Description

Jane Addams Senior Caucus (JASC) is a power building 501c3 that empowers and supports tenant unions in federally subsidized buildings to win legally binding contracts with their landlords. We’ve developed an organizing model that prioritizes supermajority tenant participation and harnesses that context in order to achieve our goals of winning material improvements in tenants' lives. 

JASC Team: The JASC team includes a tenants rights’ attorney, social worker, and housing organizers.

Salary Range: $60000- 65,000 depending on experience

Benefits: Healthcare, Dental, Life Insurance; PTO  and office closures for holidays 

How to Apply: Send resume and cover letter to [email protected]

JASC is seeking an empathetic, hard-working, communicative and detail oriented Social Worker who shares our vision for a national, democratic tenant union representing thousands of members. They must be able to take initiative to move our mission forward. They must bring a willingness to learn our whole tenant organizing approach and how social work is deeply integrated. They must be a teamplayer and be flexible to changing environments and needs of our members.

Social work-related roles and responsibilities at JASC may include the following:

Case Management: provide housing stability case management to support housing stability. Assess needs, develop individualized plans and coordinate resources. 
Housing Assistance: engage in eviction prevention and diversion strategies.
Outreach: collaborate with the JASC team to cohesively connect clients with services and support. Develop relationships with other organizations in institutions in the field and or that share our values to create partnerships and bring additional benefits to our members
Support & Advocacy: support individuals facing turbulence and challenges without judgment. Advocate for clients, including writing letters of support, attending meetings with members etc.
Life Skills Training: assist with developing essential life skills including digital literacy, completing job applications and building out resumes or interview skills.
Connect with Community Resources: link clients with appropriate resources, including healthcare facilities, employment services, and mental health professionals. 

To effectively complete these tasks, this social worker will:

• Prepare and train staff on relevant concepts like developing mutual aid networks, how to use the crisis intervention toolkit etc.
• Learn applicable tenants laws, how to accurately calculate rent, how to read rent ledgers etc.
• Assist tenants in collecting and organizing necessary documents to complete interim and annual recertifications.
• Assist tenants in navigating relevant bureaucracies to obtain and retain benefits like Food Stamps, Utility Assistance, Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid, etc. This includes understanding and applying new laws to limit their harm as much as possible.
• Learn about and build relationships with individuals in different supportive service agencies in Chicago, Waukegan and Aurora

Jane Addams Senior Caucus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, medical condition, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building a diverse and passionate team, and especially encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, people with disabilities, and other interested people from historically marginalized communities to apply.

Requirements

Requirements

Demonstrated history of: 

• Working as a community social worker
• self-sufficiently owning, designing, and executing internal systems projects and trainings
• Minimum of 3 years of social work experience doing some form of community social work
• Experience in writing formal letters on behalf of others
• Willingness to travel throughout Illinois on a monthly basis
• Willingness to work non traditional hours including nights and weekends, a total 40 hours/week 
• Willingness to be onsite in buildings and talk to tenants on a regular basis
• Must be honest and empathetic with tenants, co-workers, donors etc.
• Fluency in Spanish is a plus
• Car & Valid Driver’s License 
• Must live in Illinois

Requirements specific to our tenant organizing model

• Excellent data management and collection skills. Must be detail oriented. For example, this includes taking  of tenants documents or condition issues and uploading them to an online database, appropriately titling, filing and organizing them
• Experience with excel spreadsheets, google drive, and other spreadsheet and data management tools. This is how we document issues and track case management and notes
• Comfortable using a smartphone to collect photos and videos and transferring them to an online database

Requirements specific to tenant organizing in general

• Excellent and empathetic listening skills
• Non-judgemental approach to tenants’ issues and circumstances
• Pro-tenant disposition in any tenant landlord dispute 
• Responding in a timely fashion to tenants and staff who reach out about questions and issues 
• Excellent and diligent note taker- detailed case notes are a requirement and will be reviewed weekly
• Following through on commitments made to staff and tenants