaign. This could include: base building, one on one recruitment, coalition building, campaign development, intentional leadership development and creating creative tactics alongside member leaders.
• Minimum 1 year of experience (paid or volunteer)  supervising staff, interns and/or volunteers and mentoring youth leaders.
• A demonstrated commitment to supporting the leadership of young people of color, youth from immigrant families, and youth from low income backgrounds; and a willingness to take leadership from young people themselves.
• A demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to apply racial, gender and economic justice lenses to youth and campaign work.
• Experience in or a demonstrated commitment to incorporating the arts and cultural work in campaign organizing.
• Experience working with racially and economically diverse individuals and communities, including working class, immigrant/refugees, communities of color, and LGBTQ populations.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience building out new organizing campaigns or youth programs
• Experience navigating schools and school districts
• Experience holding decision makers accountable on implementation with campaign victories
• Experience and/or knowledge of the food justice or health equity movements
• Experience managing program or organizational budgets
• Familiarity with the White Center and Delridge neighborhoods
• Strong administrative skills
• Extensive experience in facilitation and youth curriculum development; emphasis on popular education, theatre of the oppressed, and/or creative facilitation training

Primary Job Responsibilities

FEEST is in an exciting moment of strategic growth and there’s lots of work to do as we shift and expand our youth organizing. While a lot of our work is a collaborative effort, there are distinct job responsibilities we want the Organizing Director to fill. They include and are not limited to:

• Work closely with Executive Director on internal growth to align with strategic plan
• Build out our internal structure for youth organizing focused on school-based campaigns related to health equity and food justice.
• Supervise 4 FTE program staff and co-create and support individual work plans, track professional goals and keep staff aligned to programmatic goals
• Work closely with youth leaders to develop political education, organizing skills, strategic storytelling, and campaign development to build a movement for health equity.
• Integrate FEEST’s ongoing culture shift work into campaign strategy and tactics.
• Engage in collective visioning with staff and youth to create FEEST’s organizing strategy.
• Represent FEEST with teachers, school district staff, county government, and organizational partners as needed.

Additional Information

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and the position is open until filled.

• Salary range: $55-60k annually, 40 hours a week with room to grow
• We provide full medical benefits, generous paid time off and access to professional development each year
• Access to a vehicle is highly recommended. White Center is not very accessible by transit and the area we work in is large.

 

FEEST is an Equal Opportunity Employer. People of color, queer, gay, lesbian and/or bisexual people, transgender, genderqueer and/or non-binary folks are encouraged to apply. Work is performed in an office environment. Some heavy lifting and physical labor is required during special events. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.

FEEST’s mission is to set the table for young people to transform the health and equity of their communities by gathering around food and working toward systemic change.