Job Opening: NC No Torture Project Coordinator

UPDATE: This position has been filled.

The Council is hiring a half-time (20 hours per week) project coordinator to work with communities of faith to seek confession, repentance, and forgiveness for our state’s role in torture. The full job description is posted below and at this link.

Position:   Project Coordinator – Communities of Faith Seek Confession, Repentance, and Forgiveness for Our State’s Role in Torture.

Council Description

With more than eight decades of progressive activism, the North Carolina Council of Churches remains the leading faith-based ecumenical voice for justice advocacy in North Carolina. We are particularly concerned about issues related to health care, immigration, care of creation, public education, gun violence, voting rights, food security, and peace. The Council embraces ethnic, racial, gender, and sexual diversity, while standing within the Christian faith.

Peace Committee & Anti-Torture Work

The Council has always made peace a priority in our programs. The Council’s Peace Committee is working to help North Carolinians live out the call to peace, from pursuing ways that we can be more civil in our personal dialogue to advocating for solutions to gun violence. Since 2006, the Council has participated actively in North Carolina’s citizen quest for transparency and accountability for our state’s role in the U.S. torture program. We know that those identified by our government’s policies of “rendition,” secret detention, torture, and drone killings are Muslim people. Acknowledgement, repentance and redress will be an important step toward interfaith reconciliation.

Job Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include coordinating and implementing a 9-month project to promote and help implement the recommendations of the NC Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT). The NCCIT is a non-governmental, non-partisan body that is conducting a citizen-initiated inquiry into North Carolina’s role in the U.S. post-9/11 torture program. The NCCIT’s report, a year in the making, will be publicly released on September 27, 2018.

Duties will include but are not limited to:

• Identify and collaborate with statewide individual and organizational partners.
• Gather and develop written, video, and speakers’ bureau resources for people of faith to study the issue of torture and NC’s role. Create a resource inventory available to clergy, congregations, and partners in need of information and/or assistance.
• Ask partners to read and discuss the NCCIT report and its recommendations for action, invite a speaker, study a curriculum, and discuss what repentance for our responsibility for torture looks like.
• Encourage partners to work with elected officials urging public acknowledgement and adoption of a no-torture policy; includes organizing delegation visits and a high-level sign-on letter.
• Direct expression from the citizens of North Carolina to as many as possible of the 49 individuals to whom the state owes acknowledgement and redress for having participated in their renditions.
• Statewide travel as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• Half-time with ability to travel and work flexible hours, including weekends
• Excellent writing, speaking, and relational skills
• Demonstrated project management skills
• Ability to work collaboratively and respectfully with others
• General agreement with the NCCC’s mission for Christian unity and social justice
• Agreement that torture is immoral, illegal and counter-productive.

Preferred:

• Undergraduate or graduate degree in human rights, U.S. history, law or related field (preferred)
• Affiliation with a faith community that is part of the NC Council of Churches and familiarity with other NC faith communities
• Skilled with Office Suite, social media and website management
• Experience working in the human rights movement

Hours: Half-time position, preferably based in the Triangle and requiring some in-state travel.

Reports to: NCCC Executive Director

Salary: $20/hr for 9 mos.

For more information about the North Carolina Council of Churches, please visit www.ncchurches.org. For more about NCCIT, see www.nccit.org.

To apply, send a cover letter, résumé, and writing sample to jobs@ncchurches.org or by mail to 27 Horne Street, Raleigh, NC 27607. The position will remain open until filled. To guarantee consideration, your application must be received by the end of the day on Monday, July 16, 2018.