Immigrant Youth Organizer

Position Title: Immigrant Youth Organizer

Classification: Full-Time, 2 year grant-funded position Compensation: $60,000/year (depending on experience), plus generous benefits

The End SIJS Backlog Coalition, a project of the National Immigration Project, is a national group of impacted youth and over 136 allied advocacy organizations working together to end the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) backlog. Through youth organizing and legislative and administrative advocacy, our coalition educates members of Congress and relevant government agencies about the harmful impacts of visa caps on immigrant youth, with the goal of achieving permanent legal protection in the United States for immigrant youth who have survived abuse, abandonment, and neglect. The Coalition seeks to hire a youth organizer to grow our youth organizing as a key strategy and core value of our work.

Supervised by the Director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition and in coordination with the Coalition’s Youth Organizing Working Group, the Youth Organizer (YO) will lead the Coalition’s youth organizing work. The YO will work directly with impacted youth to educate, build power, take action, and advocate. Through relationship building, storytelling, advocacy training, and community-building, the YO will build our base of empowered, impacted SIJS youth, including undocumented and foster youth, across the country. These youth will advocate directly with lawmakers and administrative agencies. The YO will develop cohesive strategy alongside impacted youth, our Steering Committee, our Youth Organizing Working Group, and Coalition membership to position youth leadership at the forefront of all our advocacy work. Full job posting here.

Primary Duties:

– Develop a cohesive youth organizing strategy for the Coalition, in partnership with impacted youth, the Youth Organizing Working Group, and the Steering Committee;

– Spearhead the Coalition’s Youth Organizing Working Group;

– Identify, build, and maintain a nationwide base of engaged, impacted-youth leaders interested in learning, taking action, and advocating for an end to the SIJS backlog;

– Stay up to date on changes in the immigration system impacting immigrant youth;

– Communicate updates, opportunities, and events regularly with impacted youth;

– Prepare, coordinate, and facilitate both in-person and virtual meetings/events with impacted youth (e.g., one-on-ones, learning workshops, team building, action planning, direct action, advocacy training, healing spaces, etc.);

– Participate in Steering Committee and broader Coalition meetings to represent the voices and goals of the Coalition’s impacted-youth membership;

– Build and maintain relationships with organizational members of the Coalition (legal services providers, child welfare agencies, academics, etc.);

– Educate policymakers about issues impacting immigrant youth;

– Build the Coalition’s social media presence and virtual community-building spaces for impacted youth;

– Build relationships and collaborate with other groups working to organize immigrant youth;

– Represent the Coalition and youth membership in the media;

– Maintain membership databases and careful written records of stakeholder and impacted youth engagement;

– Other administrative duties as required to support the broader work of the Coalition.

Preferred Qualifications:

– Personal lived experience with the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status backlog or other experience within the U.S. immigration system;

– At least 1-2 years of comparable youth or community organizing experience;

– Experience communicating with different audiences including policymakers, impacted youth, and legal or advocacy organizations;

– Experience organizing and facilitating group meetings, trainings, and community building events;

– Interest in exploring a variety of creative methodologies to engage and elevate youth voice, including the arts, music, etc.

– Experience working with youth who have experienced trauma.

Required Qualifications:

– Bilingual (English and Spanish);

– Ability to travel 1-2x/month for multiple consecutive days;

– Ability to attend and facilitate meetings outside of traditional working hours;

– High degree of comfort with technology, including Microsoft Office, Zoom, Google Suite, and databases;

– Excellent event planning and execution skills;

– Understanding of and commitment to advancing the mission of the Coalition and alignment with the mission of the National Immigration Project;

– Strong interpersonal skills: active listening, conversation, encouragement, etc.;

– Creative self-starter who can work without too much structure and who has a proven ability to work with a diverse team of volunteers, staff, lawyers, working groups, and other stakeholders.

Compensation & Location: Salary in $60,000 range, commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, and generous vacation and leave time. This is a full-time limited term exempt union position. All National Immigration Project union staff are represented by the National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW), UAW Local 2320, AFL-CIO. We are headquartered in Washington, DC but most of our staff work remotely. This is a fully remote position.

To apply: Submit the following in a single PDF to jobs@nipnlg.org. Include “Immigrant Youth Organizer” in the subject of the email. Position open until filled; applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible. No phone calls please.

● Cover letter

● Resume

● Sample social media post related to an immigration issue

● Sample organizing email addressed to immigrant youth, calling on them to take an action or get involved in a project.

● Name and contact information of three references

National Immigration Project is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively recruits women, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other People of Color, persons with disabilities, persons of diverse gender and sexual identities, immigrants, and formerly incarcerated persons.