The USFWC is the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives and other democratic workplaces. Our mission is to build a thriving cooperative movement of stable, empowering jobs through worker-ownership. Representing more than 300 member workplaces and 8,000 workers across the country, we advance worker-owned, -managed, and -governed workplaces through cooperative education, advocacy and development.
The Director of Education and Training leads the USFWC’s fee-for-service facilitation and consulting work with a focus on our Racial and Economic justice programs. This position brings critical revenue to the USFWC while advancing our visions for an expanded solidarity economy. Pedagogically, the Director of Education and Training is guided by participatory approaches rooted in a robust analysis and practices of justice, restoration, democracy, and collective liberation (such as the work of Paulo Freire and the Highlander Education Center). While the USFWC’s work in this department has been building for several years, the scope of work and requests from members and clients has outpaced our current staff capacity.
This position brings leadership and increased capacity for curriculum development, train-the-trainers offerings, and organizational consulting. Clients range from cooperative businesses to other democratic workplaces, mission-aligned nonprofits, and advocacy and power-building organizations. We assist these groups in policies, practices, leadership development, and facilitative skills fueled by an intersectional analysis of systems of oppression and movements to change them. The Director of Education and Training will supervise other staff trainers and the manager of the USFWC’s technical assistance program, Co-op Clinic.
The person in this role will work closely with the Executive Director and other director-level staff to shape strategy, program development, and collaborate on cross-departmental projects including annual conferences, webinars, fellowship programs, and political education. While the Director of Education and Training will participate in regular strategy meetings in the staff leadership team, the essential function of this position is to secure earned revenue goals through fee-for-service contracts while developing curriculum and resources for member education.
Qualifications
Required Skills and Experience
- A high level of competency facilitating workshops, trainings, meetings, retreats, and other group processes. Must be able to guide learning and conversations on race, class, gender, and other issues of societal power and systemic oppression with ease and comfort.
- Experience working in or with worker (or other) cooperatives, collectives, or democratic workplaces
- Experience with popular education and participatory pedagogy
- Experience developing and designing innovative and engaging curriculum
- Strong communication skills, including:
- written communication skills (can convey complex points concisely, create thorough and engaging reports and resources, compelling prose for grants etc)
- verbal communication skills (can speak confidently and clearly about our work; navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics in a way that aims for resolution and de-escalation)
- Experience and competency working with communities of color and immigrant communities
- Experience with management and team coordination
- Attention to detail, complemented by the ability to see the big picture
Desired Skills and Experience
- Experience working remotely and/or with a distributed team
- Community organizing experience
- Outgoing personality, positive attitude and strong social skills are an asset.
- Democratic decision-making experience
- Experience working with poor and working-class communities
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Work plan/ organization skills, in particular time management and project management
- Capacity for travel
- Fluency in one or more languages other than English (especially Spanish)
- Business management skills (finance, marketing, etc)
- Consulting or Freelance experience
About Being on Staff:
This is a growing organization, currently consisting of ~10 staff members, some part time contractors, and leadership from our nine-member Board of Directors. Together we are majority bilingual, and over 75% people of color, with significant immigrant leadership. The USFWC has expanded both its programs and its staff significantly over the last several years. We are dedicated to building our political power and focusing on growing our impact, our value, and our social & solidarity economy ecosystem.
Location:
A majority of USFWC staff are based in Philadelphia, PA. We additionally have remote staff in New York City, Silver Spring, MD, and Seattle, WA, and maintain strong ties to Oakland, CA. We maintain a flexible work environment, (we are currently all working from home), with occasional out of town travel for work (on pause for the next year). Preference will be given to candidates co-located with our current staff, especially applications from Pennsylvania and California. Applicants from other US locations are welcome to apply.
Compensation & Benefits:
This is a full time, salaried 40 hr/ week position with a starting FTE base salary of $50,000. Staff receive annual raises, and we offer a modest increase on top of base pay for staff with dependents (including parents and employees caring for an elderly family member). Base salaries are increased slightly for employees residing in particularly costly cities. The USFWC provides healthcare, vision and dental coverage for full time equivalent employees. Among our generous fringe benefits, we offer flexible holiday pay, 3-5 weeks of annual vacation, and a stipend for professional development.
Applying:
To apply please send a resume, cover letter, and 3 references from current or former workplaces (or significant organizing initiatives) to park.daniel@usworker.coop. Kindly also include an annotated list of 5 client orgs from previous trainings, facilitation, and organizational development work expressing thematic range (e.g. racial justice, food sovereignty, queer liberation, undoing classism) and a depth of consulting competencies. Make the subject line of your email “Your Name, Director of Education & Training Application”. The position will be open until filled, but applications submitted by October 15th will receive priority.
The USFWC is an Equal Opportunity employer.
We highly encourage applicants of color, applicants who grew up poor or working class, LGBTQIA applicants, and applicants from other historically marginalized communities to apply.