Overview

El Tímpano, an award-winning local journalism and civic engagement organization, is hiring a key role that combines local service journalism with community outreach and engagement to further our mission of informing, engaging, and amplifying the voices of Latino and Mayan immigrants of the Bay Area. 

The Community Engagement Reporter is responsible for engaging with our Spanish-speaking audience via service journalism and interaction through text-messaging (SMS), as well as expanding our audience and deepening our relationship with them through in-person outreach and engagement across the East Bay. At its core, this position is responsible for establishing El Tímpano as a trustworthy, authoritative, and valued source of local news and information among our growing and highly engaged audience of Latino and Mayan immigrants. 

While El Tímpano is a remote-first work environment, this position involves extensive on-the-ground activities. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. 

El Tímpano is a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)(3) public charity Independent Arts & Media (IAM). All employees of El Tímpano are employees of IAM, and subject to all IAM policies and procedures. 

Duties & Responsibilities

Approximately 50% of the role will focus on providing valuable local news and information to El Tímpano’s Spanish-speaking audience and facilitating community-powered journalism, involving: 

  • Research local, state, and national news, information, and resources of relevance to Latino and Mayan immigrants, and draft SMS content, ensuring relevance, timeliness, clarity, and cultural awareness 
  • Interact with El Tímpano’s SMS subscribers to provide information and answer questions 
  • Maintain excellent standards, ensuring content is verified, up-to-date, and helpful
  • Track data to document and evaluate subscriber growth and engagement
  • Facilitate a feedback loop between SMS community and El Tímpano’s editorial and civic engagement teams to surface stories, questions, and emerging issues, and to support community-powered reporting; Conduct interviews to identify and research story ideas
  • Collaborate with colleagues to continuously explore new ways to effectively reach, grow, and engage with El Tímpano’s audience and to address gaps in access to news, information, and civic engagement

Approximately 30% of the role will involve in-person outreach and engagement to cultivate relationships of trust with our audience and community partners, involving:

  • Cultivate relationships with trusted community institutions and identify opportunities to reach community members through outreach and engagement.
  • Plan and conduct in-person outreach to reach Latino and Mayan immigrants in gathering spaces across the East Bay, providing accessible and engaging ways for community members to interact with El Tímpano, information, and participatory journalism 
  • Regular weekend and evening hours to accommodate community outreach opportunities 
  • Travel to/from various community locations across the Bay Area (primarily in the East Bay and occasionally beyond). Access to a vehicle and driver’s license preferred 
  • Collaborate with internal and external peers to fulfill partnership goals through SMS and in-person outreach and engagement 

Approximately 20% of the role will involve other programmatic, editorial, or administrative activities as they emerge to support the needs of a growing non-profit organization. 

You are a great fit if you…

  • Have significant experience working with Latino immigrant communities and 2+ years experience in journalism, community media, and/or community organizing
  • Have excellent interpersonal communication, including the ability to communicate respectfully and inclusively in diverse environments with colleagues, community members, and external peers; Are a confident speaker in Spanish and English in both large public settings and one-on-one
  • Are familiar with the Bay Area, its local issues, and its Latino immigrant communities
  • Have experience conducting community outreach, and/or an ability to communicate information in a clear and engaging way to an audience with varying familiarity 
  • Are organized and capable of juggling multiple tasks and projects while maintaining deadlines and high standards
  • Thrive in a start-up environment where you are expected to build things from scratch, learn and iterate as you go, take initiative and ownership of your work, collaborate with a team, and adapt as the organization grows and evolves
  • Share a passion for El Tímpano’s mission of informing, engaging, and amplifying the voices of Latino and Mayan immigrants 

Some great candidates may not check all the boxes above, and may have valuable skills not included here. If that’s you, please don’t hesitate to apply and tell us why you would thrive in this role. If you have any questions in advance of applying, we encourage you to reach out to Madeleine Bair, mbair[at]eltimpano[dot]org to address your questions via email or a brief call. 

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