Small Business Organizer

Small Business Organizer

Barton Institute for Community Action/Food Justice NW Aurora

Denver Metro

Organization type:
Nonprofit

Type of role:
Full-time

Job Category:
Programs/Services

Salary: $67,329 - $71,537

Organizational Overview – Food Justice NW Aurora (FJNWA) is building a multicultural, intergenerational, and intersectional movement for food justice and food sovereignty to transform our local food system in NW Aurora, CO. We strive to create a just, sustainable, and complete food environment by mobilizing people, organizations, and businesses; building community wealth; facilitating and nurturing strategic partnerships; and advocating for policy and systems changes.

FJNWA was founded in 2022 by a dedicated steering committee and guided by a strategic retreat with resident leaders, local organizations, and small businesses.

Position Overview – FJNWA is developing a program to organize and support small food market business owners in northwest Aurora to realize its mission of food justice and food sovereignty. While northwest Aurora lost a full service grocery store in 2024, there are two dozen small cultural markets in the area that are BIPOC- and immigrant-owned. In order to organize and support these small markets, FJNWA plans to provide individual technical assistance, organize with small businesses, and launch a bootcamp curriculum for small markets with additional contract support from national partners and local small business experts.

This full time staff position is dedicated to relationship building, technical assistance, and organizing the small market businesses in NW Aurora. The small business organizer will develop and maintain relationships with small market owners, supply chain retailers and growers, and the northwest Aurora community. The ideal candidate will include excellent listening skills to help store owners identify strengths and goals of their store.

They will also need to be resourceful and active problem solvers to provide tailored support to each store, with the ability to see connections and patterns across stores in the community and identify root causes and possible policy solutions. This position will report to the Director of Community Organizing and will collaborate with the organizing team and local partners to develop and implement the new program.

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Responsibilities:

Program Design and Implementation (40%)

In collaboration with the Director of Community Organizing, support development of a program design and sustainable structure for Small Business Organizing, incorporating feedback from small market business owners and experience working on the ground.

Oversee client caseload with diverse small market businesses as key support, resource navigator, and liaison for store owners to external support systems and resources.

Collaborate with store owners to set programmatic goals, manage projects, and provide one-on-one support with business strategy.

Facilitate partnerships between clients, local organizations, and the broader FJNWA community to improve community connection, support, and organizing opportunities.

Program Administration (30%)

Onboard new small business clients, perform initial assessments of needs, and establish spending plans based on goals and project timelines.

Generate project documents including marketing and communications materials, internal project updates, and final reports for external audiences.

Contribute to data collection, analyses, and grant reporting.

Organizing/Advocacy (30%)

Initiate and build trusted relationships with new small market business owners.

Identify shared interests, challenges, and priorities of business owners and connect to existing organizing/advocacy campaigns.

Collaborate with the Director of Community Organizing to develop and identify possible policy solutions and campaigns that solve root causes and collective challenges of small markets.

Communicate with and mobilize business owners on relevant organizing/policy updates and action items.

Racial Equity (Integrated throughout all duties)

Engage in ongoing racial equity training, learning, and capacity building.

Practice…