Type: Full-time
County: Fresno
Agency: Fresno Barrios Unidos
Agency Description:
Agency Description: Fresno Barrios Unidos is a community-based non-profit organization centered in Southeast Fresno in California’s Central Valley. Barrios provides unconditional support, love, and guidance for youth, young adults, and their families. Culturally responsive programs are designed to meet the intersectional variety of experiences community members face, to heal and empower young people to lead advocacy for systems change in Fresno and beyond. Barrios offers restorative practices to support a range of experiences including physical and spiritual health and wellness, reproductive justice, parenthood, gender identity and sexual identity, food sovereignty, racial justice, Indigenous knowing and intelligence, environmental justice, educational and vocational justice, harm reduction, community safety and incarceration, and community violence.
To learn more about Fresno Barrios Unidos and its values and programs, follow @FresnoBarrios on Twitter or visit https://fresnobarriosunidos.org .
Job Description
ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY NOTE: Fresno Barrios Unidos is open to filling this role with a co-directorship or other horizontal leadership arrangement. Fresno Barrios Unidos seeks an inclusive, relationally intentional Executive Director who champions distributed leadership and transparency. Rooted in the goal of creating a dynamic spectrum of services and empowering the next generations of community leaders to dismantle systems of oppression, FBU’s next leader has strong financial management skills, including the ability to lead and empower fundraising activities. Barrios has embraced the daunting challenge of imagining and advocating for the transformation of systems and culture in Fresno that have reinforced inequity and inequality for decades. This role requires the audacity of believing that change is possible within a complex, conservative political and social ecosystem.
Key priorities for this role include, but are not limited to:
Nurture Staff and Board Cohesion Staff development is a primary focus in this role. The new Executive Director will invest time to deeply get to know each and every staff member, with a commitment to supporting them as individuals, teams, and as a whole staff to empower them to do the work they’re best positioned to do. Meanwhile, as the staff have faced multiple layers of challenges over the past few years, the Executive Director will incorporate healing practices to build trust, foster authentic belonging and cohesion, and address and heal the harms of the past.
The current organizational transition is the moment for Fresno Barrios Unidos to transform its internal practices to model the systems change it advocates for externally: presuming leadership at all levels, centering the perspective and needs of those closest to the work, creating space for all voices to participate meaningfully, and removing barriers to resources. The new Executive Director will work in partnership with staff and youth participants to redesign internal systems, policies, and procedures to push decision-making and accountability to those closest to the work, including knowledge of and responsibility for budgets.
Management practices and HR policies will be re-examined and transformed to support employee thriving and belonging. The Executive Director will help staff identify how their abilities and expertise support success in their roles, while arranging for resources and mentorship to skill up where there are gaps between skills and job expectations. Related, the Executive Director will work with staff and consultants to improve onboarding and performance management practices to equip and empower staff and align with organizational values.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
The next Executive Director of Fresno Barrios Unidos leads with the perspective that leadership exists at all levels. Candidates bring a primary skillset of staff development and leadership development. The Executive Director is skilled at fostering leadership in others, empowering them to successfully deploy their leadership, and creating systems of feedback and collaboration to reinforce shared leadership.
Candidates must have a deep understanding of the realities faced by youth, young adults, and families in the communities served by Fresno Barrios Unidos. Strongly preferred is relevant lived experience.
The ideal candidate has experience making change in Fresno or the Central Valley, or in communities with power structures similar to Fresno, while embracing an abolitionist mindset. Professional or volunteer experience may include advocacy, organizing, policy, or coalition work in rural and/or conservative communities; or culturally responsive program design and delivery outside of the dominant culture.
Candidates will be able to highlight successes enacting meaningful change while navigating the dominant culture. The next leader of Barrios has the ability to champion the advocacy priorities of staff and youth, balanced with maturity and a long-term, big-picture perspective of the organization’s reputation and relationships. The ability to form and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across Fresno County is a major asset. This role requires a high level of savvy to navigate the social and political landscape.
This role requires a strong social and racial justice orientation, combined with experience creating the conditions for healing and well-being in groups and communities living with the ongoing effects of trauma. Demonstrated fluency with individual and community healing, supporting a healing-centered workplace, and advancing healing-centered policy change is essential.
Personal qualities required for this role include being grounded in oneself; an ability to set healthy boundaries while maintaining empathy and emotional availability; and a commitment to honesty, transparency, and shared leadership. Candidates understand and model the importance of confidentiality, and are skillful in navigating and resolving interpersonal conflicts.
Candidates bring outstanding communication skills, including clear verbal and written communication skills, strong listening skills, and the ability to model open, honest, and empathetic communication practices.
The ideal candidate brings non-profit leadership experience that incorporates regular interaction with a board of directors – whether in a staff role collaborating directly with a board, or direct involvement on a board of directors, board committee, or advisory board. Similarly, candidates have experience working to raise funds within a non-profit environment; strongly preferred is experience seeking foundation grants or major gifts.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS To be considered, candidates must have 1) leadership experience within the non-profit sector, 2) management experience demonstrating the ability to create inclusive teams, and 3) experience seeking funding from private foundations or major donors. Strongly preferred is lived experience aligned with the communities Fresno Barrios Unidos serves.
COMPENSATION The annual salary offered will be $95,000 to $115,000 based on number of years of experience. Benefits include health coverage, paid sick and vacation time, 14 observed holidays, no cost mental health supplement, and more.
TO APPLY Fresno Barrios Unidos has engaged Jenn Raley Miller ( www.jennraleymiller.com ) to lead the Executive Director search. NOTE: This is not a remote position. The individual(s) hired for this position will be expected to live in the greater Fresno area. A small relocation stipend may be available. Interested? Email Jenn at jenn@jennraleymiller.com as follows: ● Individuals interested in the role are invited to send a resume, along with a cover letter explaining your alignment with the profile described above. ● Co-applicants are welcomed to submit a joint cover letter describing your proposed partnership and alignment with the qualifications, along with individual resumes of each of the co-applicants. Jenn welcomes all inquiries and suggestions for potential candidates. Please don’t hesitate to contact her at jenn@jennraleymiller.com.
Fresno Barrios Unidos is committed to building a diverse staff that comprehends the needs of the community it serves. People of color, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQ+ applicants are strongly encouraged. People with lived experience in systems of harm, including the juvenile or criminal legal system, child welfare system, immigration system, and the school-to-prison pipeline are also highly encouraged to apply.