We are hiring an Associate Coordinator…
Not a desk job or a non-profit management job – this is hands-on work similar to community organizing for a natural people person who has a strong sense of social justice, not afraid to ask people to do hard things, persuasive and clear in oral and written communications, well-connected in our community, and a curious observer and learner. Some travel for training and some evening work involved.
To apply:
- Review job description and also “the real job description.”
- Send cover letter that addresses your interest in this position based on “the real job” job description, along with your resume and references by Friday, August 15 to ashleyobrien@savannahcitizenadvocacy.org
- We will not review resumes without your cover letter attached.
Position: Associate Coordinator
Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy is a small, independent, non profit located in downtown Savannah. The organization initiates and supports one-to-one citizen advocacy matches between people who have developmental disabilities and local citizens.
The Associate Coordinator is primarily responsible for making new citizen advocacy matches and supporting new matches to grow into relationships. The Associate Coordinator will also develop networks of people in our community who will offer support for protégé recruitment and advocate recruitment.
The Associate Coordinator is an “asker” and is responsible for recruiting people with developmental disabilities as protégés, inviting people to consider becoming citizen advocates, making the citizen advocacy match and offering follow along and support to ongoing citizen advocacy relationships. Making citizen advocacy matches is done one person at a time. The job requires a lot of time meeting people, discerning a person’s character and talents, and clearly communicating the ideas of citizen advocacy.
Characteristics:
- willingness to learn,
- interest in promoting the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in civic opportunities in our community
- willingness and ability to invite people to do hard things,
- persistent and not discouraged by the word “no”
- comfort with a wide variety of people and places around Savannah
- enjoy meeting new people and networking
- ability to read people and discern character and talent,
- strong listening skills, great written and oral communication skills, well-organized, respectful of other people’s time,
- computer literate, reliable transportation
- available and willing to work flexible schedule of day and evening hours
- willing to travel occasionally for training,
- social media skills a plus!
Salary: $40,000
Benefits: Health insurance after 6 month introductory period, paid holidays and vacation days, paid sick leave, paid travel for training, eligible for self-directed pension plan after 3rd year.
Introductory Period: Employee is hired for a 6 month introductory period. Health insurance is available after a successful 6 month review. Retirement pension plan is available after a successful 3 year review at the discretion of the Board of Directors. The employment relationship remains at will throughout.
Dress: Business casual to business dress depending on daily calendar.
The Real Job: by Tom Kohler
Thank you for your interest in the Associate Coordinator position at Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy. You are probably thinking, “I wonder what this job is really all about?” Well, I am going to try and answer that now. I hope that you will ask and answer this question very seriously: Is this something that I can dedicate myself to? That’s the question I hope you will ask yourself very seriously.
This job is one where you will ask a lot of people to make a personal decision about entering into the life of another person. You will be an “asker.” I have been an asker for more than 35 years. I meet with people over lunch, over coffee, in their living rooms after work, and in their offices at work, and ask them to consider becoming a citizen advocate for a person whose life is being diminished because of our community’s response to people who have developmental disabilities. Many times, I ask five or six or ten people before the right person says YES. That means hearing a lot of people say no in a lot of different ways.
If you apply for this job, you are applying for a job where you have to get appointments with people and invite them to become a voluntary citizen advocate. You are NOT applying for a job where you do referrals, or do interagency cooperative gatherings. You will not be referring the person anywhere, counseling them in any way.
You will only have one tool – to invite a local person to step up and into a voluntary citizen advocacy relationship with another person.
You will be spending some time with individual people who have a disability. You will be learning his or her story, especially the parts where an interested citizen could step forward and maybe make a good difference. You will then be thinking of who would be the right person to share the story with and will go and ask them to consider becoming a citizen advocate for the person. You will be asking a friend of yours, an acquaintance of yours, or someone a board member or other friend of our office has suggested to consider becoming a citizen advocate for the person. You will be building wider and wider networks of people in the community from which to recruit citizens to be voluntary advocates by telling more and more people the story of citizen advocacy in Savannah.
There is plenty more to the job than this, but this is the job. You will “make citizen advocacy matches” by matching one person with another. Some of the matches will become real relationships between the people involved. Others will not.
The Job Description tells you what the job is; this description tells you what the job really is. This is the part that you have to do, otherwise the rest of it is not there to be done. You are being asked to be an asker. If you don’t like asking people to do things, don’t apply for this job. Thank you for allowing me to be so straightforward about this with you.