Background
The Providence Streets Coalition (PSC) is an alliance of 43 community organizations, local businesses, schools, neighborhood associations, and thousands of engaged individuals advocating for people-friendly streets in Providence. PSC builds the relationships and advocacy tools that are necessary to change physical infrastructure, budgets, legislation, and mobility systems within Rhode Island’s transportation sector. Our aim is safer streets, more transportation choices, and policies that advance mobility justice. We are working towards a transportation system that supports equitable, affordable, and sustainable movement for people of all ages, incomes, and abilities.
Save RIPTA is PSC’s first statewide legislative campaign that will advocate for the full and sustained funding of Rhode Island’s Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) beginning in the state’s FY2025 budget. This effort will partner transit riders, advocates, and bus operators with local businesses, nonprofit agencies, and institutional partners. RIPTA faces a $33-40 million operational deficit starting in July 2024. The State of Rhode Island is the only entity equipped to avert the looming financial crisis. Left unaddressed, RIPTA’s fiscal cliff will result in catastrophic service cuts, reducing thousands of riders’ ability to move around the state and cutting off access to crucial services, jobs, and opportunities.
The Save RIPTA campaign began in summer 2023 with outreach to bus riders and Providence residents, letting them know about the fiscal crisis to come. The campaign will officially launch in November/December 2023, and carry through the end of the General Assembly’s legislative session in June 2024. If successful, the campaign will secure reliable and convenient mobility access for thousands of riders, save hundreds of bus operator jobs, and positively contribute to achieving the state’s objectives codified in its 2020 Transit Master Plan and 2021 Act on Climate.
Scope of Work
The Campaign Organizer will conduct grassroots, legislative, and executive branch advocacy and organizing in order to secure a sustainable financial future for RIPTA. The Campaign Organizer will be primarily responsible for the day-to-day operations of the campaign during the 2024 General Assembly session (January 1-June 30, 2024), which may involve the following campaign tactics:
- Managing residential and commercial canvassing campaigns – including cutting street maps, producing materials, and training and recruiting volunteer canvassers
- Managing volunteer calling and texting events
- Managing on-bus outreach to transit riders
- Organizing press conferences, educational events, and advocacy days at the State House
- Producing testimony guides and organizing carpools, childcare, and food delivery for public hearing nights at the State House
- Subcontracting with graphic designers and managing the printing and distribution of campaign materials (flyers, banners, social graphics, T-shirts)
- Collaborating with PSC Communications Organizer Dylan Giles on all communications
The Campaign Organizer will receive strategic and logistical support from PSC Lead Organizer Liza Burkin, as well as legislative and organized labor allies.
Structure
The Campaign Organizer will report to and work with Liza Burkin, the Providence Streets Coalition’s lead organizer. Compensation will be $25/hr for 10-30 hrs/week on a contractor basis, with an income cap of $20,000 over the course of the contract. The Campaign Organizer will mostly work remotely, and/or with Liza at her home office. The Campaign Organizer will work from January 1, 2024 until June 30, 2024, with the possibility of an extended contract after June. Position is somewhat flexible based on strengths of the chosen candidate.
Qualifying Experience
- Campaign management – electoral, development, advocacy, or other types of sustained campaigns working towards a specific financial or legislative goal
- Community organizing – working with individuals and community groups to achieve an advocacy goal
Preferred but not required
- Lived experience riding RIPTA
- Knowledge of transit systems and how transit agencies are funded – read this document to get acquainted
- Foreign language skills
- Strategic communications skills – social media, email, graphic design
To Apply
Interested parties should submit a resume and brief (300 words or less) cover letter to Liza Burkin, liza@ourstreetspvd.org, by December 1st, 2023.