Abolition Organizer
Send a resume and cover letter to info@freedomstl.org in order to apply.
Position Title: Abolition Organizer
Reports to: Director of Movement Building and Storytelling
Location: Saint Louis City, MO
The Freedom Community Center (FCC) is a new, Black-led organization in North St. Louis that was founded to dismantle systems of oppression that inflict harm and trauma on Black communities in St. Louis City, particularly the police and the criminal punishment system. We ground ourselves in the knowledge that the Black survivors of St. Louis have the solutions to the question: What will keep us safe? We seek to build a community-based approach centered in power, healing, accountability, and repair. Given the resources to alleviate immediate economic needs, the space to facilitate communal healing, and the time to dream collectively of alternative approaches, our community of survivors will meaningfully address harm happening in St. Louis City at the individual and systemic level. We dismantle mass incarceration by modeling alternative responses to the criminal punishment system.
The current punitive approaches to violence such as police and incarceration do not prevent future violence, they create it. At FCC, we take a survivor centered approach to build solutions that interrupt violence at its root. In the place of violence, we make peace and build power. Our approach fosters accountability, healing, repair and transformation. The cornerstone of our peacemaking work is the Free Us Project which is made up of several different transformative justice processes. One of our transformative processes is a restorative justice program that seeks to intervene and work with people who are experiencing or perpetuating harm before they interact with the police or at the beginning of their interaction with the criminal punishment system. In addition, we intervene with individuals who have experienced a violent injury in order to promote repair and reduce the likelihood of retaliation or re-injury.
At FCC, we have an opportunity to seek a different path, one marked by healing, true accountability, and reparative solutions that will transform those involved so that they might participate in imagining an alternative future for themselves and our community. This work is materialized through our Free US project but also through our community organizing branch called Power Builders, where we build power within our community members. We interrupt violence both systemic and interpersonal by forging a different path toward reconciliation, transformation, healing, and freedom.
Position Summary:
The organizer will work to assess the political landscape and work with community members to develop strategies and campaigns that guide us toward abolition. The Pretrial Organizer will brainstorm and research existing long-term strategies for abolition and connect with national campaigns and abolitionist groups like Critical Resistance to gather support in building our campaign. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the use and need of all jails in St. Louis City.
Specifically, the Pretrial Organizer’s work is to hold Freedom Community Center’s system disruption efforts. Working to dismantle and reduce the size, scope, and power of the courts, prosecutors, and the jail. They will be responsible for organizing FCC’s CourtWatch program, a volunteer-operated program that collects data around the 22nd Judicial Court bail hearings. In addition to the CourtWatch, they will work to hold prosecutors accountable for their prosecutorial decisions with The Prosecuting Organizing Table and organize around St. Louis City Jail and its conditions.
Responsibilities:
Recruit, train, and maintain CourtWatch volunteers to collect data of St. Louis City bail hearings
Develop a core team of organizers who will
Complete data analysis collected by CourtWatch volunteers and published through social media posts and cumulative reports. This may include organizing direct actions around what’s found
Working with The Prosecutor Organizing Table to develop a strategy to reduce the power of the St. Louis region’s prosecutors
Working with the organizing team to organize against the conditions of the St. Louis City Justice Center along with families impacted. Together we will work to completely eliminate jails in our city .
You will do 1:1’s with community members to connect them to our organizing bodies
Qualifications:
You are driven, highly organized, and have a deep commitment to FCC’s mission to practice transformative justice responses to violent crime and commitment to Black liberation. You have a strong historical analysis of race and class and its impact on the oppression of Black and poor people - and ultimately all people. You are activist/organizing minded and invested into St. Louis’ political framework with bold ideas to change it. We’re looking for someone who is comfortable working independently and in a team-based setting. You have experience building out and strengthening organizing and advocacy efforts and have the ability to adapt to new or changing environments. We’re looking for a creative individual who thrives under pressure and is comfortable working independently or in a team-based setting. A sense of humor and willingness to adapt to the change inherent to a startup are essential. You value efficiency, hard work, and self-care.
To excel in this role, you should have:
A Developed Political Analysis of Abolition: You must understand the harm of prisons, jail, and police and have a strong political analysis of the need for alternatives. You must understand the role pretrial detention plays in mass incarceration.
Writing Abilities: Part of your work will be to research, collect data, and be able to compile the data into stories through writing.
Data Analysis: skilled in compiling, analyzing, and synthesizing data for use in internal program development, external evaluation and communications
Project Management Skills: stays on top of multiple projects, plans backwards, anticipate obstacles, identify and involve stakeholders appropriately, and use resources wisely. You are skilled at working through multiple buckets at once.
People skills: You must be a person who can work with a variety of people, identify self-interest, and invite them into this movement.
If you were here right now you would be:
Coordinating monthly CourtWatch trainings with volunteers and building a base of CourtWatch organizers.Doing media interviews about the newly released CourtWatch report
Organizing with family members and people impacted by the St. Louis City Justice Center jail conditions to develop a strategy for closing the jail
Meeting with the Prosecuting Organizing Table to develop evaluations of the regions prosecutors
Additional information you should know:
This is a full-time non-exempt position based in St. Louis, MO with a hybrid work schedule. The starting salary for the position is $50,000. Freedom Community Center offers competitive health benefits, dental and vision plans, flexible PTO, and life insurance.
The Freedom Community Center is proud to be an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and actively seeks the candidacy of people of color, women, LGBTQIA people, and formerly incarcerated individuals. We are committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff.
Interested applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to info@freedomstl.org. In the cover letter, please address the following:
Why do you want to work for Freedom Community Center?
Please share 1-2 experience(s) that highlights why you would be a strong candidate for the Abolition Organizer position?
No faxes or phone calls please. Applicants will be notified regarding whether or not they have been selected for an interview. Applications without cover letters will not be processed.
The Freedom Community Center is proud to be an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and actively seeks the candidacy of people of color, women, LGBTQIA people and formerly incarcerated individuals. We are committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff.