Facilitator 3 - The Ahimsa Collective - Oakland

The Ahimsa Collective supports healing, builds safety, and challenges punitive thinking and practices. We work directly in our locality and support justice-based movements through training and technical assistance, opportunities to convene, and grantmaking to organizations doing similar work nationwide.

Position Overview

This Facilitator 3 position is for the Healing Pathways program at The Ahimsa Collective. Healing Pathways runs in-prison groups called Realize, Empathize, and PATH, the Restorative Justice in the Community (RJC) program, Victim Offender Dialogues (VOD), and survivor support groups. The Facilitator 3 will be responsible for facilitation and curriculum development and may occasionally be asked to serve as a trainer of new facilitators. This position is not to exceed 1040 hours a year and is based on the availability of grants, which may terminate on 12/31/2025.

Job Responsibilities

• Skillfully facilitate healing and accountability processes that include but are not limited to groups and one-on-one dialogues from start to finish.
• Tasks include managing data tracking, organizing meetings with co-facilitators and participants, mentoring apprentice facilitators, moving processes along, preparing for final meetings, and creating closure for participants.
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the Realize, Empathize, PATH and/or equivalent in-prison curriculum and the capacity to teach the concepts and exercises to participants.
• Have previously taken a lead role in facilitating 2-3 VODs or RJC processes with The Ahimsa Collective or its equivalent in another setting.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of restorative and transformative justice and trauma healing principles and their application to working with survivors and responsible parties.
• Establish trusting relationships and rapport with participants, and demonstrate the capacity to create a safe environment for participants.
• Foster agency and uplift each participant's voice.
• Skillfully identify and reflect participants' feelings, facilitate deeper and more complex processes, and constructively engage conflict when it arises.
• Observe interpersonal or group dynamics and make appropriate suggestions.
• Have a strong foundation of how power and oppression work in both interpersonal and group dynamics.
• Understand how culture, race, gender, age, ability, gender identity, intersectionality, and worldviews inform a participant’s lived experience.
• Understand one's own positionality and demonstrate the ability to lead an effective process without being overly controlling.
• Identify and integrate personal narratives regarding past history while maintaining professional boundaries.
• Critically self-reflect on one's own capacity as a facilitator, articulate those reflections, and remain open to growth and feedback from participants, colleagues, and supervisors.
• Communicate well and consistently with other facilitators and Ahimsa Collective staff through phone, email, text, and in-person.
• Receive and offer constructive feedback to further learning and capacity as facilitators.
• Organize meetings with co-facilitators and other Ahimsa Collective staff.
• Attend monthly facilitator meetings.
• Timely reporting of hours worked, invoicing, and liability waivers, as well as completing other administrative tasks as assigned.
• If assigned as an in-prison facilitator, must not be absent from 2 or more sessions. Absences for 2 or more sessions may lead to termination.

As a Curriculum Developer:

• Adapt current curricular content to fit the needs of different contexts, situations, and groups.
• Edit out older or outdated material.
• Co-create new restorative and transformative justice curricula as needed.
• Stay well-read and current on new pedagogy and curricular content of concepts like healing, shame, forgiveness, grief, accountability, sexual harm, addiction, intersectionality, systemic oppression, and restorative and transformative justice relevant to our work.

As a Trainer:

• Co-design and co-deliver high-quality training in various restorative and transformative justice and trauma healing modalities.
• Work closely with The Ahimsa Collective staff and co-facilitators to implement training.
• Work with training host organizations to meet the needs of the participants.
• Co-create outreach material for training, interview participants, and track participants from start to finish of training.
• Assist in training logistics: picking up food, setting up, cleaning up, getting supplies, calling absent participants, copying training materials, and other logistical tasks.
• Complete post-training follow-up as needed: surveys to participants, reflecting on training with co-facilitators, submitting training agenda to The Ahimsa Collective.
• Facilitate training, including: Create a safe environment for participants to engage in the training.
• Teach toward the learning outcomes defined in the curriculum.
• Effectively articulate concepts in the Realize, Empathize and PATH curriculum, and VOD manual.
• Work skillfully with a diverse body of participants.
• Integrate analysis of power and systemic oppression and harm within the context of each training.
• Track participants' needs, developments, and skills.
• Assess the effectiveness of curriculum delivery and make changes as needed.
• Manage conflict within a group.
• Critically reflect on one's teaching style and identify areas of growth and expertise.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of experience in curriculum development, which must be demonstrated through prior work.
• 5-7 years of experience training in restorative and transformative justice programming.
• 5-7 years of directly impacted lived experience or 7-9 years in the field.
• Strong understanding of the impact of the criminal legal system, incarceration, and gender-based violence on communities.
• Strong understanding of environmental, social, and historical conditions that impact communities of color, with a commitment to supporting these communities in their agency and leadership.
• Solid understanding of racial justice and patriarchy.
• Outstanding written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills: Skilled in creating powerful, compelling written and oral communication.
• Ability to convey complex ideas through brief, simple materials.
• Experience and credibility when presenting materials to trainees.
• Ability to manage, track, and complete workload independently.
• Self-motivated and driven.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to track multiple projects.
• Ability to work nights and weekends.
• Willingness to communicate through various media platforms (email, phone, text) based on participants' needs.
• Must have reliable means of transportation to get to and from worksite(s).
• Must have a Class A Drivers license and Government Issued Valid ID.

This position is not eligible for medical, dental, or vision or chiropractor. Benefits include federally mandated time off requests. The Ahimsa Collective is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to maintaining a culturally diverse work environment that reflects the makeup of the communities we serve. People with diverse personal experiences are encouraged to apply, especially people of color, bilingual English-Spanish speakers, LGBTQIA+, women-identified, and those who have been formerly incarcerated or impacted by incarceration.