Category: Minnesota

 

THIS POSTING IS NOW CLOSED. Feel free to send your resume for consideration in future outreach rounds. Also, we may have additional opportunities for those who can assist us with outreach to the Karen community in St. Paul as well as native Spanish speakers who reside in South Minneapolis. Contact us per the information below.

 

Please share this post far and wide with anyone you think might be interested.

Do you speak Ethiopian? Hmong? Burmese? Somali? Oromo? Or Spanish? Or one of the many languages spoken across St. Paul? 

Do you have deep ties to the long established African-American, Latino, or Southeast Asian communities in St. Paul?

Or perhaps you are really really good at organizing and have a passion for inclusive community engagement – online and off.

And you are looking for part-time summer contract work.

Thanks to the generous support of the Knight Foundation for our Inclusive Community Engagement Online initiative our “Be Neighbors” outreach campaign will reach thousands of new St. Paulites one person at time this summer. Perhaps surprisingly, we’ve found in-person outreach to be our most effective bridge building tool for our very online work.

We want lots of applicants. Apply today.

If you don’t have the time or flexibility for our paid work, you can volunteer to help us at major festivals or consider our St. Paul Outreach Advisory Group.

Here is a copy of the official job posting text put together by our Outreach Coordinator, Corrine Bruning:

Join E-Democracy’s “BeNeighbors” 2012 Summer Outreach Team!

E-Democracy.org builds online public space in the heart of real democracy and community. Our mission is to harness the power of online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy.

We are launching a new grant-funded inclusion campaign to grow our St. Paul forums with the greatest diversity possible to over 10,000 members in three years. We’re also planning fundraising to include Minneapolis and other communities in future years.

• Do you care passionately about building inclusive community?
• Do you believe commitment to diversity is an important institutional value?
• Do you want to be part of raising diverse voices?

If so, consider applying for one of 9 part-time, contract outreach positions. These new outreach staff will work both individually and with a team to recruit members for our neighborhood forums primarily among African-American, Southeast Asian, African immigrant, and Latino communities.

Location: Saint Paul with some travel in the Metropolitan Area

Description: Work as part of a team to develop and carry out diverse community outreach. Tasks are likely to include tabling at community events and venues (including outdoor events in sometimes inclement weather), interacting with attendees and/or presenting at neighborhood meetings and events, doorknocking and posting flyers, and conducting face-to-face, phone, and online recruitment. The team goal for the summer is to recruit 4,000 new members to the Saint Paul neighborhood forums by focusing efforts on our most highly diverse, low income neighborhoods. Imagine the possibilities for empowering all voices!

Your outreach efforts will be supported by initial training, weekly team debriefs, coordinated outreach strategies and activities, and shared lessons in inclusive outreach and digital technologies. You will also work closely with other E-Democracy staff, contractors and volunteers to develop, refine, and further the goals of the inclusive outreach campaign.

Time Commitment: 15 weeks from May 21st through late August 2012. Contractors will work 10-20 hours per week and must be flexible, reliable, and able to work mostly late afternoons, evenings, and weekends, sometimes with short notice.

Rate: $12.50/hour. As an independent contractor, you are responsible for all of your own Federal, State, Social Security taxes, and any insurance you choose to carry.

Requirements:

• Passionate and enthusiastic; positive outlook and willing to lead. Inspires other contractors and volunteers to do high-quality organizing and outreach work.
• Proven ability to work as part of a team. Willing to pitch in to help others with day-to-day project tasks (event logistics, preparing/delivering materials, record-keeping, data entry, etc.)
• Excellent personal accountability and follow through. Can meet deadlines and manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced work environment; highly flexible and able to handle high- stress situations. Highly self motivated, self directed, and organized.
• Effective communicator. Values and fosters open communication; uses and understands the importance of active listening skills, and is an effective public speaker with above-average English-language writing skills.
• Detail oriented and respectfully work with volunteers.
• Willing to learn and values self-improvement. Able to accept and offer praise and critical feedback; seeks and offers feedback and evaluation.
• Reliably and consistently available via email and mobile phone.
• Must have reliable transportation to anywhere in the Twin Cities, including ability to haul materials for events and activities.

Desired Qualifications and Experience:

We are looking for exceptional people who may have talents in the following:

• Experience or training in leadership development, multicultural outreach and communications, political science, online civic engagement, digital technologies or other related fields.
• Field outreach or organizing in diverse communities (tabling, doorknocking, etc.).
• Bilingual in Hmong, Spanish, Somali, Ethiopian, Burmese, Oromo, etc.
• Deep connections to the targeted communities, including involvement in neighborhood/ community organizations.
• Proficient with Google Apps, social media, and digital video devices.

How to apply: Send a statement of interest describing your qualifications and resume with three references to team@e-democracy.org by Wednesday, April 25, 2012. We hope to make decisions by May 11: Use the subject line: Community Outreach Leader Application. Include any questions in your email. No calls please. For more information, about this effort, please visit: http://www.e-democracy.org, and click on both “Blog” and “About”.

 

 

We are seeking members for our St. Paul Outreach Advisory Group from all background and walks of life in the city.

With our “Be Neighbors” outreach campaign we will bring in thousands of new online Neighbors Forum over the next three years. Our outreach team (hiring now) will be all over the place this summer.

But will “numbers” really matter? Will numbers alone make the neighborly online experience useful and relevant to the many diverse communities within St. Paul? We don’t think so.

Without the true and deep engagement of St. Paul’s diverse communities in shaping and guiding this project, the bridge building across cultures in St. Paul’s local communities we seek will simply not happen or only reach certain communities. Along the way we need tactical forum-by-forum, neighborhood-by-neighborhood input on how to continuously improve both what our crucial volunteers do as well as our staff team. More important than that, we need partners across St. Paul who work to bring the many voices of their diverse communities into a neighborly trust-generating vibrant online community life exchange that seeks in part to respond to claims that diversity inevitably reduces cohesion.

National surveys say people who make over $75,000 a year are five times more likely to be part of a neighborhood e-mail list or web forum than those who make $50,000 or less. And while whites and African-Americans participate near equally, Latinos and likely newer immigrant groups are participating far less often. We can do better than that. We can show that there are open, accessible, and empowering models (beyond the often private virtual gated communities that many commercial efforts tend to promote) that deliver “soulful” community results.

By joining our St. Paul Outreach Advisory Group, we can build something for our community and demonstrate nationally that social media in “public life” can truly build bridges among races and cultures in local communities. Be part of this innovative online first. We can do it.

Here is the full outreach group description. And from our Outreach Coordinator Corrine Bruning:

“Thanks to generous support from the Knight Foundation, E-Democracy has committed to inclusively reaching 10,000 participants across Saint Paul on our online neighborhood forums over the next three years (for more information, visit: http://e-democracy.org/inclusion

“We are committed to intentionally serving our whole community, and are combining strong partnerships with on-the-ground outreach to invite those who wouldn’t otherwise find out about these neighborhood forums. In the latest census Saint Paul reached 44% people of color as are 75% of our community’s children in the St. Paul Public Schools. Our goal is to leverage existing community networks and create new avenues to bring full representation to our online neighborhood forums.

“To facilitate and help guide this outreach, we are creating an Outreach Advisory Group to serve as process stewards, share best practices, and be a sounding board. Please see the description and responsibilities below.

“We would welcome your application. We also ask you to forward this to invitation to others or to nominate excellent candidates. To apply, email Outreach Coordinator Corrine Bruning by Wednesday, April 25 and respond to the three questions below. You may also include other information (background, resume, etc.) if you wish.

• “Why you are interested in serving on the Outreach Advisory Group?
• “Be it through District Councils or other organizations active in local parts of St. Paul, how are you connected to cultural or community organizations or Saint Paul neighborhoods?
• “What desired goals and responsibilities as outlined in the Outreach Advisory Group Description interest you most? Please be specific if you can.

Thank you!

To learn more about E-Democracy, please visit, E-Democracy.org, and click on “About.” To learn more about the grant funded work, see: http://e-democracy.org/inclusion ”

Editors Note: This Inclusive Social Media update is from Boa Lee, our Community Outreach and Information Leader focused on Frogtown.

By Boa Lee,
Community Outreach and Information Leader, Greater Frogtown Neighbors Forum

This year, E-Democracy intensified outreach to two Twin Cities neighborhoods – Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis and Frogtown in St. Paul.

This blog post marks the conclusion of that year-long effort, summarizing four key points learned in Frogtown:

• 1. Trust and relationship-building is to be highly regarded;
• 2. Model with caution how to use the forum;
• 3. Diverse communities (communities of color and immigrant communities) require special focus and strategic outreach; and,
• 4. E-democracy has the potential to increase civic engagement and accountability.

1. Trust and relationship-building is to be highly regarded

At the beginning of the year, the first project blog laid out how we might build upon the relationships we already had in the neighborhood – with neighbors, businesses and community organizations.  We began the year with the intent of continuing to nurture those connections through active listening and partnership – asking others what they needed in a communications vehicle and trying to connect this to what we could provide here on the Frogtown Neighbors Forum.

Yet, we understood the complexities involved with what we wanted to do.  We knew most people do not traditionally associate an online forum with civic participation; most people would still consider attending an in-person meeting to be the primary way to get involved in their neighborhood, for example.  We did not seek to change or compete with this fact but instead enhance it – providing a medium for neighbors to discuss important issues like the ones explored or debated at those meeting.  In 2010, E-Democracy invested in on-the-ground staff – a face or two to an otherwise abstract entity like an online forum – to carry that message to the greater Frogtown neighborhood.

Organizational Participation

By the end of our pilot outreach project, we returned to some of the organizational leaders we met with at the beginning of the year.  While we saw greater participation (posting versus just reading or “lurking”) among a few community organizations, we also noticed that a few never participated at all or rarely posted.  The reasons varied but one organization told us they simply were not ready to participate.  One organization wanted to preserve the quality and depth of dialogue on the forum by first having solid research and details to share with the community, its executive director said.  Another organization we met with began using the forum to regularly post meeting and event announcements.  We heard that at one of its meetings, when people were asked how they had heard about the meeting, the majority in attendance said they had seen it posted on the Frogtown Forum.

We have never expected all community organizations to participate on the forum.  We know the pressures community organizations face and, in particular, their reservations about technology and online forums – chiefly that with their base in a lower income neighborhood not all of their constituents are online.  We have used this past year in service to these organizations – helping to post their meeting announcements on their behalf on the forum.  We look forward to having them participate on a greater level in the future and in a manner that is helpful to them.

Residents

Residents are the life blood of this forum.  They are our volunteer forum managers and most active posters – rightly so, as much of what happens in a neighborhood will be felt by those living in it.  This year, we spoke with some of our most active resident participants, as well as with those who did not post as frequently or ever.  By actively participating in the affairs of the neighborhood – attending events and meetings and conducting one-on-one outreach – we learned about the communications holes neighbors felt existed.  Some forum members told us that if it had not been for our presence in the neighborhood, they would not have known about the forum, nor would they have trusted the forum enough to participate on it.  In other words, because people saw us in the neighborhood, they lent us greater credibility.

2. Model with caution how to use the forum

The E-Democracy.org website

Technology is fast-changing.  Many people are using the Internet to connect with one another – through e-mail, chat, social networking websites.  The forum is one vehicle we hoped communities could use to connect with one another – “over the digital fence” as we like to call it sometimes.  With the prevalence and ease of joining and using websites like Facebook, however, comes the expectation of what a 21^st century website should offer or look like.  We heard from many Frogtown Forum participants that the E-Democracy website simply wasn’t usable.

Many told us they no longer bother going to the E-Democracy website because it is too cluttered (too many links), they do not like the layout of the website or thought the platform “too 1990s” to use.  Most told us they only respond and view messages through their e-mails (the default feature of the forum allows posts to appear in a member’s regular e-mail inbox each time a post occurs or as a daily digest).  While participating via e-mail is one feature many told us they liked best, it also has some drawbacks.  By not visiting the E-Democracy website, people did not know what was happening on other forums; did not realize that pictures or video could be uploaded to the forum; and, we theorize, did not post as often as a result.

We are now working on redesigning the E-Democracy website to increase usability.  Some changes have already happened.  (Editor’s note: New group home pages and one-click sharing to Facebook and Twitter are just being released). We also took time to explain to people, in person, how to use the website.  Had we had more time, we would have also offered free, short tutorial courses at Rondo Outreach Library on how to navigate and use the E-Democracy website.

Discussion seeding

During our year-long effort, we also hoped to show people the many ways they could use the forum.  We attended meetings and events and posted summaries, photos and video.  Frogtown is unique in that it is one of few neighborhoods that does not have its own neighborhood newspaper.  We found that community members were increasingly relying on our reports as a news source.  Some participants told us that because we had gotten so good at posting “news” on the forum, we had probably intimidated others from posting their own summaries, photos or videos.  This was clearly an unintended consequence; we wanted to seed topics for discussion  – not necessarily become the neighborhood “newspaper.”

Going forward, we must be cognizant that our discussion seeding effort does not become so overzealous.  We also have to be clear that our outreach and information coordinators are not journalists and that while discussion seeding can become a “news source” for community members, the forum should really be a place for true engagement where people can discuss community issues with one another in a democratic way, rather than using the forum as a one-way vehicle to share information.

3. Diverse communities (communities of color and immigrant communities) require special focus and strategic outreach

We spoke with many who said they welcomed more voices of the greater Frogtown Hmong community on the forum.  This past year, we were intentional in being at meetings, events and locations where we could interact with members of greater Frogtown’s diverse communities.  We spoke with many people and collected names and e-mail addresses of people from these communities who wanted to participate; yet, participation and posting in particular from the diverse communities was still below our desired level.

We know communities of color and immigrant communities are online.  The most active of them are under age 30.  We can make some reasonable assumptions about the low participation rate: issues appearing on most neighbors forums are uninteresting to the most likely participants or we just have not interfaced with those who would potentially engage, etc.  Regardless, we must do more.  We need to do more research with members of these communities; we should organize focus groups to capture these communities’ needs and their opinions about the forum.  One person we spoke with suggested we send a flyer to every household to inform them about the forum.  We are currently exploring participating in radio programs and advertising on websites and in publications of these diverse and immigrant communities.  There is much more work to be done to reach out and build relationships and trust with these groups.

4. E-democracy has the potential to increase civic engagement and accountability

Having already shared several lessons, the best insight gained from our intensive outreach in 2010 is clarity in the potential of the neighbors forum to increase civic engagement and accountability.  We learned that elected officials pay attention to posts appearing on the forum, even if they do not post.  Neighbors told us the forum has provided them with new information and alternative viewpoints.  We believe all of this is a testament to the hard work of community members – those who participate and volunteer to keep the forum alive.  The range and depth of conversations on the forum is dependent on forum members’ willingness to share their opinions, ask questions and seek input from people of many backgrounds.  Thought another way, the success of the forum is circular, where the participation of all members sparks newer, far richer and increased numbers of conversations, and the circle can expand and become emboldened.

Editor’s Note: On behalf of E-Democracy.org, I want to thank Boa Lee for all of her hard work and dedication this year. First some great news, the Ford Foundation has renewed our grant for 2011. This will allow us to build our Inclusive Social Media work in Frogtown, the Eastside, Cedar-Riverside, and more lower income, highly diverse neighborhoods. Because our pro-active “digital voice for engagement” work for inclusion in such neighborhoods is nation-leading and essentially non-existent elsewhere, the Ford Foundation wants us to package up our lessons to share them around the country. Boa’s excellent blog posts are part of that practical story that we hope will inspire others to bridge the digital civic engagement divide and help direct our own work and expansion. We wish Boa the best as goes to graduate school full-time and joins our ranks of dedicated participants on our forums. – Steven Clift, Executive Director