Consultant, Community Engagement Organizer (Phoenix, AZ)

PEN America, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working at the intersection of literature and human rights, seeks a consultant to work as a community engagement organizer to work in our Disinformation and Community Engagement (DCE) Initiative. The DCE Initiative is a part of PEN America’s U.S. Free Expression Programs (FEP). The consultant will play a key role in driving DCE’s community organizing work in the Phoenix area with the goal of building local community resilience against disinformation. This is a six-month, part-time consultancy, which may be extended longer into 2024. It is estimated to involve 30-40 hours/month. The consultant will report to the coordinator, U.S. Free Expression Programs. 

The consultant will serve as a liaison between the DCE program, community members, and groups in the Phoenix metro area, developing and maintaining partnerships between community members, state and local advocacy organizations, and local news organizations. They will play a crucial convening and oversight role in ensuring the success of DCE’s relational organizing outreach to community members, setting up local trainings designed to foster bottom-up resilience to disinformation. The consultant will conduct or otherwise support these trainings, may help develop and revise conversation guides and other relevant content, will recruit participants, and will report back on subsequent conversations engaged in by participants in the training. The Consultant need not be a disinformation expert, as they will work with subject matter experts. 

The successful candidate must have experience in community organizing and be an energetic self-starter with a demonstrated track record of scoping and delivering community organizing initiatives with multiple moving parts.

responsibilities:

  • Act as primary PEN America community organizer for the metro Phoenix area, supporting a program to build up local community resilience to disinformation, including piloting a relational organizing approach
  • Organize, support and, as necessary, act as host and/or trainer for in-person disinformation resilience trainings for community members; provide updates to the coordinator, U.S. Free Expression Programs 
  • Track community member relational outreach conversations to ensure accountability and data collection to measure progress and impact
  • Lead community member mobilization in response to disinformation narratives, and support resource distribution efforts
  • Organize and support coalition meetings (in-person and/or virtual) with PEN America’s in-state partners, and inter-state partners in Miami, FL; Dallas, TX; and Phoenix, AZ
  • Support co-sponsored events between PEN America and community organizations/institutions around relevant disinformation topics

Qualifications:

  • Demonstrated leadership and community organizing success, including the ability to network and build strong relationships with community members and local organizations
  • Can effectively support of community efforts, with commitment to listening, supporting, and leveraging community-generated programming
  • Must be self-driven, able to take initiative, and able to work independently; has demonstrated creative problem-solving skills
  • Willingness and the ability to travel around the metro Phoenix area, and potentially to other areas in Arizona, are required 
  • Ability to organize and attend workshops, meetings, and other events that may occur on evenings and weekends
  • Pre-existing connections with relevant local communities strongly preferred
  • Commitment to supporting local communities to defend against and manage the effects of disinformation
  • Meaningful experience in relational organizing a plus, but not required
  • Experience in combating disinformation a plus, but not required
  • Proficiency in Spanish preferred

Consultancy Fees: The monthly consultancy fee will be $2,500 for an initial term of six months, with the possibility of an extension.

TO APPLY:

Please submit a cover letter and resume to [email protected]. Use “AZ Community Engagement Organizer” with your name as the subject of your email (for example, “Community Engagement Organizer – Jane Doe”). Please also share where you heard about this position in the body of your email. Only complete applications will be reviewed, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

PEN America is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate in its hiring practices, and in order to build the strongest possible workforce, actively seeks a diverse applicant pool.

No phone calls or solicitations, please.

ABOUT PEN AMERICA:

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.