The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in August 2007 and works across the South. Our mission is to promote justice by partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights. SCSJ’s focus areas are community-driven, and currently include voting rights, justice system reform, and environmental justice. SCSJ employs a community lawyering model, meaning that we bring a variety of professional support skills to our clients and partners, including legal, organizing, communications and research support, and work with communities to determine which tools to use and when to use them, in order to best advance our partners’ goals.

For more information about our work and our unique community lawyering approach, visit our website at www.scsj.org.

Diversity and Inclusion Statement:

SCSJ is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all persons without regard to race, color, creed, sex, religion, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, personal appearance, marital or family status, citizenship, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, natural hair styles, or other status as protected by State and Federal laws. It is our intention to promote the full realization of equality in opportunity and employment.

Position Summary:

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) is looking for a Southern Leaders for Voter Engagement (SOLVE) Network Coordinator to organize and act as a project manager for the coalition of organizations that the SOLVE Network houses across the South, focused on voting rights, redistricting and voter education, and voter engagement efforts. SOLVE is a regional network that includes over 100 southern organizations and is led by a Leadership Council of 12 organizations from 10 southern states. Forged from a storied history of collaboration following the loss of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the network shares information and best practices in advocacy, organizing, and communications to reduce barriers to voting in the American South.

The SOLVE Network Coordinator will be part of the Voting Rights Team at SCSJ and responsible for connecting and keeping the Voting Rights Team apprised of the network’s work and facilitating collaboration between SOLVE and SCSJ where appropriate. The Network Coordinator’s primary responsibility will be the administration of SOLVE, including running its website, maintaining relationships with and growing its member organizations, administering Leadership Council meetings, facilitating quarterly network calls, and organizing bi-annual SOLVE Leadership Council and network convenings. Other responsibilities include collaborating with team members whose work focuses on policy and communications, assigning work to meet the needs of the network, coordinating collaboration among the network organizations and funders where appropriate, executing SOLVE events and programming, and facilitating the network’s overall activities. Finally, the SOLVE Network Coordinator will capture and maintain an updated network database of relevant information and contacts related to member organizations.

Key Accountabilities and Deliverables:

• Forging and maintaining relationships with SOLVE member organizations;
• Recruiting new SOLVE members;
• Facilitating and directing SOLVE Leadership Council meetings and priorities;
• Organizing bi-annual Leadership Council convenings (virtual or in-person depending on member preferences);
• Organizing bi-annual (off years from above) SOLVE Network in-person convenings to address the coalition’s strategic plans and needs in member states (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, MS, AL, LA, TX, and TN);
• Planning and facilitating monthly and quarterly meetings with other SOLVE staff;
• Facilitating educational content creation and presentations for the network;
• Developing and maintaining ongoing best practices for the network;
• Working with SCSJ voting rights attorneys, communicators, and researchers to collaborate on and inform partners about SOLVE materials, events, needs, and plans;
• Keeping network members and partners apprised of each other’s work and sharing relevant resources to encourage cross-collaboration;
• Leading the administration of grants to SOLVE member organizations and assisting them in achieving their civic engagement goals;
• Coordinating a grant rubric, external and internal evaluators, and additional forward-facing information related to SOLVE grants;
• Growing SOLVE as an established and resourceful network and evolving the work to be as effective as possible;
• Coordinating communications between SOLVE members, community groups, and SCSJ staff to best ensure timely assistance and guidance;
• Assisting SOLVE members and community groups in problem-solving, from data-acquisition to legislative, legal, and communications strategizing;
• Monitoring and assessing SOLVE successes for grant reporting.

Qualifications:

• At least 2-3 years of administrative, project management, networking, or other relevant experience;
• Strong verbal and written communication skills;
• Exceptional relationship-building skills;
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively communicate with a wide range of individuals and constituencies in a diverse community;
• Strong organizational skills and time management ability; deadline and detail oriented; capacity to prioritize competing responsibilities;
• Ability to be self-reliant, self-directed, and highly efficient; to independently resolve problems; to communicate clearly as part of a team of lawyers and non-lawyers; and to take responsibility for supporting multiple partners across multiple states simultaneously;
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively;
• Self-motivated and proactive communicative collaborator;
• Skilled with Excel, Word, GSuite, Powerpoint, and a preference for being skilled in Canva and Photoshop;
• Tech savvy, Zoom, Webinar, video conferencing event coordination desired;
• Ability to think strategically while executing tactically with limited time and resources;
• Significant coalitional work necessary; organizing and/or experience in a legal setting desired, but not required;
• Commitment to social justice principles and to SCSJ’s community-lawyering model of practice.

Salary and Benefits:

The SOLVE Network Coordinator compensation package includes a starting salary of $60,000 per year; it also includes a comprehensive benefits package, with medical and dental coverage, paid parental leave, participation in a retirement plan, sick and vacation leave, paid holidays and more.

Location:

The SOLVE Network Coordinator will work from SCSJ’s office located in Durham, North Carolina. This is not a remote position, however, due to the ongoing public health crisis, SCSJ staff will be working remotely until advised that it is safe to return to work.

To Apply:

Candidates must upload a cover letter, resume, and one writing sample through the application form here. For the writing sample, if you have a planning document for an event/convening, that would be preferable. Please label submissions with your first and last name.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.