Description
Our Mission
To leverage and build the organizing power of the disability community to ensure the full inclusion of people with disabilities in Metro Detroit.
Our North Star
Full Inclusion: A metro Detroit, and eventually a state and nation, where disability is celebrated, and people with disabilities have equal access, opportunities, and power in all aspects of society, including strong representation in social justice movements.
Our Values & Guiding Principles
- Disability is a normal/positive part of human diversity. Our disabilities are essential parts of who we are, places of power and self-love, giving us great assets to share with the world around us.
- Nothing About Us, Without Us: We are people with disabilities building power and inclusive social justice movements. We work to dismantle the very real structural and cultural challenges facing us.
- We organize and serve people with diverse disabilities. We are committed to no hierarchy of disability in our work, engaging with people across disabilities, including chronic illness.
- Disabled people have other important identities, which also affect our lived experiences and access to opportunities. Our power-building efforts will always be with an intersectional lens and with attention to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship status, religion, and other identities that affect our lives.
- True Inclusion is Revolutionary. When we evolve our institutions to include disabled people fully, we inevitably build more equitable, accountable, safe, and compassionate communities that are better for everyone.
Strategy & Priorities
DDP focuses on three key strategic priorities:
- Grassroots Power Building: Building meaningful and intersectional organizing, creating a strong, united, and influential disability community capable of driving systemic change.
- Community Building: Creating a place where people feel they belong through accessible communications, community events, support groups, and advocacy efforts.
- Advancing Disability Justice: Combating ableism and educating others to integrate disability justice principles, fostering systemic change at all levels.
DDP is a fiscally sponsored project of Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (MDRC), a Michigan non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. MDRC works to build opportunities for people with disabilities so they may live fully integrated lives within their chosen communities.
About the role
The Political Organizer leads DDP’s electoral engagement and coalition work to build the political power of the disability community. This role focuses on coordinating campaigns, managing partnerships with allied organizations, and mobilizing disabled voters and allies toward policy wins. Working from The LOVE Building in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood, the Political Organizer will lead Get Out The Vote operations, represent DDP in advocacy coalitions, and integrate digital and field organizing strategies—translating coalition work into member engagement opportunities while ensuring our electoral and policy campaigns advance disability justice.
Collaboration & Team Integration: The Political Organizer works in a critical partnership with DDP’s Community Care Organizer to ensure that member mobilization for electoral and policy campaigns remains sustainable by centering participant wellbeing and accessibility. While the Political Organizer focus is on recruiting members for high-stakes political action, they rely on the Community Care Organizer to provide the restorative healing spaces and trauma-informed support necessary for long-term engagement. Within the Advocacy Team, this role receives strategic direction from the Advocacy Director and translates the Policy Manager’s expert research into actionable issues campaigns. Additionally, the Political Organizer coordinates with the Communications department to align campaign messaging across digital and social media platforms, ensuring that voter education and outreach materials accurately reflect DDP’s disability justice narrative.
Responsibilities
The Political Organizer will lead our political organizing efforts with these key areas of focus:
1. Political Organizing (40%)
- Develop annual organizing calendar with campaign priorities and electoral deadlines
- Coordinate Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaigns, Election Protection programs, and voter education efforts, including canvassing efforts to build trust, connection, and power with those closest to our physical office space – our neighbors in Core City
- Mobilize community members across DDP’s strategic issue areas: housing, transit, accessibility, voting rights, education, and immigration
- Facilitate member participation in city budget advocacy and policy development processes
- Train volunteers on policy advocacy and public comment participation
- Recruit and manage volunteers for door-to-door outreach and design scripts for field organizing
2. Coalition & Partnership Management (40%)
- Identify, build and maintain relationships with organizational and community leaders to drive local issue campaigns and build power
- Represent DDP in relevant coalitions and advocacy partnerships with a goal of both bringing a disability justice perspective to those spaces and bringing back information and opportunities to DDP staff, members and volunteers
- Coordinate joint actions with allied organizations across housing, transit, accessibility, voting rights, education, and immigration
- Evaluate partnership opportunities using reciprocity criteria and strategic alignment
- Translate coalition work into engagement opportunities for DDP members and community
- Work collaboratively with a broad team of staff and grassroots leaders in coalition settings
- Track partnership commitments and mobilize community for accountability actions
3. Digital & Communications Support (10%)
- Work with the Communications team to maintain contact lists and engagement tracking in VAN/EveryAction
- Coordinate with Communications team on campaign messaging
- Support social media organizing and digital outreach efforts
- Ensure accurate documentation of organizing work and community engagement
- Integrate online and offline organizing strategies
4. Cross-Team Collaboration with Community Care Organizer (5%)
- Coordinate with Community Care Organizer to ensure member mobilization activities center wellbeing and accessibility
- Share information about member capacity, needs, and engagement levels to inform healing programming
- Connect members engaged in political work to healing circles and support resources as needed
- Collaborate on creating sustainable organizing practices that honor rest and accessibility
- Coordinate event planning to ensure political organizing events include accessibility accommodations and trauma-informed approaches
5. Organizational Contribution (5%)
- Work to execute goals and metrics set forth by Detroit Disability Power to build power & dismantle ableism at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels
- Participate in staff meetings, department planning, working groups, and organizational development activities
Who We Want to Meet
You Must Have
- 3–5 years of experience in community organizing, electoral campaigns, or advocacy work
- Campaign experience and strong understanding of field operations, voter contact and engagement
- Experience in power mapping, base building strategies, and campaign planning
- Experience with voter contact tools and database management (VAN/EveryAction preferred)
- Demonstrated success building and managing coalition partnerships
- Strong public speaking and training facilitation skills
- Familiarity with Detroit city government and regional advocacy landscape
- Familiarity with Detroit’s unique class and racial dynamics
- Excellent record keeping and ability to track and document work processes
- Computer literacy and experience with Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc.)
- Experience initiating conversations with community members about their stories, hopes, fears, and challenges
- Demonstrated commitment to disability justice and intersectional organizing—specifically a strong racial equity analysis
- Ability to work flexible hours, especially during campaign seasons, including evenings and weekends
You Ideally Have
- Lived experience with disability (valued, not required)
- Openness to training in electoral organizing techniques and civic engagement best practices
- Bilingual capabilities (Spanish, Arabic, or other languages spoken in Metro Detroit)
- Experience working in Core City or similar Detroit neighborhoods
- Knowledge of accessibility standards and ADA requirements
- Experience managing volunteers and coordinating multi-organizational campaigns
You Are
- A relational leader and good team player, able to work with a broad team of staff and grassroots leaders
- Self-directed—able to drive your own work, learn quickly, set goals, and ask for help when needed
- Adaptable and resilient when facing challenges in organizing and campaign work
- Passionate about building political power in marginalized communities
- Someone who shows up for co-workers with consistent follow-through and good communication
- Able to think and work creatively and critically
- Willing to engage in both big-picture and detail-oriented work
- Self-aware, humble, and not too serious about yourself
- Comfortable having courageous conversations with strangers and volunteers
- Skilled at identifying and repairing harm in relationships
- Open to learning new skills, receiving feedback, and adjusting plans
Your Resume After a Few Years Here
This is what your work at DDP will look like when you describe it:
- Led electoral campaigns that increased disabled voter turnout by X% in target precincts through comprehensive GOTV operations
- Built strategic coalitions representing DDP in X regional partnerships, resulting in X policy wins for the disability community
- Mobilized community for successful city budget advocacy campaigns that secured $X million for accessibility improvements
- Managed X+ volunteer teams across multiple election cycles, training X volunteers in field organizing
- Implemented voter education programs reaching X disabled voters and Core City residents through canvassing and community events
- Translated coalition work into X community engagement opportunities, strengthening DDP's regional advocacy presence
Work Location
This position is based at The LOVE Building, a community-led redevelopment project at 4731 Grand River Ave, Detroit, MI 48208. The building is designed to be the most accessible building in the city and serves as a hub for social justice organizations. Some work will be virtual and some in-person per DDP’s hybrid model. Evening and weekend hours are required, especially during campaign seasons.
Compensation & Benefits
$56–$61,000 annually, commensurate with experience
- This position is a full-time (40 hours a week) salaried position.
- Sick Time (ESTA Leave): 72 hours frontloaded annually. Covers personal and family illness, medical care, domestic violence situations, and public health emergencies. Resets January 1; does not carry over or pay out upon separation.
- Paid Time Off (PTO): 32 hours frontloaded annually plus accrual at 0.05 hours per hour worked, up to a maximum bank of 400 hours. Up to 80 hours paid out upon separation.
- Holidays: 14 paid holidays per year
- Health benefits: Health/dental/vision HMO & PPO plans with low monthly costs
- 403(b): Employer match after 1 year
- Parental leave: Eight-week paid parental leave (60% of pay if under 1 year of service)
- Work model: Hybrid — in-office Tuesdays at The LOVE Building, remote other days if desired
- Professional development: Annual funding plus organizational trainings in community organizing, electoral organizing, policy advocacy, and identity-based organizing
- Equipment: Work equipment provided
- Culture: A work environment where we live disability justice principles
How to Apply
We actively seek applicants who are people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ and gender-fluid people, people with disabilities, veterans, and members of other underrepresented communities. If this is you, your contributions and leadership are especially valuable at DDP.
Please submit:
- A cover letter describing your interest in and qualifications for this position — OR a video or audio recording of yourself doing the same
- A current resume
Submit materials here via Google Forms. You will be asked to provide your full name, email address, phone number, and upload a cover letter and resume separately.
For questions or to request reasonable accommodations to participate in the application process, contact [email protected].
Hiring Timeline
We share interview questions in advance. Second-round candidates receive a compensated task.
June 2026: Application Open
Via Google Form, closes July 3, 2026
Late June - early July: Phone screens
30 mins, Discovery: two-way conversation call
Week of July 13th: First Round Interviews
45-50 mins, Alignment: questions shared beforehand
Week of July 27th: Second Round Interviews
45-50 mins, Fit: questions shared beforehand
Early Aug: Reference Checks
Includes opportunity to speak with current employees
Mid-August: Anticipated Start Date
Offer extended after references clear
DDP is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified individuals will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, familial status, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, or disability.
