Community Outreach & Program Director

The Community Outreach & Program Director creates and implements engagement strategies and drafts and implements programs for formerly incarcerated people and their families to mitigate the collateral consequences of the criminal legal system through grant writing and management. This position educates impacted communities and the public about JAC’s policy campaigns through various forms of media, effective partner collaboration, showing up for others, and building sustainable relationships to create systemic change.

Primary Job Functions

Community Engagement:
1. Serve as JAC liaison to key community groups including Fair Chance Hiring Campaign, Louisiana CURE, East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition, Louisiana Survivors for Reform, Louisianans for Prison Alternatives, Capital Area Reentry Coalition, and Power Coalition, timely communicating JAC’s goals to them, and their agendas and needs back to the JAC team, and offering JAC support to these groups where possible and appropriate per JAC mission alignment and capacity. Identify and build relationships with other JAC mission-allied organizations. This shall include but not be limited to: Invitation to scheduled meetings, provide literature of services offered, and form a partnership to enhance continuity of services.
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3. Identify and connect with survivors and their loved ones through engaging in effective and targeted outreach activities, including but not limited to community meetings, Know Your Rights presentations, petitions, tabling, plays, panels, movie screenings, webinars, solitary cell simulations, and the communications strategies detailed below.
4. Assist Executive Director in identifying fundraising opportunities, leading or assisting on developing fundraising events, cultivating individual donors, and writing grants.

Community Organizing
1. Manage the NEO coalition’s actions and activities to advance a statewide campaign for criminal records expungement, including identifying, recruiting, and retaining members, in part through working with those who receive JAC expungement legal services and in part through reaching out to people digitally;
2. Support the management of the Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition (LSSC) by focusing on membership development and maintenance;
3. Support the development of the Fair Chance Hiring campaign, coordinating with partners, and facilitating the development of recipients of expungement legal services as members of the Fair Chance Hiring campaign;
4. Maintain coalition member information and activity in our CRM system;
5. Develop fundraisers and maintain donor information in our CRM system;
6. Identify and develop leaders who have been directly affected by criminal convictions and solitary confinement who can serve as spokespeople for the campaigns;
7. Provide technical assistance, leadership development training, campaign workshops (public speaking, engaging with media, civic participation, effective advocacy, etc.), and administrative support to coalition leaders;
8. Assist JAC’s Staff Attorney with creating and presenting “Know Your Rights” materials and workshops relative to re-entry, particularly criminal records and solitary confinement for the general public;
9. Mobilize significant numbers of community members to lobby days, legislative and court hearings, meetings, and other events through phone banking and relationship building, among other methods;
10. Assist the Executive Director with programs and media consultant with the development and implementation of communications plans;
11. Develop content and manage JAC social media platforms, newsletters, and web site(s);
12. Document events, activities, and the experiences of people affected by the criminal legal system through photography and video;
13. Assist the Executive Director with the gathering and analysis of data for sharing with partners, the public, volunteers, donors, and foundations as ethically permitted under law;
14. Provide support for other community organizing and campaigns around criminal justice reform as needed;
15. Attend and staff legal clinics, if needed;
16. Conduct outreach in person, through social media, and by collaborating with partner agencies and organizations; and
17. Attend and thoughtfully participate in task force, coalition, and committee meetings with an eye toward systemic solutions.
Communications:
1. Develop content for, upload JAC and LSSC content to, and maintain JAC and Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition websites.
2. Plan and execute JAC social media strategies, including creating and publishing content to multiple platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube) and interface with online communities and audiences with the goal of engaging them in JAC advocacy work.
3. Create and issue at least monthly JAC newsletter using JAC’s CRM system, with input from JAC staff.
4. Seek creative ways to effectively disseminate information about JAC programs and advocacy work through radio, earned media, tabling, or other events and methods.
5. Draft and issue press releases, and plan and implement press conferences, as needed and in coordination with JAC contract communications firm. Maintain up-to-date media contact list.
6. Stay up-to-date and informed about all of JAC’s programs, including methods of accepting referrals/serving clients, advocacy work, and fundraising.

Program Management & Implementation:
1. Submit annual goals and deliverables for establishing the baseline to determine sufficient compliance.
2. Provide monthly progress reports detailing activities for that month, including updates to the Performance Measurement Plan to track progress of achieving stated goals.
3. Organize, plan, and manage monthly events and clinics, as needed.
4. Assist with grant writing and implementation, drafting portions of grant reports, and calculating outcomes, identifying when JAC may be short of reaching grant outcomes and proactively developing plans to address shortfalls.
5. Reporting of and identifying “success stories.
6. Collaborate with JAC legal staff and Louisiana Driver’s License Coalition members to identify and implement legal services/events needed to move forward the goals of the campaign.
7. Support of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) and the Louisiana Prisoner Reentry Initiative (LA-PRI), provide programs and/or services that address the causes of recidivism and align with the LA-PRI Framework.
8. Participate in, and support the development of, additional legal clinics and provision of legal services at community events on an as needed basis. Serve as the central point of contact for Baton Rouge-based clinics and events.

Please email your resume to sherie@jaclouisiana.org to apply.