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Job Openings

Overdose Crisis Organizer

Location: Metro-Detroit

Part time, temporary

Hours: 10-15 hours per week. 

Compensation: $15.00 hourly, plus mileage reimbursement for work trips of 80-miles round-trip or more.

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Job Summary 

To develop a strong, active base of individual leaders and institutional members that work together on a campaign to address the overdose crisis in Michigan and become a part of the Michigan United membership base.

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The Campaign

Michigan United is working to build our membership impacted by the overdose crisis and to run a campaign for racial and economic justice addressing the crisis. This public health problem:

  • causes unnecessary hardship, death, and suffering; it was an issue that came up during our rural and small-town-focused listening campaign, Michigan Hometown Voices, in 2019.

  • affects people across the state: urban, rural, and suburban, and can be a bridge of common experience and goals to help bring divided groups together.

  • is largely caused by the greed of pharmaceutical companies and powerful corporations and individuals who cut our social safety nets and promote policies that bring about poverty and disenfranchisement for their own benefit, and the people of Michigan need to take some of that power back and demand a better system that addresses this problem and others!

 

The strategy of this campaign is base-building. We will recruit a new membership base that is multiracial, majority-women, and directly impacted by the overdose crisis either personally, through a loved one, or professionally. We will bring them together to identify the problem, solution, issue cut, and target. And we will organize them to carry out tactics for achieving the solution (meeting with elected officials, nonviolent direct action, media, etc.). It may be a stepping-stone strategy, where we start with more winnable solutions and build toward larger, broader transformations of our public health system. Finally, there are three campaigns at Michigan United that intersect with this issue: criminal justice reform, rural and small town organizing, and healthcare. We anticipate some small amount of collaboration with these campaigns and with other allied organizations working on this issue.

 

Organizer Duties Include:

  • Identify and recruit people and institutions who are directly impacted by the overdose crisis.

  • Regularly practice outreach efforts such as one-to-one meetings, door knocking, phone banks, presentations, house parties, listening sessions, listening events, etc. 

  • Provide leadership development opportunities for campaign members to increase their capacity to work for change. 

  • Collaborate with the Michigan United staff and member-leaders in the development of the campaign. 

  • Organize the members’ implementation of the tactics of the campaign, such as direct actions, legislative meetings, press conferences, town hall meetings, and letter to the editor campaign. Manage the logistical details, turnout, materials, and preparation of volunteers for these events.

  • Support the growth and stability of Michigan United by bringing in new members, supporting membership dues drives, and contributing to fundraising events and grant applications.

  • Stay grounded in our vital mission to bring directly-impacted people into our progressive base and practice the tenets of this mission: listening actively and without judgement, asking follow-up questions, sharing your own stories, and connecting around shared values based on common experiences. 

  • Travel to the different Michigan United offices, small town & rural members, membership events, and network conferences as needed when possible.

 

Minimum Requirements:

  • Experience in community-based settings and/or demonstrated relationship-building skills

  • Literate in common computer applications and Google Suite

  • Good written and verbal communication skills

  • Ability to work flexible hours including occasional weekends and evenings

  • Ability to travel occasionally

  • Reliable transportation is necessary.

  • Personal connection to the overdose crisis is preferred

  • Strong commitment to social, racial and economic justice, and passion for our issues

  • Ability to build and maintain constructive, positive relationships

 

Working Conditions:

Office & field environment with moderate amounts of standing, walking, climbing stairs, ability to lift 25 lbs. Flexible schedule with some evenings and Saturdays required. This position can be based in metro-Detroit with some time in the MI United Detroit office or in our Kalamazoo office.


Application Details:

Applications will be accepted from February 21st until the positions are filled. Please submit a statement of interest and resume to: resumes@miunited.org with the subject line “overdose crisis organizer”.

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Organization Background

Michigan United is a statewide organization of community members and institutions fighting for economic and racial justice. We use the tools of community organizing, leadership training, advocacy, media work, and civic engagement to run strategic campaigns that win real change. We're committed to winning a better world for all of our communities, not just the privileged. We are the largest community organizing group in the state, with offices in Detroit, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Flint. We represent 100 member community organizations.

 

Michigan United organizes along the following issue areas: immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, universal family care (including health, child care, elder care and paid sick time) and civic engagement. We work to build the capacity of community members who are directly impacted these issues to lead and win concrete reforms that will change their own lives and shift the balance of power in our state. Michigan United, along with Michigan People’s Campaign, our affiliated 501(c)(4), is serious about building long-term, political power with the aim of transforming our political and economic system into one that puts people and the planet first. 

 

As a racial and economic justice organization, we actively encourage individuals who are underrepresented on the basis of race, ethnicity, income and sexual orientation, as well as those who share the life experiences of the members we serve, to apply.

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