Hamkae Center’s Field Coordinator works on developing and implementing year-round voter engagement and organizing projects in Virginia’s Asian American communities to educate and protect voters, promote voter turnout, and build base to advance policies towards social, economic, and racial justice. They will work alongside the Organizing team and with supervision from the Executive Director to manage part-time canvassing staff and volunteers, create necessary educational materials, and implement voter engagement campaigns.
Responsibilities
Voter Engagement & Education (85%)
- Help develop and implement campaigns, including but not limited to canvassing, relational organizing, phone banking, etc., that directly contact and educate Asian American voters in Virginia and result in increasing voter turnout.
- Lead the creation of multilingual educational content (such as what goes on a website or a social media post) and materials (such as a handout, a mailer). This work will include collaborating with other staff, translators, and vendors to design content.
- Recruit and manage canvassers. These activities may include sharing recruitment materials with partners and monitoring recruitment platforms, interviewing and making hiring recommendations (for paid canvassers), and then managingthem so that they can reach their goals. For paid canvassers, conduct weekly check-ins, monitor their performance, and ensure their timesheets are submitted accurately and on time.
- Create resources, including needed training materials, talking points, scripts, etc., to support paid staff and volunteers in talking to voters effectively. Coordinate and host canvassing shifts. Ensure proper following safety protocols, etc.
- Attend and participate in relevant coalitions and coordinate with other external stakeholders when applicable.
- Stay up to date on best practices for civic engagement work, including field campaign development, volunteer recruitment, and voter engagement.
- Learn to use relevant databases and voter contact tools, such as VAN, GetThru, Everyaction, etc.
- Review research and state news, attend webinars and conferences, and participate in training to learn and help inform the refining of field programs.
- Support Grants and Operations manager by completing grant reports and providing other internal data when needed.
- When applicable, train and supervise the Field Captain to ensure implementation of the field program.
Organizational responsibilities (15%)
- Actively participate in staff meetings, team meetings, and other relevant internal meetings.
- Participate in organization-wide shared duties and expectations for full-time employees as assigned. These can include (but are not limited to) participating in outreach events, supporting non-partisan election protection activities on Election Day, promoting fundraising opportunities, and co-facilitating collaborative meetings.
- Be a thought partner to the Executive Director for strategizing and improving CE programs and collaborate with other teams on CE work by providing insight on field projects.
- Other duties as assigned.
Required Key Competencies & Qualifications
- Prior work experience- 0-2 years of relevant professional experience in field organizing and coordination.
- Technical skills & resource management
- Operating and applying basic tools and technical skills, like recording information into an excel spreadsheet or database, to solve role-specific problems while managing and optimizing resources for individual and small team related projects.
- Strategic proficiency
- Noticing patterns or connecting the dots based on conversations with community members and partners to develop analysis and contribute that insight to strengthen campaigns and overall organizational strategic planning.
- Project & time management, problem solving
- Effectively managing time and deadlines by organizing work and responsibilities efficiently and coordinating projects and tasks to meet expectations as well as deadlines.
- Addressing errors and adjusting work to avoid making similar mistakes in the future while identifying solutions and anticipating problems by course-correcting when needed.
- Adaptability & resilience
- Navigating change and taking advantage of unexpected opportunities, new conditions, and addressing challenges with the capacity to recover from setbacks and deal with adversity positively by accepting them as learning opportunities.
- Self-awareness & conflict management
- Appropriately identifying conflict, alerting supervisor as needed, and listening and participating in discussions to resolve disputes with the willingness to engage in healthy conflict and resolution by recognizing and managing emotions of self while appropriately responding to others and understanding the challenges of teammates as well.
- Communications skills
- Within Hamkae Center: offering solutions and adjusted timelines to renegotiate deadlines when they won’t be met, ensuring your timeliness does not affect others’ work.
- Ability to listen and communicate effectively with different audiences (staff, community leaders, community members, etc.)
- Trust, empathy, & integrity
- Demonstrates the capacity to support self and others in the workplace and community through active listening and displays strong moral and ethical standards by maintaining alignment with our core values and following organizational guidelines around privacy, trust, and ethical conduct.
- Leadership & teamwork
- Fostering teamwork and collaborating effectively within a team by handling conflicts appropriately, understanding their own responsibilities, carrying out tasks as directed, and supporting others to promote wellness and a healthy workplace environment.
- Comfortable providing and receiving positive and constructive feedback to team members and supervisors fostering a learning and growing environment while demonstrating honesty, integrity, and a willingness to change if corrective action is necessary.
Preferred Qualifications (not required)
- Experience: working on Asian American and/or immigrant community issues and/or social, economic, and racial justice issues.
- Keenly aware of the power of language and representation: Uses references and examples that speak to the experiences of a diverse audience, particularly the communities we aim to reach. Experience working with community members through service, education, organizing, and/or advocacy.
- Proactively reads and recognizes patterns in the news: Stays up to date in an ever-changing political environment and can recognize the impact to our work.
- Legislative experience: Has direct experience or knowledge of the Virginia state legislative process, or local municipal process. Experience with civic engagement, GOTV campaigns and voter outreach, especially with Asian American voters.
- Technology: Familiar with the following platforms: VAN, MiniVAN, OpenField, GetThru, Mobilize, and EveryAction
- Understanding of social media: Can leverage social media as a strategic tool
- Bilingual skills: Asian languages – preference for Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, and common South Asian languages.
Additional Details
- Location: Hybrid (In-person work required in Northern Virginia)
- Salary: $57,346.00, with flexibility based on relevant professional experience
- Reports to: Executive Director
- Full Time + benefits, FLSA exempt, regular employment
- Benefits:
- Full health, dental, and vision insurance.
- Simple IRA matching program after 2 years of employment.
- Paid time off, vacation, sick days (if you, a partner, or a family member are sick), and other leave time customized to your unique circumstances. We close week of July 4th and between December 25 – January 1 for reflection and rejuvenation.
To Apply
Send resume and three professional references, to admin@hamkaecenter.org with subject “Field Coordinator- [First Name] [Last Name]”
Appropriate professional references are people who can speak about your character and work/volunteer experience. At least one of the references should come from someone who supervised you. We have found it helpful if applicants could let references know that someone with Hamkae Center will contact them if only to facilitate references responses. When sending reference information, please include the references:
Full namePhone Number and/or Email addressShort description of your professional relationship with the references
Review of applications will be on a rolling basis until position is filled.
About Hamkae Center
Hamkae Center organizes Asian Americans in Virginia to achieve social, economic, and racial justice. Through community organizing, public policy advocacy, civic engagement, and youth leadership development, Hamkae Center works to build a future in which low- and middle-income, immigrant, people of color, and marginalized communities can fully participate in U.S. society and work together as makers of lasting change. We are the Virginia affiliate of the NAKASEC Network.
Hamkae Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. People from a wide range of backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. We are committed to a diverse workplace and supporting our staff with ongoing career development opportunities.
