Community Organizer at Wah Mei – San Francisco, California

About Wah Mei:

Wah Mei School is the first Chinese American bilingual school to be established in San Francisco. Since our first class in 1974, our preschool program successfully promotes multiculturalism in developmental activities that emphasize both learning and playing for our participants. Our mission is to provide a safe and nurturing high quality Chinese-English bi/trilingual multicultural environment that promotes children’s development while building a supportive community for their families. Wah Mei School operates three (3) program areas: Early Care & Education (0-5), Extended Learning (School-aged), and Community Engagement.

About the role

The Community Organizer is a one-year* full-time position tasked with organizing the Sunset Chinese community to learn and share about the Chinese and Chinese-American culture, to organize youth and young families. This exciting new role is an opportunity for someone to blend community organizing with cultural awareness and understanding. It is our vision to create a visible identity for the Sunset Chinese, and part of this includes storytelling, sharing, and owning our narrative. This role will work in partnership with the Sunset Chinese Cultural District (SCCD)’s existing Community Organizer to manage administrative tasks, under the direction of the SCCD Director. An ideal candidate will be organized, detail-oriented, and ready to learn. Occasional nights and weekend work are required.

The Community Engagement Department is charged with engaging and uplifting the Sunset community in San Francisco. It is our vision to provide a voice for residents, merchants, and stakeholders in the Sunset and to instill a sense of place and pride in the community. The Sunset Chinese Cultural District is a core aspect of the Community Engagement department. Wah Mei is the lead agency and fiscal sponsor of the Sunset Chinese Cultural District.

San Francisco’s District 4 encompasses the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods. 53% of the community identifies as Asian, followed by White (31%), Latinx (8%), and two or more races (6%). 42% of the community are foreign born; 14% of households are limited to speaking English. The district has more youth and seniors as compared to other communities in San Francisco. Sunset is a diverse and evolving neighborhood, with long histories of immigrant, working-class, and underrepresented communities. Our work is guided by a deep understanding of cultural competence—not only through language access and representation, but through meaningful power-sharing and cultural stewardship.

*Note: This position currently has funding through the end of calendar year 2026, and we have every intention of advocating for an extended investment.

What you'll do

• Program & Administrative Support
• Provide administrative and logistical support for community organizing activities, including creating and maintaining sign-in sheets, contact information, calendaring, creating agendas, note-taking, and setting up for both virtual and in-person meetings.
• Draft, edit, and format written materials such as flyers, internal notes, event summaries, and reports.
• Maintain and regularly update a comprehensive community and partner contacts database, ensuring accurate and detailed records.

• Outreach to recruit and develop community leaders
• Maintain and expand SCCD’s volunteer network
• Plan, coordinate, and manage monthly cultural learning and sharing events for Sunset youth
• Creating spaces for intergenerational learning and understanding in a bilingual and bicultural setting.
• Build relationships with other community-serving organizations to amplify collective solidarity and understanding across the Sunset and San Francisco
• As needed and relevant, create campaigns to amplify the voice of the Sunset Chinese

Cultural Sharing

• Creating interactive and educational activities to be highlighted at community fairs and events.
• Create/manage SCCD social media content highlighting local Chinese stories in the Sunset/Parkside
• Support the creation and voice of the Sunset Chinese community, such as the American immigrant experience, the experience of American-Born Chinese, and its juxtaposition with Chinese cultural norms and expectations, oral history documentation, etc.

Additional Duties

• Attend required trainings, workshops, and staff meetings.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of organizational goals.

Qualifications

• Knowledge/Experience/Skills Required:
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to concurrently manage multiple events/activities
• Detail oriented
• Effective written, oral, and verbal communication
• Ability to work collaboratively and maintain professional boundaries and confidentiality
• Excellent people skills
• Expressed interest and active engagement in support of the agency’s mission, programs, activities, and events
• Ability to occasionally lift up to 40 pounds
• Experience with communities in, or similar to, San Francisco’s west side

Preferred Qualifications

• Bilingual or trilingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, English) language
• Biliterate or triliterate (Cantonese, Mandarin, English) language
• Experience (lived or working) in the Sunset
• A desire to learn

• Bachelor’s Degree. Experience may substitute for formal education.