Migrants Organise is Looking for a new organiser

Neighbourhood Organiser in North Kensington

Hours of Work: 35 hours per week, with regular evening and weekend working, for which time off in lieu will be agreed.

Migrants Organise has a flexible working policy. This role is also available as a job share.

Salary: NJC scale 32 with ILW, £32,583 per year

Application deadline: 24th November 2017

Interviews: 30th November 2017

To Apply: please send your CV and two page cover letter to jobs@migrantsorganise.org

Purpose of the post:   To work closely with migrant and refugee community leaders and members in and connected to the North Kensington neighbourhood, to:

  • enable them to continue their support for local residents and community members,
  • support them to speak out, connect with others, grow their power to act, and build common ground,
  • ensure that they play an active and vocal role in any locally-led movement for justice.

About Migrants Organise 

Migrants Organise is a platform where migrants and refugees organise for power, dignity and justice. We work across the UK to bring community organisations, individuals, and institutions together on a common platform to act with, not for, migrants and refugees.

How do we work?

  • We speak out. We make our voices heard, and we take a stand on the issues that affect us. We talk about the issues that matter to refugees and migrants. We tell our stories, and we create opportunities for our voice to be heard.
  • We connect people. We act relationally, to help people belong. People need connections to belong and thrive with dignity. We see strength and resilience in our individual identities and experiences as people. We connect people with resources.
  • We grow power. We recognise and use power to make change. We provide a platform for people to be powerful and develop skills, leadership, confidence and connections.
  • We build common ground. We bring diverse people together around shared issues, on a shared platform. We create spaces for people to find common ground and shared perspectives for action.

What do we do?

  • We organise: we work with communities to act for change. We develop leaders to understand their power, their issues, and how to build actions for change.
  • We mobilise: we bring people to strategic actions and campaigns. We urge and support people to take action on the issues affecting migrants and refugees.
  • We mentor: we support and advise people, and connect people with others who can provide support and advice on the journey to integration. We connect people with others who can share knowledge, experience or friendship.
  • We train: we develop people’s skills, confidence, experience and capacity to act. We use workshops, training sessions, action and experience to help people to develop.
  • We celebrate: we find and create platforms to recognise people. We celebrate migrants and refugees and their contributions.

Main aims of the post

To work within Migrants Organise’s Migrant Community Organising model to:

Grow the capacity of migrant and refugee communities across North Kensington to organise for power, dignity and justice

Work with and provide extensive organising training and weekly one-to-one support for new and existing community leaders and movement builders in North Kensington, primarily, but not exclusively, from migrant, refugee, and Black and Minority Ethnicity backgrounds

Build common ground and alliance among movement builders and other local stakeholders to identify opportunities for meaningful participation, such as in the Public Inquiry;

Create new channels of communication for movement builders with local statutory bodies to speak out and influence decision-making processes in relation to regeneration of the area around Grenfell Tower and other long-term housing issues in North Kensington.

Support movement builders in the development of effective local social justice campaigns and actions:

Support movement builders to conduct listening exercises in their community to identify issues of concern, especially around the structural inequalities they believe led to the Grenfell tragedy and its aftermath, and to ensure these views are fed into relevant meetings and processes;

Provide training, mentoring and support so that movement builders can:

  • Speak out – be heard, take a stand on the issues that affect their communities, and communicate them with legitimacy and confidence;
  • Connect – act relationally, to help people belong with dignity. Connect people with resources and opportunities, connect leaders and communities with each other and identify shared concerns to act in a strategic way;
  • Grow power – develop skills, leadership, confidence and connections to act;
  • Build common ground – bring diverse people together around shared issues, on a shared platform. Create spaces for people to find common ground and shared perspectives for action.

Support movement builders’ contribution to and participation in Migrants Organise, order to enable them to participate in an organised migrant and refugee movement.

Activities

  • Listen – reach out and build good relationships of trust with migrant and refugee community members, including survivors, the bereaved and local residents. Work with them to listen to their needs and hopes, and the needs and hopes of their fellow community members, in order to plan the interventions.
  • Bring together – support the smaller groups to connect, come together, strategise and plan so that they can become stronger together. If it is wanted and makes sense, some kind of community forum or group could be created that meets regularly.
  • Build capacity – provide mentoring, confidence building and support to those who need it, to ensure they can continue and lead this work.
  • Influence – work with smaller migrant and refugees (and others) who are excluded from decision making to ensure they are able to participate and have a voice in spaces of power, whether local networks, Reponse Team meetings, Public Inquiry, etc.
  • Organise – organise these smaller groups to have voice, influence and power to affect decisions. For example, work with people in a particular wards to negotiate with their local councillors over what they can do; build accountability meetings ahead of the local elections.

General Responsibilities

Grow Power

  1. Identify, recruit and support at least migrant and refugee movement builders each year, and sustain their and their community organisations’ participation in the work of Migrants Organise.
  2. Organise and deliver training, mentoring and support for migrant and refugee movement builders to become proficient in Migrants Organise’s community organising methodology, for the purpose of taking meaningful and strategic local action.
  3. Support migrant and refugee movement builders to organise, lead and deliver organised and effective social justice actions locally, regionally and nationally.
  4. Evaluate social justice actions and leadership development using Migrants Organise’s evaluation framework, and contribute to organisation-wide learning.
  5. Seek funding for local and regional actions and organisers, in collaboration with other staff, to secure resources and sustain the programme for the long-term. Maintain good working relationships with funders as relevant and report as required.

Connect

  1. Undertake at least 30 one-to-one relational meetings every month with community leaders, movement builders, members, partners and other key stakeholders in order to build a network of power relations which give energy and legitimacy to Migrants Organise’s regional alliance.
  2. Recruit, train and support volunteer or trainee organisers to support the growth of migrant and refugee leadership and organising capacity.

Build Common Ground

  1. Co-ordinate social justice campaigns, actions and assemblies for different migrant, refugee and minority communities across the region. Take responsibility for developing effective actions related to a core campaigning area for Migrants Organise.
  2. Support the growth of strong relationships of trust and mutual support between migrant and refugee movement builders in the region and nationally.
  3. Work in partnership and build alliances across migrant, refugee, minority and other civil society sectors, to contribute to the development of Migrants Organise as a strong, respected civil society institution and its movement builders as major power players in civil society.
  4. Help shape Migrants Organise’s national strategy to grow an organised refugee and migrant movement.
  5. Work with other colleagues in the team to build a collaborative, relational working culture, rooted in Migrants Organise’s values.

Speak Out

  1. Collaborate with the Communications Officer and other colleagues to ensure that migrant and refugee movement builders are supported to share their stories and voices in local, regional and national media and forums.
  2. Represent Migrants Organise in relevant networks and at events.
  3. Keep informed and well briefed on relevant local and national political and policy developments.
  4. Regularly contribute to Migrants Organise’s website and social media, and support migrant and refugee movement builders to contribute to Migrants Organise’s communications platforms. Assist in the production any other relevant content (e.g. electronic newsletters, policy responses, research reports, press releases etc.).
  5. Work closely with the Communications Officer and team to effectively publicise the work of Migrants Organise.

Other duties

  1. Manage your own administration efficiently, and support Migrants Organise to develop administrative systems that ensure the smooth running of the organisation.
  2. Maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date records of all meetings, trainings and project activities using CMS and other systems agreed with the line manager.
  3. Write work plans and reports for funders and Trustees. Contribute to the development of Migrants Organise’s policy responses and strategic plans
  4. Adhere to organisational policies and procedures and demonstrate a commitment to Equality, Diversity, Social Justice and Confidentiality.
  5. Participate in supervision meetings, regular team meetings, members meetings, AGMs and Board meetings as required.
  6. Carry out any other duties that may be reasonably required.

Person Specification


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