Community Organizers

The Community Organizing and Advocacy program at CAAS is a key anchor in Somerville's local movement for housing justice.  The Organizers are key to carrying out tenant outreach and education, housing stability advocacy, tenant leadership development and broader issue and policy-based organizing campaigns to prevent evictions and displacement city wide. 

Responsibilities Include:

• Tenant Outreach and Advocacy:  Activities range from door-knocking, canvassing, providing education to collecting data;
• Leadership Development:  Organize and lead one-on-one and small group meetings to build relationships with potential leaders and work with leaders to organize tenant unions; train and inspire tenant leaders to develop new skills;
• Organizing Campaigns:  Design campaigns that prevent displacement and further the housing justice movement; identify targets, assist with research, implement tactics and participate in evaluation;
• Coalition Building:  Represent CAAS at local meetings and coalitions; build coalitions and work with existing ally organizations, residents and businesses to move campaign goals forward.

Qualifications:

• At least 2-3 years experience in tenant or community organizing; equivalent lived experience and/or deeply committed volunteer experience will be considered as much as formal education;
• Proven ability to build relationships with people of different backgrounds;
• Experience organizing and facilitating community meetings; multilingual meetings a plus;
• Verbal and written fluency in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, or Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese); samples will be requested;
• Proof of full Covid-10 vaccination (required for all CAAS employees)
• Ability to travel in person to local meetings and events.