What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Director of Advocacy position at Connections For The Homeless?
Summary of Position: Connections for the Homeless serves and catalyzes our community to end homelessness, one person at a time. Our advocacy program, Joining Forces for Affordable Housing (Joining Forces), has united organizational and individual members in northern Cook County to bring attention to the affordable housing crisis, educate our community on the impact of systemic racism on housing, and offer a platform for community partnerships. Joining Forces is now extending its work into Lake County.
Joining Forces forms relationships with individuals who have experienced housing instability, as well as the organizations that support them, to build an advocacy voice that supports municipal and county changes in favor of affordability. The Associate Director of Advocacy for Lake County will lead the effort to establish these relationships and organize collective advocacy action beyond Connections’ hometown of Evanston into Lake County.
Specific Duties:
Start-Up of Regional Advocacy Program:
• Collaborate with the Director of Advocacy and external partners to begin framing out the scope of work for Lake County advocacy efforts.
• Conduct an initial needs assessment of potential partners, opportunities, assets and barriers related to affordable housing advocacy in Lake County.
• Lead the planning, development and implementation of Lake County advocacy programming.
• Establish collaborative relationships with Lake County organizations that have a stake in affordable housing.
• Form an advisory committee(s) that can help to define County-wide advocacy needs and housing hot spots and opportunities for grass roots organizing and advocacy campaigns.
Infrastructure for Advocate Support
• Lead the effort to create a scalable model for extending Joining Forces geographically through a regional chapter/committee structure.
• Support the Community Organizing Coordinator in continued development of a communications and member management infrastructure to provide support for regional work, as well as municipal-level sub-committees and campaigns.
• Work with the Advocacy team to develop a database structure to provide key demographic and housing/advocacy-related information on all municipalities and unincorporated areas in the regions we are advocating in.
• Develop a strategy to recruit members through networking, town-halls, housing forums, one-on-one’s, etc.
Ongoing (and overlapping with Start-Up)
• Monitor regional housing policies and developments and mobilize community support.
• Responsible for the strategic development of a permanent Lake County chapter of Joining Forces.
• Responsible for developing, hiring, and leading a team as needed in the future to carry out this chapter's ongoing work.
• Serve as the region’s point of contact for affordable housing advocacy.
Collaboration with Advocacy Team
• Collaborate with the Communications and Education Coordinators to develop effective communications channels and vehicles and tailored educational content for regional audiences and provide support in providing such content in Spanish as well as English.
• Collaborate with the Policy Coordinator to create policy campaigns applicable to regional needs—both at the municipal and county levels.
• Collaborate with the Community Organizing Coordinator to cultivate relationships with people throughout the region with lived experience to get their input into and participation in advocacy and campaigns
• Collaborate with the Community Outreach Coordinator to convene information sharing and educational sessions and workshops.
