Application Guide

How to Apply for Join the Patients Union Field Organizing Team

at The Patients Union

🏢 About The Patients Union

The Patients Union is pioneering America's first union of patients, uniquely organizing across class, partisan, and racial lines to fight for universal healthcare access. Unlike traditional healthcare advocacy groups, it builds direct patient power through grassroots membership and collective action, making it an ideal workplace for organizers passionate about systemic healthcare change through direct community engagement.

About This Role

This Field Organizer role involves traveling to strategic locations to recruit union members, develop community leaders through 1:1s, and design trainings and events that build collective power. It's impactful because you'll directly expand the union's base of poor, working-class, and marginalized patients, translating grassroots organizing into tangible improvements in healthcare access and policy.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might involve virtual meetings with the Chiefs of Campaigns and Organizing to plan travel to a target community, followed by phone or in-person 1:1s to recruit new members and develop local leaders. You could also spend time designing a training module on healthcare rights or coordinating logistics for an upcoming direct action or mass meeting.

🚀 Application Tools

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Interview Prep

Practice questions for this role

🎯 Who The Patients Union Is Looking For

  • Has 3+ years of grassroots base-building or union organizing focused on poor/working-class communities, people of color, and immigrants (not just electoral campaigns)
  • Demonstrated experience in membership recruitment and 1:1 leadership development, with a track record of identifying and mentoring community leaders
  • Skilled in designing and leading political education and leadership development trainings that build member skills and engagement
  • Comfortable with remote collaboration and frequent travel to organize in diverse communities, with a strategic mindset for identifying high-potential locations

📝 Tips for Applying to The Patients Union

1

Highlight specific examples of grassroots organizing with marginalized communities (e.g., tenant unions, worker centers, or healthcare advocacy groups), quantifying member recruitment or leadership development outcomes

2

Emphasize experience designing political education or mutual aid trainings, detailing content, audience, and impact on member engagement or skills

3

Demonstrate strategic thinking by describing how you've identified organizing opportunities in new locations or through online outreach in past roles

4

Tailor your resume to show continuity in base-building (not just election cycles), using terms like 'power-building,' '1:1s,' and 'direct actions' from the job description

5

Research and reference The Patients Union's cross-partisan, multi-racial approach in your materials, showing alignment with their unique model of patient unionization

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

['Your direct experience organizing with poor, working-class, and marginalized communities, linking it to healthcare access struggles', 'Specific achievements in membership recruitment and leadership development, such as numbers of members recruited or leaders trained through 1:1s', 'Examples of designing or leading trainings (e.g., political education workshops) that increased member buy-in or skills', "Why you're drawn to building a patient union specifically, and how your skills align with their cross-class, multi-racial organizing model"]

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → The Patients Union's public campaigns or statements to understand their current focus areas and organizing tactics
  • → Interviews or articles with their leadership (e.g., Chief of Campaigns/Organizing) to grasp their strategic vision and organizational culture
  • → Similar patient advocacy or unionization efforts (e.g., in other countries or historical contexts) to inform ideas for this role
  • → Healthcare access issues affecting poor, working-class, and marginalized communities in the U.S., especially recent policy debates or local struggles
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💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Describe a time you identified a new location or community for organizing and developed a strategy to recruit members and build power there
2 How have you used 1:1 meetings to develop leaders in marginalized communities, and what outcomes did you achieve?
3 Walk us through a training or mutual aid effort you designed, including how it addressed political education and member engagement
4 What strategies would you use for online outreach to identify potential Patients Union members, and how would you integrate it with in-person organizing?
5 How do you approach building cross-class, cross-partisan alliances in organizing work, and why is this important for The Patients Union's mission?
Practice Interview Questions →

⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Focusing only on electoral or policy advocacy experience without demonstrating grassroots base-building with marginalized communities
  • Using generic language about 'helping people' instead of specific examples of power-building, member recruitment, or leadership development
  • Neglecting to address the cross-partisan, multi-racial aspect of the union, or showing bias that could hinder organizing across diverse groups

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to The Patients Union!

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