Developing the capacity of sexual and gender minorities groups to
achieve social transformation through campaigning
We are seeking a Community Builder and Manager
Terms of reference
1 Background:
Any significant progress for sexual, gender and bodily minorities’ meaningful access to their universal Human Rights can only rest on deep transformations of social acceptance of sexual and gender diversities.
Yet, social transformation processes are difficult to apprehend and involve a large range of approaches ranging from persuasion science to cognitive linguistics, social psychology, neurosciences, etc.
And surveys and analyses clearly show that most LGBTI organizations only have limited and empirical approaches to social transformation, mostly relying on “common sense” and empirical inspiration, and with strategies and tactics being defined without the processes and research needed to ensure their effectiveness.
At the same time, it has never been more urgent to become more effective at social transformation: whereas in past decades, the issue of sexual and gender diversities has been a rather minor concern of major conservative forces and the rights of sexual and gender minorities is now making it to the forefront of conservative resistance.
Towards this backdrop, the landscape of social transformation dynamics is also rapidly changing. With more and more social mobilization generated by political, social and environmental awareness, it is increasingly difficult to emerge from the global campaigning “noise” and effectively influence social norms.
Yet, encouraging trends also underline the necessity for increased investment in social change strategies:
While in many places, spaces for expression of sexual and gender minorities (and civil society in general) are closing down, in some other contexts new spaces are opening up.
There is also an increased awareness among the sexual and gender minorities movement that progress must be seen within broader social movements. Intersectionality is increasingly becoming key: connecting to other change movements is not only a way to learn from their experience, it’s also a way to better connect our issues together, to better visualize the intersections.
2 Program’s Objectives
In this changing landscape, there is an increased interest to develop the capacity of sexual and gender minorities to build and implement social change strategies.
Specifically, it was identified that it was necessary to:
- Develop actual skills that can be activated, beyond knowledge and theoretical basis
- Create spaces that are safe in terms of security against repression but also in terms of providing secure environments for sharing and learning
- Reach activists beyond the limited number of people who can attend trainings (including activists who are not part of organizations)
- Develop capacities over the long run, as campaigning skills need to be constantly expanded
- Make knowledge accessible in formats that are compatible with today’s time management, especially in online formats
- Develop learning processes that integrate the specific pedagogy of online spaces, which are different from other learning methods
- Link campaigners into a community of learning and practice, to ensure sustainability of learning and create an interactive resource for capacity development
3 General outline:
The program is structured around three core interrelated processes:
Produce knowledge and expertise on campaigning
Develop the capacities of a global community of campaigners
Structure a community of learning and practice among campaigners.
3.1 Produce knowledge and expertise
Knowledge and expertise will be developed in the form of
- Original analytical case studies of creative campaigns worldwide
- A series of articles on methodologies and tools to conduct campaigns
- Blog posts on noteworthy developments in all matters related to campaigning
Case studies will mainly focus on campaigns related to SOGI, Sexual Health and Rights, Gender, Minority struggles, and innovative tactics.
3.2 Develop capacities of activists
This process will essentially rely on two components:
- Regional on-site trainings and workshops
- A global online training course
The two dimensions are intimately connected, as the contents of both components will be interacting: The content of the global platform will essentially draw from local contexts, and the global platform will provide a core resource to develop local level capacity building activities.
3.3 Structure a community of learning and practice
Communities of learning and practice are essential parts of capacity building and skills acquisition. All capacity building projects need to take into consideration the necessity to write the learning process into a broader collaborative approach, to harness the positive potential of horizontal (peer-to-peer) transmission and to link these processes to existing social learning interactions.
Currently, the project’s community base consists of
- a number of activists of sexual and gender minorities’ organisations on all continents associated to the project
- a Facebook community of 1500 members
4 Community builder and manager
4.1 Objectives
- Expand the existing communities in terms of numbers, scope, diversity
- Ensure meaningful and sustained engagement of community members
4.2 Deliverables/outcomes
- The communities of practice and learning will be pooled into one single platform, with easy connections to the sogicampaigns.org website
- A group of 35 lead campaigners will be regularly contributing to the community’s dynamics
- The united community will have grown to a total number of at least 2000 members at the end of the period
- The project will have strong connections with other communities with similar interests
4.3 Terms and Requirements
The program is seeking an enthusiastic community builder with proven success in building strong sustainable communities.
Initially, the contract is a part time freelance assignment over 6 months. The program will reevaluate the requirements after that period. The initial plan foresees a workload of 2 days/week, to be freely organised by the holder. The assignment is home based and requires minimal standard computer equipment and excellent broadband access. It is unlikely that it will involve travels in the first phase.
Given the strong independence of the work, it is vital that the community manager has excellent self discipline and is familiar with organising their work plan very carefully.
The fee foreseen by the project budget is of 1,000 USD/month
Proven experience in building and managing communities, preferably over different cultural contexts
Experience in creative public campaigning
Perfect English fluency
Good writing skills
Strong capacity to self-organise and to report activities to the team
Members of sexual and gender minorities are strongly encouraged to apply
5 Application process:
Interested candidates should send their resume/CV to Joel Bedos at jbedos@dayagainsthomophobia.org
In addition, candidates are invited to send a very brief outline of their guiding principles for community building and managing
The recruitment is open as per January 19th 2018 and candidates are encouraged to apply as early as possible.
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