We’re Hiring: Community Organizer

Position Overview

There is a growing movement in cities across the country to recalibrate our expectations for safety and mobility on our roads. The campaign is called Vision Zero, and at the heart of it is the idea that no loss of life on our roads is ever acceptable. When someone dies in a crash, it leaves a terrible hole in the community that can never be filled. For too long, we have accepted crashes as inevitable. We call them “accidents,” as though nobody is to blame. But traffic fatalities are preventable. They aren’t accidents— they are the price we pay for designing roads for convenience and speed over safety and inclusion. It doesn’t have to be this way. People are fallible. But when someone makes a mistake, it shouldn’t be deadly. We already know how to design roads to be that safe. We know what kinds of traffic laws and enforcement make the streets safer for all users.  What we need is the political will to implement these solutions. That’s where you come in. The community organizer will mobilize support to secure commitments to Vision Zero in the Washington metropolitan region, and then to hold leaders accountable to the vision and those commitments: Zero deaths and serious injuries on our roadways.

Key Skills

We are looking for a strategic people-person who can toggle rapidly between nuanced policy arguments rooted in data and statistics, and big-picture talking points for a public audience. The ideal candidate will demonstrate experience and accomplishments using the following skills:

• Relationship Building: A dynamic, articulate connector, you will proactively seek out and build partnerships at all levels to advance our work on Vision Zero with community leaders, agency staff, public officials, and families impacted by traffic violence.
• Event planning: A self-directed, organized, and detail-oriented planner, you will build community support for Vision Zero by organizing safe street workshops, days of action, neighborhood safety audits, a regional Vision Zero Summit, and other education and outreach activities.
• Communications: A poised and eloquent public speaker with strong writing, editing, and presentation skills, you have the ability to distill complicated policy ideas into compelling messages easily understood by the general public. You will create and deliver campaign trainings, respond to press inquiries, act as a resource to victims of crashes, contribute to the WABA blog and social media accounts, and deliver public testimony as needed.
• Coalition Building: A goal-oriented collaborator with strong facilitation skills, you will convene a diverse cross-section of Vision Zero stakeholders to facilitate cooperation and communication, and to drive implementation of action plans.
• Technological fluency. You will create and maintain spreadsheets, run reports, and communicate with colleagues, WABA members and the public via tools like Google Apps for Work, WordPress, Microsoft Office and our customer relations manager Salsa Labs.

Bonus Skills and Experience:

Please be sure to let us know if you have experience with the following—

• Grassroots or community organizing
• Social justice issues
• Foreign language skills, particularly Spanish
• Campaign strategy
• Transportation policy
• Local government
• Data analysis

About Us

Washington Area Bicyclist Association works to create a healthy, more livable region by promoting bicycling for fun, fitness, and affordable transportation; advocating for better bicycling conditions and transportation choices for a healthier environment; and educating children, adults, and motorists about safe bicycling.

Employment Details

The salary range for qualified candidates is mid-40s. The position is full-time. Benefits include employer covered health/dental insurance, generous flex time policy, vacation, sick and personal leave, committed colleagues, fun working environment, and WABA’s 403(b) retirement program. The position is based in the WABA office in Adams Morgan, Washington D.C. Occasional evening and weekend work is required. WABA is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation or gender identity, disability, sex, or age.

How to Apply:

Submit a cover letter and resume in one PDF to Tamara Evans at jobs@test.waba.org with “Community Organizer” in the subject line. In your application materials, please help us understand how you would contribute to the diversity of WABA’s staff. We will consider promising candidates on a rolling basis, effective immediately.