SUMMARY
Position Title: Head of / Associate Director of Organising & Campaigns (2 roles)
Level: Level 6 - 7 (Depending on experience)
Salary:£40, 000 - 55, 000 (FTE yearly/depending on experience/salaries under review as part of our ongoing pay review process)
Reports to: Director of Organising and Campaigns
Location: Liberation centre Brixton, London (New office in Brixton)/ Remote working within the UK with at least 2 days work from our office (Pro rata for part time)
Contract: Fulltime (40hrs/weekly), fixed-term contract for2 years with potential for Part time (e.g., 32hrs/weekly) options
Hours: TAA has flexible working hours, with some expected evenings (e.g., one 9pm finish once every two weeks) and weekends due to the nature of the role. All extra hours are reimbursed as Time off in Lieu (TOIL).
Start date: As soon as possible (with consideration for notice period)
Benefits: TAA laptop and phone, (employee assistance and health cash package including staff supervision, counselling, dental, optical care and more.).
The Advocacy Academy is an activist youth movement. We serve as the political home for grassroots youth organising and the catalyst for collective action. The lives of the young people we work alongside have been directly shaped by living in an unjust world, and we exist to turn their anger into action and change.
Young people are often the catalysts for major social change, from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, to the Soweto Uprising mobilising young people to resist the apartheid regime's education policies, to the Sunrise Movement redrawing the electoral map across America, and more recently protests across the world protesting the genocide in Palestine. How successfully they achieve real and lasting change depends on whether they are organised and whether they have the right strategy and tactics to be effective.
Before you skim the job description, please remember you don t have to tick all the boxes for each role to apply.We all experience a bit of imposter syndrome, including the staff here at The Advocacy Academy. Let s name it for what it is - a manifestation of the oppression many of us face on a day to day. If this role pulls you and you believe you could make a difference, then apply anyway or reach out to us to discuss more!
ABOUT THE ROLE
In a context of the rise of the far right, increasing inequality, and climate disaster, The Advocacy Academy is growing to meet this moment.
As part of this, we are expanding our Organising and Campaigns Team, looking to recruit two senior and experienced organisers and campaigners who are able to build the leadership of young people to enable them to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want. We have raised the funds needed to resource this growth and know what needs to be done. There are three key areas of responsibility:
1. Oversee and deliver TAA s member-led organising campaigns
2. Play a lead role in delivering our Coalition Campaigns
3. Oversee our HOST programme, our in-house campaign accelerator and fiscal hosting programme
But there are several ways we could divide up the work into people s roles. So, instead of splitting this up in advance ofapplications, we are asking candidates to apply first, and then dividing up the responsibilities into two coherent roles based on the best candidates that apply.
AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
The following responsibility areas will be divided between the two roles based on candidates strengths.
1. Oversee and deliver TAA s member-led organising campaigns
* Support members to develop and select key campaigns to prioritise on the basis of:
o People: What our young people want and need to learn to support their growth as organisers and leaders in their own right.
o Power: How we want and need to build power together
o Change: Where there is an opportunity to win material change on the important issues of the day that directly affect our young people and others.
* Once campaigns are selected, you will support members to design clear-sighted campaign strategies to achieve objectives under the three categories above.
* You will then support members to deliver on these strategies, with the necessary campaign infrastructure to ensure it succeeds, including meetings, briefings, comms outputs, creative public action, aligning with allies, and negotiating with key targets.
2. Play a lead role in delivering our Coalition Campaigns, including but not limited to our Climate Coalition (Roots to Rise) and Gender Coalition (name tbc):
* Work closely with the Programme s Team to develop and deliver organising and campaign training for key partner organisations, helping them to embed organising practices into their work, and support their young people to be organisers in their own right.
* Support the Programme s Team and partners to develop and select key campaigns to prioritise on the basis of:
o People: What our young people want and need to learn to support their growth as organisers and leaders in their own right.
o Power: How we want and need to build power together
o Change: Where there is an opportunity to win material change on the important issues of the day that directly affect our young people and others.
* Once campaigns are selected, you will support partners and members to design clear-sighted campaign strategies to achieve objectives under the three categories above.
* You will then support members to deliver on these strategies, with the necessary campaign infrastructure to ensure it succeeds, including meetings, briefings, comms outputs, creative public action, aligning with allies, and negotiating with key targets.
3. Oversee our HOST programme, including but not limited:
* Work with the Director of Oraginising and Campaigns to set the strategic direction and priorities for the HOST Programme.
* Proactively build relationships with our HOSTed groups and coach them to develop their leadership. This involved holding regular 1:1s and relational meetings that strengthen our connection and help them to identifyand act on their developing political interests and to plug them into relevant opportunities for growth at TAA and our wider networks.
* Identify opportunities to improve our offer to HOSTed groups and support them to tackle challenges they face. This includes developing a clear understanding of their aims and needs, and how their and our resources can be used creatively to help deliver these effectively.
* Oversee the Lead Campaign Organiser s efforts to ensure our HOST Programme runs like a well-oiled machine by pulling in the right people at the right time to ensure key milestones are met.
* Oversee the budget for the HOST Programme, ensuring that all activities are run within financial targets, working with the Programmes leadership team to identify efficiencies and savings, checking in regularly with the Head of Organising and Campaigns and relevant senior colleagues to escalate any risks or opportunities that might arise.
4. Be a key member of the Organising and Campaigns Team, including but not limited to:
* Support efforts to set the strategic direction and priorities for the Organising and Campaigns Team each financial year.
* Proactively develop an interest in the impact of political, socio-economic and sector specific changes that could impact the HOST Programme, department and TAA in general.
* Support the Director of Organising and Campaigns and Head of Organising and Campaigns with the management and mitigation of organisational risks presented by the Programme by escalating issues within a timely manner and supporting them with problem solving.
* Support colleagues in the Organising and Campaigns team to run events, training programmes and other key activities to deliver on departmental aims.
5. Support our members to learn and grow as organisers in their own right, including but not limited to:
* Proactively build relationships with our members and grow our membership, through holding regular 1:1s and relational meetings that strengthen campaigns but more importantly help them to identify and act on their developing political interests and to plug them into relevant opportunities for growth at TAA and our wider networks.
* Hold a list of members that you are the relationship lead for, developing and delivering a live learning plan with many of them, supporting them to become powerful organisers.
* Work closely with the Programmes and Community teams to set trajectories and expectations for a young person s campaigning and organising journey, their starting point coming into TAA, and the training and support they need.
* Facilitate workshops and meetings, holding space effectively and designing and delivering creative learning journeys for young people.
6. Culture, values and wider strategy and mission. Hold Functional or senior responsibilities for driving the achievement of our strategic objectives by embedding our vision, mission, strategy, ideology and cultural values across your area and the wider organisation. Play a central role in shaping organisational direction and leading cross-departmental priorities and initiatives. click apply for full job details