Community Organizer and Operations

Roots Studio: Community Organizer and Operations


Deadline to apply: May 15, 2019
*Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and we may close the deadline sooner based on relevant fit



In an urbanizing world where finding work or making money often means leaving home, rural communities with rich cultural traditions are vulnerable to disappearing. While anthropological documentation is critical to preservation, lack of sustainable income, coupled with heavy discrimination, are the key reasons why indigenous artists are not encouraged to continue their heritage practices.


We are reclaiming authorship and strengthening the economics of rural villages. Roots Studio digitizes art from indigenous communities into an online library for licensing. Through our subscription-based online library, art is downloaded by designers in the US and Europe who apply and manufacture them onto textiles, prints, and more. Licensing fees are then wired back to the communities quarterly. Our library also allows brands to tell the story of the artist by purchasing a "story package" - portraits for every artist, their story, video and marketing collateral. Digital assets replicate perfectly and become more than a one-time sale, do not deal with onerous supply chains, yet nothing is physically taken out of the community.


We have worked with over 2000 artists across 19 tribes, having built partnerships with prominent brands such as H&M, PrAna, Outdoor Research, and others. We are fighting cultural appropriation through proper financial and credit remittance, and reimagining everyday products as celebrations of culture and heritage.


Press: TechCrunch, Stanford Social Innovation Review,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Key Objectives: We are looking for a community organizer who is passionate about rural community development to organize and discuss operations. The regions we work in (but not limited to) are MP, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra. A plus if Mumbai based or willing to relocate to Mumbai. This is a travel-heavy role into rural parts of India (minimally 1-2 weeks / month).

ACTIVITIES:

  • Outreach and Planning: Traveling to, researching, and coordinating logistics for new communities and pilots. Identifying relevant access persons in the village to liaise with. Creating schedule ahead of time for pilots.
  • Community Mobilization: Creating genuine trust and access to work within the community, explaining the goals and objectives of Roots Studio. Becoming the point of contact for the artist communities and consistently communicating with them through whatsapp groups and repeated visits (Around 2-3 trips / year with every community)
  • Digital Literacy: Digitizing designs and following our SKU naming conventions. Training artists with digitization, and getting to the core of artists' concerns and needs.
  • Impact Metrics Collection: Collecting every artist’s name, contact information, gender, and other impact metrics and reporting issues
  • Managing ground team: Identifying and setting up logistics for additional ground team members (operations support, photographer / filmmaker, designer, etc.)
  • Financial Coordination: Setting up payment systems, collecting bank account information and artist bio data, setting up community and participation fund remittances quarterly, creating a clear and transparent way in which money is wired to and from sales
  • Legal and Copyright Collections: Informing the community of copyrights process and facilitating their signing

EXPECTATIONS


  • 3+ years of working with tribal and rural communities on a grassroots level
  • Background working with rural non-profit or social enterprise highly desirable
  • Self-independent worker requiring minimal oversight
  • Highly organized, respects timelines and deadlines, craves logistics, and long term planning
  • Clear and consistent communicator on online channels (slack, email, regular calls)
  • Compensation contingent on experience and data / scans submitted
  • Passion for rural art and design is a must (but not necessary to be artistic / designerly)


Requirements: Please send over a CV and Cover letter detailing relevant experiences to info@rootsstudio.co