Long Island: A National Bellwether

Long Island is currently experiencing rapid demographic change. The 2020 Census indicated that close to 40 percent of Long Islanders now identify as non-white or Latino/Hispanic, representing an increase of nearly ten percent from the prior census. Long Island is predicted to become a “majority minority” area a full decade prior to the rest of the country. Often, Long Island serves as a bellwether for the issues that will face other areas of the country. For example, the influx of unaccompanied child immigrants from Central American countries and the resulting cooperation between schools, local law enforcement, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement appeared in Long Island communities relatively early. Similarly, the “Save Our Schools” campaign, an anti-equity effort that targets Critical Race Theory at the local school board level, relying on misinformation, is widespread in the region. Despite the significant BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) population, 90 percent of elected officials identify as white; elected leadership do not reflect the communities they serve. Due to both historic redlining and current policies, neighborhoods and schools remain racially segregated. The effects of systemic racism are far-reaching in the region.

About the Good Neighbors Initiative of the Long Island Community Foundation

The Good Neighbors Initiative (GNI) of the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) is the first participatory grantmaking venture for the region. Both national and local funders provided financial support and creativity to shape the Good Neighbors Initiative, and immediately shifted decision making power to community leaders.

The foundation of any successful people-power building initiative contains an amalgamation of diverse voices from the community. The Good Neighbors Initiative provides a platform for collaborative leadership from a cross-issue group of regional Long Island leaders; these leaders guide a participatory grantmaking process towards long-term change. GNI focuses on structural change to address the racism, transphobia, and xenophobia that plague Long Island and limit opportunities for its residents. By working together across issues, Long Island’s diverse community leaders are strengthening their capacity to advance equity, justice, and the right to fair representation.

GNI believes that successful regional, state, national policy, and culture change depend on “bottom-up” engagement with, and investments in, the capacity, interconnectivity, and sustainability of local grassroots groups, particularly in BIPOC communities and other communities that are underrepresented in leadership roles. Such power building work –especially in a place as racially segregated, politically fragmented, and geographically diverse as Long Island – depends on building coalitions across identity groups and regions.

In 2020, GNI convened a participatory grantmaking Peer Group to guide grantmaking decisions. This group further developed the vision and direction for this work and made its first round of grants in 2022. The GNI Peer Group established and funded a Collaborative made up of Long Island grassroots and community groups representing a broad constituency. Currently, the Collaborative is developing an aligned narrative that will provide a foundation for more deeply aligned organizing and power-building on Long Island in 2024 and well beyond. Ultimately, this will create a deep bench of leadership for long-term action on local and statewide issues, both proactive and responsive.

GNI Framework

Our Why- The mission of the GNI is to provide grants aimed at improving community organizing capacity on Long Island through participatory grantmaking.

Our What- The GNI funds infrastructure, leadership development, organizational capacity, and training initiatives.

Our How- We...

● award grants to organizations with a local presence.

● hold space for collaboration and community input.

● fund the development and sustainability of an organizing hub.

● offer shared tools, shared services, shared learning, and partnership opportunities.

About the We Are Long Island Hub

Given this theory of practice and building on the work of the GNI, the We Are Long Island

Organizing Hub was launched in January 2024 as a direct response to community partners

feedback on the need for a centralized locally powered place for organizing. The We Are Long Island Organizing Hub has 17 original founding members who are all part of the fiber of Long Island and have collectively worked to develop the Hub as a solution to the longstanding problems organizers have faced on Long Island. They have the creativity, knowledge, and experience to find the best solutions for their own and intertwined communities. Together, these 17 organizations have created a narrative of a shared vision and values which is the foundation of the We Are Long Island Organizing Hub and work moving forward. As members of the Hub they have a commitment to work together, learn from each other, build trust and solidarity as well as share resources. Through the Hub, members will have access to RFPs, skill-building and organizing trainings, and the opportunity to organize together, thereby collectively building power on issues such as racial justice, civil rights, immigrant rights, economic justice, environmental justice, racial equity, civic engagement, transgender, non-binary and intersex rights, workers' rights, criminal justice, housing justice, food justice, health and wellness of the LGBTQ community, disability rights, and youth and gang violence prevention and intervention.

The Good Neighbors Initiative seeks to support the work of the We Are Long Island Organizing Hub by staffing it with a part-time Hub Administrator.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Under the direction of the GNI Peer Group and working closely with the WALI membership, the Hub Administrator will support the work of the GNI We Are Long Island Organizing Hub:

● Provide administrative support to the GNI PG and WALI Organizing Hub

● Lead meeting administration (ex: registration, emails, taking notes, sending meeting follow-up, communications, etc)

● Complete all training administration & logistical tasks (ex: process approved training proposal applications; updating the training calendar; creating templates for WALI training promotional materials; management of the Zoom account, training recordings, and creating Zoom links for trainings and sharing training recordings with the website administrator to be added to the training library.

● Track and facilitate the completion of membership applications (ex: sending an initial “thank you” email for new applicants, sharing next steps to finalize their membership, sharing a doodle poll for one-on-one availability, and sharing upcoming Narrative Training dates)

● Prepare vetting materials for pending member applications

● Welcome new members (via personalized email & an invite to the quarterly social and upcoming trainings)

● Respond to inquiries and/or direct them to the appropriate person(s)

● Provide support to the website administrator

● Assist with hub event planning and logistics

● And, other projects and tasks as needed

Skills Who we’re looking for:

You are reliable, deeply committed to social justice, enjoy working collaboratively, and the idea of supporting the long-term sustainability of a new hub for organizers working to build people power across Long Island sparks your interest and imagination. You have experience working with organizing groups and/or campaigns. You are excited about working in a start-up environment and helping it to grow. You have roots on Long Island or have knowledge and experience working on Long Island issues.

Specific skills:

● Strong administrative skills (event planning experience a plus)

● Knows how to use common software and applications such as Microsoft Office Suite, Zoom, Canva, Wix and Google Suite.

● “The heart of an organizer” which means you are a natural connector who enjoys getting to know people and has strong communication and collaboration skills

● Ability to effectively manage multiple tasks to completion

● Comfortable with public speaking and bringing the #WALI Narrative message to audiences of every size

Hours, salary and benefits

● This is a part-time position at $25 per hour for 20 hours per week.

● This is a hybrid position that will require both in-person and remote hours. There is flexibility in scheduling, with hours varying throughout the week. Some availability Monday-Friday between 9am-5pm (with occasional night and weekend availability) will be required.

● Includes phone, travel mileage and other pre-approved expense reimbursements.

● Paid time-off (vacation, sick, personal, holidays).

● Does not include medical, dental or vision benefits.

To apply

Please submit a cover letter describing your general qualifications and fit for this project and a resume.

Job Type: Part-time

Pay: $25.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20 per week

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule
• Paid time off

Patient demographics:

• Adults

Schedule:

• Evenings as needed
• Monday to Friday
• Weekends as needed

License/Certification:

• Driver's License (Preferred)

Ability to Commute:

• Hauppauge, NY 11788 (Required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Hauppauge, NY 11788