Essie Justice Group is hiring a
The Opportunity
Essie Justice Group (Essie) is building grassroots power to dismantle the US incarceration system, the most egregious creator of racial and gender injustice of our time. We are a loving and powerful community of women with incarcerated loved ones—and include cisgender women, transgender women, formerly incarcerated women, gender nonconforming (GNC) people, elders, and young people.
Building a sustainable grassroots institution that can be leveraged in the fight for a Black Feminist future is a priority at Essie. Through the development of thoughtful organizing models, a vibrant organizational culture, and scalable structure our aim is to break the isolation of the 1 in 4 women who have loved ones behind bars and sustain bold decarceration advocacy through the leadership of women with loved ones behind bars. For the past eight years, we have been building an active membership across California, and at the national level leading in the development of transformative policy solutions including the Movement for Black Lives's BREATHE Act. Now, Essie is waging ever more ambitious campaigns to divest from state-sponsored punitive control and invest in structures that support the self-determination, freedom, and dignity of Black women and GNC people. We are seeking a Director of Campaigns and Advocacy to leverage our collective power to build and implement campaigns to transform systems of control and confinement.
The Director of Campaigns and Advocacy is a visionary leader who believes in the power of people to change systems of oppression, a strategic leader who can create and execute a winning plan, and an inspirational leader who can cultivate and energize people and teams. As one of Essie’s chief policy architects, this Director will bring life to the demands published in our groundbreaking report, Because She’s Powerful: The Political Isolation and Resistance of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones. In 2022, this Director will lead our staff and members in developing concrete initiatives toward our goals of realizing prison closures, divestment from punitive systems of justice and investment in community, and elimination of cash bail and pretrial detention, with a primary focus on California campaigns and select national advocacy initiatives. This goal-oriented person is skilled at organizing complex projects and delegating tasks, able to manage several priorities as well as staff, and follow through on various deliverables at once.
As a senior member of the organizational leadership, the Director of Campaigns and Advocacy reports directly to the Executive Director and will help shape Essie’s present and future—contributing to strategic decision making in the present while helping to architect Essie’s internal growth in alignment with our values. At Essie, how we win is as important as what we achieve, and our ideal Director of Campaigns and Advocacy approaches Black Feminist organizational culture development and scaled organizing goals with equal rigor and commitment.
Core Responsibilities
Organizational Positioning & Partnership for Advocacy - Ensure Essie has the relationships and positioning needed to move our membership’s ambitious policy demands forward.
Development & Implementation of Campaign Strategy - Build and maintain the campaign infrastructure, and design and implement campaign strategies that bring about decarceration wins in California and beyond.
Organizational Leadership - Serve on the Essie Directors Team in order to strategically steward organizational resources in alignment with Essie’s mission and vision.
Who We Are Looking For
Ideal Qualifications
Qualities
The Position
The Director of Campaigns and Advocacy is a full-time, salaried, exempt position. This position is supervised by the Executive Director. The salary for this position is between $120,000 - $140,000 depending on experience with full medical, dental, and vision benefits, 401(k) with up to 3% match, a substantial vacation package, and a monthly personal wellness stipend. The position is based in one of Essie’s offices in Oakland or Los Angeles, California. All Essie staff are required to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with limited exceptions for medical or religious reasons.
To Apply
Please address a personal, specific, and thoughtful cover letter to the “Essie Hiring Committee” and submit along with a resume through our hiring portal (https://essiejusticegroup.bamboohr.com/jobs). Your resume tells us what you can do; your cover letter should tell us who you are and why you want to work with Essie.
Essie Justice Group provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all staff members. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and skills. Essie does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, immigration status, socioeconomic status, ancestry, age, size, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, familial status, veteran status, disability, AIDS/HIV status, medical condition, prior conviction, arrest history, traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Essie values and specifically seeks applicants who are people with incarcerated loved ones; formerly incarcerated people; people of color; women; queer, transgender, gender non-conforming (GNC), and gender fluid people.
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, performance assessment, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
About Essie Justice Group
Essie Justice Group is a non profit organization of women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration. Our award-winning Healing to Advocacy Model brings women together to heal, build collective power, and drive social change. Essie is Great Place to Work-Certified™ by Great Place to Work. Learn more at www.essiejusticegroup.org.