Job Description
Job DescriptionSalary: Salary starting at $45,080 depending on experience
POSITION: Farmworker Legal Services (FLS), a non-profit law office, is seeking a bilingual (Spanish/English) outreach worker to join its dynamic and committed team working alongside agricultural workers and community partners to provide civil legal services to farmworker and animal production workers throughout Michigan. This position is a one-year contract ideally based out of our Kalamazoo office with a flexible and remote work schedule option.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Ability to effectively communicate, orally and in writing, in both English and Spanish.
- Ability to effectively communicate, orally and in writing, in both English and Spanish.
- Demonstrated commitment to low-income individuals, farmworkers, immigrants, or victims of crime through lived or mission-aligned experiences.
- Willingness to occasionally work a flexible schedule that may include travel and evening or weekend outreach.
- Demonstrated success working effectively in teams and independently to meet multiple deadlines.
- Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Paralegal studies or high school graduate or its equivalent with three or more years of work experience.
- Proficiency in Haitian Creole or indigenous languages native to Mexico or Central America.
- Advanced understanding of the legal, administrative, and judicial system as evidenced by relevant legal employment experience and skills or professional certification as described in credentialing.
- Prior experience with employment law, immigration law, working with farmworkers, or legal aid.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: Farmworker Legal Services (FLS) is a growing and nationally recognized non-profit law office and the statewide division of the Michigan Advocacy Program (MAP) that fights for justice and dignity alongside the farmworker community through our systemic, multi-forum community engagement and direct legal representation of farmworkers in their civil legal matters. FLS currently has 10 permanent staff and 8 summer seasonal advocates based out of our Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Ypsilanti (Ann Arbor area) offices. FLS provides a full range of civil legal services to Michigans eligible population of farmworkers and their dependents and prioritize cases including wage theft, trafficking, discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace health and safety, housing, civil rights, and labor-based immigration relief.
MAP works to advance the safety, independence, and economic stability of those most affected by poverty, racism, and other structurally oppressive systems by increasing access to justice and working for systemic solutions. MAP has provided civil legal aid for those unable to afford an attorney for more than 50 years, serving 13 counties through five legal aid offices as well as the statewide program that serves farmworkers (Farmworker Legal Services). MAP has a staff of about 220 people in offices in Battle Creek, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Monroe, and Ypsilanti. Visit www.miadvocacy.org and www.farmworkerlaw.org for more information.
RESPONSIBILITIES: In collaboration with colleagues, the outreach worker will primarily focus on community engagement: developing community legal education materials; training farmworkers and farmworker service providers; collaborating with local community programs; and conducting in-person outreach and legal screenings at farmworker housing and community events throughout Michigan. The outreach worker will develop outreach plans, provide guidance to summer student interns, and maintain records and reporting about the outreach activities using computer applications. The outreach worker will also assist the legal team with all aspects of their work such as the development of legal documents, correspondence with parties, scheduling, interpreting/translating, and communicating directly with clients. This position will require extensive travel throughout the state of Michigan and work in the evenings and/or on weekends during the outreach season.
BENEFITS: Salary starts at $45,080 and increases based on years of relevant experience. MAP offers a generous benefits package including life, short- and long-term disability, health, vision, dental and flexible spending accounts. If staff do not require health benefits, they have the option to take an annual $1,500 payout in addition to the base salary paid over the course of the year. MAP also has a generous leave policy allowing staff to accrue over 3 weeks paid vacation the first year in addition to 15 paid holidays, as well as a 401K retirement plan, including employer-match for eligible staff after 6 months of employment. MAP is a qualifying employer for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. MAP is a unionized program. Kalamazoo is a college town in southwest Michigan, located 35 miles east of Lake Michigan and two hours from Chicago and Detroit, that offers the Kalamazoo Promise (an independent scholarship program that provides students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools up to 100% tuition for post-secondary education).
TO APPLY: Please complete this application and submit your resume and cover letter. You can also access the application by copying and pasting the following web address into your browser: https://miadvocacy.bamboohr.com/careers/201. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
The Michigan Advocacy Program is an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.