Maine Equal Justice is a nonprofit legal aid and economic justice organization located in Augusta, Maine that represents the interests of people with low income in the state legislature, before the courts and administrative agencies, and through outreach and education in the community.
We work to increase economic security, opportunity, and equity in Maine, ensuring that people can access adequate health care, food, income security, and higher education and training.
Maine Equal Justice (MEJ) is seeking a Community Engagement Director to lead and strengthen our organizing and outreach in pursuit of greater economic equity and justice in Maine.
We are looking for someone who has experience and passion for organizing and who is a bridge-builder, strategist, and leader for inside and outside the organization. This person will supervise and support the Organizing and Communications Directors, strengthen coordination across MEJ’s legal, policy, and organizing work, and help ensure our core Community Engagement work is effective, sustainable, and builds thoughtfully for the future.
Maine Equal Justice is a nonprofit legal aid and economic justice organization based in Augusta, Maine. We represent the interests of people with low income in the state legislature, before the courts and administrative agencies, and through community outreach and education. We work to increase economic security, opportunity, and equity in Maine, ensuring that everyone can access adequate health care, food, income security, and pathways to higher education and training.
Key responsibilities:
Who you are:
Qualifications:
Job Location:
This is a hybrid position based out of MEJ’s Augusta office, with flexibility for significant remote work. The Community Engagement Director should expect to work in the Augusta office approximately 1–2 days per week and travel throughout Maine as needed for community outreach, meetings, and events. MEJ also has a satellite office in Portland.
Salary and Benefits:
Salary range of $76,000 - 80,000 depending on experience. Health and dental insurance provided, with premiums and deductibles largely covered by employer. MEJ also offers employer-paid life and disability insurance, retirement plan contributions, five weeks vacation in the first year, generous sick time, and 14 paid holidays.
To Apply:
Submit your resume in pdf format, with your first and last name as the file name and responses to the three screening questions (see below) through our application form here.
No cover letter required. Instead, we ask candidates to answer the following three questions. These are designed to help us get to know your leadership approach, values, and alignment with what we see as must-haves for this role. Please keep your responses to no more than 300 words per question.
Please do not use AI to write the answers to the screening questions below; we want to hear directly from your perspective.
Strategic leadership, execution, and learning: Tell us about a project you were responsible for moving from an idea or goal into implementation. How did you create clarity about priorities, roles, and next steps and keep the work moving? What challenges or capacity constraints emerged, and how did you respond—including when you sought input or support from others? Looking back, what did you learn about your own leadership?
Developing and supporting the leadership of others: An important part of this role is helping other leaders and staff succeed—not always being the person out front. Tell us about a time when you helped another person or team take greater ownership or leadership of important work. What did you do to provide direction, coaching, structure, or support while leaving meaningful ownership with them? How did you know when to step in and when to step back?
Organizing and building community power: MEJ believes that people directly impacted by economic injustice should have meaningful opportunities to build relationships, develop leadership, and shape the policies and systems that affect their lives. Tell us about an organizing or advocacy effort where you built relationships with impacted community members and supported their participation and leadership. What was your role, what steps did you take, and how did community members' leadership influence the outcome?
Applications accepted until September 28th, 2026 or until the position is filled. If you have questions before applying, please contact Robyn Merrill at admin@mejp.org.
We strongly encourage people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, and those with lived experience of poverty to apply. Maine Equal Justice is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Thinking about applying? Research shows that people from historically excluded communities tend to apply to jobs only when they check every box in the posting. If you’re currently reading this and hesitating to apply for that reason, we encourage you to go for it! Let us know how your lived experience and passion set you apart.
Maine Equal Justice welcomes and values interns and volunteers! Whether you are looking for a role to meet work requirements, an internship or externship for an educational program, or another service-learning experience, we want to hear from you. Unfortunately, we cannot offer intern placements in the summer for public policy.
Please complete our contact form so we can learn more about your interests and timeframe.
You will hear from us within a few days to seek more information if we have an upcoming internship opportunity. Our internships team meets quarterly (generally in early January, April, July and October) to review our need and capacity for internships.
Internships are based on our current capacity and how well the needs of both the organization and the learner fit together. We want to provide a supportive, meaningful experience for people who can also contribute to our work. Unfortunately, we are not able to say yes to every request.
We offer internships in the following areas:
Our organizing team works to build the power of people, especially those living in poverty, to create positive change for Maine. They connect with people around the state through online community meetings, story collection, and strong relationships to build a movement for greater economic and racial justice in Maine.
We work on impact litigation in the courts and with administrative agencies to create lasting positive change on systemic issues that affect groups of people with low incomes. MEJ typically has an internship available for a law student each semester. We receive referrals for legal internships from the University of Maine School of Law and Northeastern Law School. We will consider candidates from other schools.
We provide legal aid to Mainers with low incomes on state-level public benefits issues. We work to ensure Mainers are being treated fairly in accordance with the laws within these programs. Some of the programs h we provide help with are MaineCare, SNAP, and TANF. We typically have an internship available for a Master's level Social Worker to work with our legal services team from September to May. We get referrals from the University of Maine. We will consider candidates from other schools.
Our policy team advocates for laws at the state legislature and within governmental agencies that will help people with low income meet their basic needs and improve their financial circumstances.
Maine Equal Justice is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital or family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other consideration prohibited by law. Persons who are of color, are current or former recipients of public assistance, or have a lived experience of poverty are especially encouraged to apply.
Address: 126 Sewall Street, Augusta, ME 04330
Phone: (866) 626-7059 (toll-free)
EIN: 04-3346273
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