About the Legal Aid Justice Center:

The Legal Aid Justice Center is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that partners with low-income clients and communities of color in Virginia to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We understand that the harms our clients endure are inextricably linked to overarching systems of injustice. Together we are dismantling those systems through a combination of community organizing, litigation, policy advocacy, public relations, and individual legal services.

Founded in 1967, LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, Falls Church, and Norfolk and provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights & Racial Justice (focuses on the criminal legal system), Housing & Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, Health Justice & Public Benefits, Immigrant Justice, and Worker Justice. As examples of LAJC’s recent work, our lawsuit and organizing against the state forced reform of Virginia’s unemployment insurance system, including advocacy that resulted in the distribution of over $1 billion in illegally withheld payments to over 160,000 Virginians. During the pandemic, we demanded and secured a statewide eviction moratorium and emergency pandemic protections that helped hundreds of families avoid eviction. We reduced incarceration across the state, including reducing the population of a local immigration detention center down to historically low levels through a coordinated effort of organizing paired with impact and individual litigation. Our staff are on the front lines of some of the most important anti-poverty fights happening today.

With a staff of over 90, the past few years have been a time of exciting growth and opportunity for the organization. In addition to the growth of programmatic efforts including increased organizing capacity, LAJC has expanded its operations and administrative capacity, created new opportunities for professional growth and leadership among staff, engaged in ongoing race equity work, and explored changes to organizational structure to deepen its efforts to create long-term, sustainable, community-driven change.

LAJC’s latest strategic plan is available at https://www.justice4all.org/lajc-strategic-plan-2022-2026/#area%20d.

For more information about LAJC’s work and programs, visit www.justice4all.org.

About the Position:

This position reports to the Program Director of the Civil Rights & Racial Justice Program. This position will also work closely with attorneys and community organizers in all of our offices.

The LAJC Senior Organizer supports and leads campaigns by forging authentic relationships with directly impacted individuals in the communities we serve (namely, low-income, low-wealth people in Virginia) and continually comes back to these relationships for partnership and accountability in our campaigns. Our organizers listen deeply, learn from community members, and amplify the needs and expertise of the individuals and groups we work with. Campaigns are community-driven and the goal is for the campaigns to be community-led. LAJC organizers are expected to lead or support campaigns depending on the leadership development of the group or community. LAJC organizers lead and support various strategic campaigns, including expanding statewide efforts to advocate alongside those impacted by the criminal legal system against the harms of policing, incarceration, and the courts; end the criminalization of poverty by exposing and addressing criminal legal system policies that target people because of poverty and race; eliminate unjustified law enforcement contact; ensure courts are fair for low-income people and people of color; protect against harsh fines and fees; support employment and housing access through expungement efforts; fight mass incarceration while protecting incarcerated Virginians; and build community power through policing accountability initiatives, challenges to harmful bail practices, and advocacy to dismantle burdensome court debt costs. This is achieved through outreach, legislative and policy change, working in coalition with attorneys and advocates, and building power in directly impacted communities. The work addresses important intersections of race, immigration, and criminal justice that disproportionately impact Black and Brown low-income communities of Virginia. You’ll engage in various statewide efforts at both grassroots and grass-tops levels and work closely with community partners in communities seeking to reduce the harms of policing, incarceration, and the courts, and to dismantle policies that criminalize poverty.

As a Senior Organizer, the ideal candidate should have at least 3 years of experience organizing. The ideal candidate can work successfully at both grassroots and grass-tops level, and understand organizing on policies across local, statewide, and federal levels.

Job Duties:

Campaign Development & Strategy

Support and lead strategic campaigns and organizing initiatives
Build new campaigns from the ground up
Work within teams to develop and implement organizing strategies incorporating impact litigation, direct legal representation, and policy advocacy, and narrative change
Evaluate campaign progress and measures of effectiveness through data collection and key metrics

Community Engagement & Relationship Building

Build leadership and power among directly impacted community members
Conduct relationship building, outreach, and community education with individuals, organizations, and coalitions active in relevant program areas
Conduct face-to-face meetings with impaired community residents
Refer individuals to other community resources and legal services as appropriate
Connect impacted community members with the policy process as needed

Leadership Development & Training

Prepare leaders for meetings, public speaking, and media interviews
Mobilize and support community groups to win policy change, including events, and actions such as campaign rallies, town hall events, and lobby days

Communications & Media

Work with the communications department to use multiple forms of media to educate community members on their rights and relevant policies
Represent organizational priorities (including campaign and coalition priorities to public officials, partner organizations, and media

Legal Support & Client Services

Work in partnership with attorneys and legal assistants to support clients and case work as needed to advance campaign goals by:Serving as a point of contact for clients for campaigns or impact litigation
Performing specialized intake (using online intake form) and client interviews in the field when doing so supports organizing and campaign goals
Translating and interpreting legal documents or information
Providing pre-approved legal advice, collect documents, and provide other client support as needed

Racial Equity: Promote racial equity across all dimensions, including within LAJC by doing the following:

Helping to recruit, retain, and support both staff and leadership that reflect the racial composition of our community
Cultivating respect for the work of and expanding resources for non-attorney staff that are disproportionately people of color
Creating spaces for staff to discuss issues of racial, gender, and all other issues of marginalization; and
Pushing for institutional and cultural changes by management, the board, and staff to further promote racial equity.

Administrative Duties

Complete administrative task, including work plans and activity reports, thoroughly and promptly
Perform miscellaneous duties as directed, including administrative and clerical duties as assigned by supervisor
Enter outreach events, campaign activities, and relevant case notes in Legal Server
Organizers may be assigned to cross-program teams or to assist other programs as needed

Required Qualifications:

Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice
Demonstrated experience working with people impacted by mass incarceration
Strong understanding of the systemic challenges face by low-income people impacted by the criminal legal system with a commitment to addressing these issues through organizing and advocacy
Minimum of 3 years of lived or working experience with community organizing, advocacy, or strategic campaigns - knowing how to identify an issue, bring a community together, and achieve lasting change
Serve as the subject matter expert on the criminal legal system and provide valuable insights, recommendations, and problem-solving support as needed
Ability to work in teams and own or delegate task define by the team's roles
Access to reliable transportation and willingness to occasionally travel to other parts of the state and to LAJC's other offices
Ability/willingness to work outside traditional working hours when needed

Preferred Qualifications:

Lived or professional experience in communities historically marginalized due to race, immigration status, gender, etc.
Experience in using media to amplify the needs of a community
Legislative advocacy experience, either on the local or statewide level
Ability to use a variety of tools to reach the community, account for accessibility needs, and keep people engage (ex. Online tools, door-knocking, social media)
Experience coordinating organizing strategies with legal advocacy strategies (ex. Organizing a public pressure campaign alongside a lawsuit or legislation)

A Note to Potential Candidates: Studies have shown that women, trans, non-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don't believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

Salary: The salary scale for this position is $64,521.60- $86,394.42 based on the LAJC salary scale. To allow for salary growth within the position over time, the anticipated hiring range for this position is between $64,521.60 - $75,458.01.

Loan Repayment Assistance Program: Employees of Legal Aid Justice Center with qualifying student loan debt are eligible to enroll in the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) funded by the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, which provides annual assistance of up to $7,500 for attorneys and up to $2,500 for non-attorney staff, paid directly to student loan servicers.

The Legal Aid Justice Center is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, experiences, and communities to apply. The Legal Aid Justice Center is committed to strengthening the voices of our low-income clients, working in collaboration with community partners, and rooting out the inequities that keep people in poverty. We strive to take on the issues that have broad impact on our client communities and to be responsive to client input. Recognizing the particular impact of racism on our clients and staff, we devote special attention to dismantling racial injustice. All applicants must be dedicated to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe. In reviewing applications, we look for evidence that applicants have experience and/or thoughtfulness in working with traditionally marginalized populations.

Legal Aid Justice Center

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Senior Organizer, Civil Rights & Racial Justice