Company description

For over 30 years, RiseBoro, one of New York’s largest non-profit social services organizations, has provided critical care and services for our community.Our community development efforts are dedicated towards building a stronger, more resilient local community, and removing barriers towards self-sufficiency for marginalized groups in the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Bushwick, Brownsville, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and beyond.

Our unique model of holistic community revitalization works by developing neighborhood assets, like affordable housing, to create the foundation for a more vibrant and diverse community. We build upon this foundation with programs designed to connect people to resources to help everyone in the community thrive, especially our most vulnerable populations. This inclusive approach helps unleash the potential of the community and ensures that nobody is left behind in times of growth.

Job description

ORGANIZATION & PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Our Food team at RiseBoro invites our communities to build a vibrant, robust food system with and for all of us. Food is central to how we live our lives - our work, our health, our neighborhoods. The majority of workers in this country are food workers - mostly Black and brown and underpaid. A handful of corporations make massive profits -collapsing the environment in the process - and wealthy communities thrive, while working class communities and communities of color have little access to healthy and affordable options. Our food should be the opposite. Our food should keep our communities healthy, should give our people dignified work, drive a just transition through the climate crisis, and bring our neighborhoods to life. Our food should be a source of joy, connection, health, and solidarity. Our food should build community, knowledge, power, and self-determination. Our food should be ours. From building farmers markets and urban farms to training and supporting cooperative businesses, we invite community members to take control of our food - to create a food system that is just and equitable, that allows the people and places we care about to thrive, that works for all of us.

The Central Brooklyn Food Democracy Project

The Brooklyn Movement Center and RiseBoro have teamed up to lead a project to imagine a neighborhood-based food system powered by a new generation of consumer- and worker-owned cooperative food enterprises. Together, they incubate the consumer-owned grocery coop (The Central Brooklyn Food Coop), organize and support new cooperatively owned food businesses, and implement community culinary education programs.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Partnerships & Marketing Associate is part of RiseBoros dynamic, multiracial and collaborative Worker Cooperative Development team. The Associate will build upon the teams years of cooperative and food justice experience in Central Brooklyn to develop, strengthen, and implement marketing strategies and expand markets for predominantly Black-led worker cooperatives along the food supply chain.

Market-Building and Partnership Development

• Market-Building
  • Seek out opportunities for Black-led food industry worker cooperatives to increase their client base, especially through institutional anchor clients.
  • Lead the CBFDPs Collective Marketing initiative, with the purpose of creating a strong Central Brooklyn cooperative brand.
• Co-op Academy Recruitment
  • Together with the Food Democracy team, conduct outreach and respond to opportunities to reach community members and leaders to deepen public consciousness and participation in economic democracy, Black self-determination and worker cooperatives.
  • Canvas local business landscape to identify opportunities for co-op creation and conversion, centering people from, living in, and/or with long-term relationships in Central/Black Brooklyn.
• Partnership Development
  • Together with the Food Democracy team, seek out new opportunities, partnerships, and initiatives through networking and research and by attending conferences, trainings, events, and meetings with stakeholders, strategic local and city-wide partners, government agencies and other support organizations.
  • Work with other leaders in the CBFDP team to integrate our work, build the network, and ensure success of the project whole.

Cooperative Development & Technical Assistance

• Cooperative Support/Technical Assistance

Together with the Worker Cooperative Developer and Our Food Manager, provide ongoing business management support to Co-op Academy graduates and current participants, focusing especially on marketing and sales:

• Assist in implementing marketing strategy with co-op members (assess target market(s), identify channels for engagement, support with customer relationships and social media strategy).
• Work with members to develop sales promotions and communications tools.
• Outreach to media on behalf of co-ops, in concert with RBs marketing team.
• Assist cooperatives in planning for business launch.
• Assist in maintaining customer contact database/member information, as needed.
• Provide fundraising and financing support for co-ops (to be determined).
• Conduct feasibility and/or marketing studies with new co-ops, as needed.

Program Administration

• Cooperative Development Program Administration
  • Attend regular Co-op Academy sessions (weekly evenings and occasional weekends).
  • Support with logistics and administration, including tracking attendance and participant documents.
  • Manage participant stipend process for Cooperative Academy
  • Track and coordinate Cooperative Startup Fund and Cooperative Consultant Fund
• Our Food Team Participation
  • Participate in weekly Food Democracy meetings and monthly Our Food meetings.
  • Engage in regular project and self-evaluation and strategic planning.
  • Support with narrative and quantitative content for CBFDP evaluations, grant proposals and marketing materials:
    • Track and report on relevant programming.
    • Keep expenditures in line with program budget.
    • Maintain systems for data and project management.

COMPETENCIES

• Cover letter required
• Excitement about growing Black-led worker cooperatives and a local food sovereignty ecosystem
• Dedication to Black self-determination, economic democracy and/or the solidarity/cooperative economy, including a deep understanding of systemic oppression and commitment to liberation
• Entrepreneurial spirit and experience
• A keen interest in communications, marketing and sales
• Motivation, joy and energy to engage with new people through organizational partnerships and collaborations
• Strong organizational, problem-solving and project management
• Excellent communication skills
• Passion for learning individually and collectively; strong emotional intelligence
• Able to work both independently and as part of a team, especially on innovative projects that require both self-direction and a high degree of collaboration
• Business development and/or management experience a plus
• Design savvy - experience building websites, marketing materials a plus
• Experience with collectives, cooperatives or other democratic organizations a plus
• Leadership development, consensus-building, facilitation, conflict management skills a plus

EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

• High School or equivalent degree required. Bachelors degree from accredited college or university preferred

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $35,000 - $50,000

Application instructions

Deadline

June 23, 2021