Position Description

Reporting to the Director of Policy & Advocacy, the Community Organizer will coordinate grassroots engagement efforts among residents in communities across Nebraska. This position will require building relationships with residents through civic outreach, special events, and projects. Duties include canvassing residents and collaborating with partner organizations on advocacy and engagement efforts. Civic engagement activities range from voter registration, volunteer training, grassroots advocacy, and education campaigns. RISE’s advocacy efforts include mobilizing and educating communities about legislation and voting rights that impact people with criminal legal system involvement. 

This position is a part-time, temporary, contracted position.

About RISE 

RISE is the largest nonprofit organization in Nebraska focused solely on habilitative programming in prisons and reentry support. At RISE, transformation starts pre-release and continues post-release. Our inside/out model bridges incarceration to the community and considers all the critical steps in that journey. We prepare and train people for each phase through intensive character development, employment readiness, job creation through entrepreneurship, family programming and case management. We transform people in the community by building awareness and empathy that leads to support and opportunity.  These connections heal families, create employment pathways and lower recidivism. The mission of RISE is to break generational cycles of incarceration.

Responsibilities

• Engage voters at their doorsteps, events and high traffic areas to conduct voter registration, canvassing, and conversation about relevant issues pertaining to RISE’s Policy & Advocacy priorities
• Implement voter contact plans and community engagement strategies to engage new registrants, drive voter turnout, and increase overall awareness to drive voter registration and voter turnout goals
• Facilitate meaningful discussions with impacted communities to understand their specific challenges, needs, and priorities as related to specific advocacy efforts 
• Solicit feedback on issues impacting the community and develop advocacy skills and opportunities promoting self-representation 
• Develop relationships of trust and mutual respect with residents and other stakeholders
• Recruit, train, and support residents from communities to participate as volunteers in civic engagement activities
• Document all appropriate information in databases and keep databases updated with timely data entry
• Demonstrate and model RISE’s core values
• Other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

• 2-3 years of community organizing experience required
• Experience using VAN/Votebuilder and other voter contact and relational tools
• Ability to work independently and also effectively collaborate with teammates 
• Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion values and ability to work with diverse groups of people
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Willingness to learn relevant databases and commit to the importance of data entry and updates
• Exceptional organizational skills; detail-oriented with strong follow-through
• Demonstrated experience in taking initiative with the ability to be flexible in a fluid and fast-paced environment
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Suite or other comparable office software
• Ability to work some evenings and weekends
• Access to reliable transportation with a willingness to travel to other counties in Nebraska as necessary 
• Some knowledge of the Nebraska criminal legal system is preferred
• Basic computer skills preferred
• Commitment to the RISE vision that “all people will find freedom from cycles of incarceration.” 
• Scrappy, adaptable, entrepreneurial, and innovative
• Openness to feedback, coachable, with a dedication to continually learn and improve
• Exceptionally high level of honesty and integrity, as well as being friendly, flexible, adaptable, self-aware, and confident
• Willingness to cultivate superb time management and organizational skills