Wildflower Alliance

Home to the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community

Open Positions – Black Community Connector

Wild Ivy Social Justice Network

Wild Ivy seeks to increase voice, choice, access, and personal and collective power for those who experience life-interrupting emotional distress and other challenges, and who’ve faced additional barriers due to marginalization.

Wild Ivy accomplishes these goals through building bridges, raising awareness, and intentionally seeking to undo racism, ableism, heterosexism, transphobia, and other forms of systemic oppression.

Who We Are

The Wild Ivy Social Justice Network is a peer-to-peer advocacy and support program for mental health reform focused on prioritizing the needs of marginalized communities. Our team is comprised of individuals with personal experience in the mental health system, each with knowledge of differences in access and care based on their own community-belonging. We value the wisdom of lived experience over traditional qualifications.

Our areas of social justice work are Community and Public Awareness; Education and Training for both traditional and progressive mental health providers and participants; Direct Support through peer-to-peer groups; Advocacy through participation in existing committees, legislative action, and direct action support; and connecting persons with existing Benefits and Resources.

For more details on what we do, please see our Wild Ivy page here. For our organization’s guiding values, please see the Wildflower Alliance’s Defining Principle’s page.

Open Positions

Position Title: Black Community Connector

Hours: 20 to 30 hours per week (final number of hours to be determined based on the right candidate’s availability and needs as they intersect with Wild Ivy’s aims and needs).

Location: This is a remote work position, but candidates must reside in MA to be considered for this position. This job is a part of the Wild Ivy Social Justice Network (a project of the Western Mass RLC), which has a STATEWIDE organizing focus.

Compensation: $19.00 to $21.50 per hour, depending on completion of provided trainings.

Job Description: This position focuses on outreach, bridge building, and involvement of the voice of black people who have also faced emotional distress, trauma, problems with substances, and other life-interrupting challenges in public policy development and more. It will include support group facilitation, training facilitation, individual support, event planning, public speaking, work with legislators and others involved in public policy, researching resources, and more.

Job Requirements: A demonstrated commitment to raising awareness of and undoing racism, anti-transness, ableism, psychiatric oppression and other forms of systemic oppression is required. Candidates must also have first-hand experience with this focus area, including living as a black person in the US, as well as having first-hand experience with one or more of the following:

  • Psychiatric diagnosis (you yourself being diagnosed)
  • Trauma (you yourself experiencing trauma)
  • Homelessness (you yourself living without a home)
  • Problems with substances (you yourself struggling with addiction, problems with substances, etc.)

The successful candidate will also be fully familiar with e-mailing, web searching, and use of on-line meeting platforms. Additionally, while some training will be provided, the willingness and ability to jump in and sometimes independently make new connections, or figure out less familiar tasks (event promotion, etc.) is an absolute must!

Preferred: Community organizing* experience is strongly preferred. Knowledge of local and statewide resources also highly valued. Residency and investment in Massachusetts communities strongly preferred, as is access to a reliable vehicle you can use for work. A PLUS: Bilingual/Bicultural (Spanish/English, ASL/English, etc.) a plus. Some experience with public speaking and/or training facilitation, experience working with legislators and other public policy makers, and knowledge of and experience offering peer support also very helpful. Training* in Intentional Peer Support (IPS), Alternatives to Suicide, Hearing Voices, harm reduction, trauma sensitivity, peer-to-peer support, group facilitation, and other relevant topics also a plus.

*All employees are offered IPS, Alternatives to Suicide, Hearing Voices, and anti-oppression training if not already completed prior to hire. 

We consider ‘community organizing’ to include any of the following: Organizing around any social justice issue, participating in founding groups, clubs, committees, task forces, etc., drafting and participating in online organizing campaigns and strategies, active membership in social justice organizations, being part of a team that creates and distributes consciousness-raising materials in any medium or form (artistic or otherwise), community or legal advocacy, developing strategies as part of a team and in accordance with shared values, etc.

To Apply

By email: Send a resume and cover letter to celeste@wildfloweralliance.org ; Applications without cover letters may not be reviewed.

Through our website: Upload your resume and cover letter using the form below.