City of Somerville Hiring for Director of Racial and Social Justice at Somerville, MA Full Time

The Department of Racial and Social Justice (RSJ) leads the City of Somerville’s equity efforts and collaborates with city departments, constituents, and stakeholders to eliminate the institutional and structural systems that create racial inequities, social disparities, and injustices. The Director of RSJ leads an interdisciplinary team to work within the City and the community to drive the City’s progress toward racial and social justice. The Director is responsible for organizing community-led processes to identify strategies to dismantle systemic racism and social inequality. The Director also works with residents, community organizations, elected officials, and City staff to implement those strategies. Overall, the Director leads the City of Somerville’s work to eliminate institutional and structural racism and its intersections with other forms of oppression, including sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, and more.

Essential Functions:

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

• Develops and implements short- and long-term diversity, equity, and inclusion goals that support the City’s strategic vision toward racial and social justice.
• Organizes community-led processes to identify strategies to dismantle systemic racism and social inequality.
• Strengthens relationships with Somerville communities most impacted by structural racism and social inequality and aligns City racial and social justice efforts with priorities identified by these communities.
• Effectively manages an interdisciplinary RSJ team with expertise in social justice work, accessibility, communications, community engagement, tools for data-driven decision making, and more.
• Directs implementation of policies and programs to advance racial and social justice, including but not limited to:
• The RSJ Fund, a dedicated funding source for implementing community-identified strategies to redress the impacts and underlying causes of racial and social injustice.
• Efforts to reimagine and achieve Public Safety for All
• ADA compliance and community engagement
• Support for several public commissions, including: the Commission for Persons with Disabilities, the Human Rights Commission, and the Somerville Commission for Women
• Partners with internal facing City departments to shift internal practices, offer professional development, and develop decision-making skills to promote equity and to transform the culture of the City toward one rooted in racial and social justice.
• Works with national, regional and local racial and social justice leaders from all communities and sectors.
• Serves as a source of expertise for City departments and partners working toward racial and social equity goals
• Administrative management of departmental budget, payroll, and other related operations including staff supervision, development and leadership. Sets priorities, carries out initiatives, and implements department operational plans and programs.

Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience: Bachelor’s Degree in public administration, equity and social justice, social work, political science, or a related field and five to seven (5-7) years’ experience in a government, non-profit organization, or related setting with at least four (4) years of experience supervising staff and leading programs that build racial and social equity and inclusiveness; or any equivalent combination of education, training, experience, demonstrated investment and measurable performance that provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Knowledge, Abilities, And Skill

Knowledge:

• Knowledge and understanding of the history of systemic racism and the institutions and structures that uphold it.
• Knowledge of and experience developing and managing programs to deconstruct the underlying causes of racial and social injustice.
• Experience managing a high-powered, interdisciplinary team using an anti-racist, pro-equity, collaborative decision-making approach.
• Experience working with and developing partnerships between communities of color and government, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and grass-roots community groups.
• Experience working in a variety of multicultural and multilingual settings.
• Experience working with local or state government preferred.

Abilities:

• Ability to analyze complex situations with a racial and social justice lens
• Ability to listen deeply to communities of color, synthesize knowledge, integrate into work plans, and to facilitate the integration of various community groups.
• Ability to identify systemic racism and social inequality, address issues at their source, and lead organizational change.
• Ability to develop collaborative, productive, and respectful relationships with leaders and other institutions and groups, including but not limited to communities of color, immigrant and refugee communities, businesses, and philanthropies.

Skill:

• Strong interpersonal skills, including humor and compassion.
• Outstanding administrative skills, including the ability to produce, track, and manage multiple deliverables with overlapping deadlines in a high-performing environment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication. Able to communicate effectively and persuasively in writing and in public speaking and presentations to a variety of stakeholders.
• Excellent meeting facilitation skills. Proven ability to foster effective community conversations and address racial and social justice issues in a clear and direct manner.
• Demonstrated humility and commitment to continual personal and professional growth in cultural awareness and understanding.
• Ability to perform and advocate for Anti-racist work.
• Multilingual language skills in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian-Creole or Nepali highly preferred.

Work Environment

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements. Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant. Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical And Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills

Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing. May also require some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30lbs.)

Motor Skills

Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills

Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Hours: Full-Time

Salary: $119,067.54 annualized, plus benefits

Union: Non-Union

FLSA: Exempt

Date Posted: March 6, 2024

City of Somerville residents are especially encouraged to apply.

The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request. Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or [email protected].

Pre-Employment Requirements for All Employees:

• MA Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) clearance
• Completition of Conflict-of-Interest Law Education training for municipal employees

Overview of Total Rewards:

• 4 weeks annual vacation (for non-union positions) union positions vary by contract
• Medical insurance through the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) – 80% of premium costs paid by City
• Dental coverage low and high plans through Cigna
• Vision care through Vision Service Plan (VSP)
• Long term disability through Sun Life
• Group and voluntary life insurance through Boston Mutual
• Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending through Benefit Strategies
• Deferred compensation plans through a choice of three vendors
• Free, confidential services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provided by E4Health
• Annual cancer screening & wellness release
• Tuition reimbursement
• MBTA pass program
• FREE Blue Bikes membership
• Eligible employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)

Benefits listed are for benefits-eligible positions and the above information is meant to be a general overview of the benefit programs offered by the City of Somerville and not a binding contract.

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