Southern Vision Alliance’s human resources department, a staff of two, serves both internal SVA and sponsored project staff, nearly seventy humans, who are perhaps the most precious resource of the grassroots intermediary.
So, what do you actually do when your job is essentially to take care of the people who labor in the movement?
They ensure that the organizers, staff and advocates have the resources they need to do their work effectively and sustainably. On any given day, the HR team may be recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding new employees, administering benefits, supporting professional development, answering questions about workplace policies, creating blueprints for equitable workplace policies, resolving grievances, and helping staff navigate challenges that arise in the workplace. They also work to ensure compliance with employment laws and organizational policies, helping create a fair, safe, and equitable work environment. The team supports more than forty sponsored projects with hiring processes, employee onboarding, benefits administration, personnel policies, and guidance on employment-related issues. Through the intermediary, grassroots organizations can access professional HR support without having to build an entire HR department themselves.
“I love training supervisors, managers, and directors to be thoughtful, kind, human-centered, and fully functional leaders,” said Bex Randel, Director of Human Resources. “Whether that’s teaching someone how to manage their time in their calendar or coaching them through a difficult conversation, I love teaching leaders how to be better leaders.”
Bex joined SVA in March of this year after applying for 1,624 jobs and moved to North Carolina from Washington for the opportunity.
“I knew the minute I saw the job posting that this was the job that the universe was pulling me to,” they said.
It was the intermediary and infrastructure-building part that drew them across the country and to this job. Eliminating HR roadblocks that don’t take into account people’s lived experiences, including disabilities, is a priority for them.
Amelia Cole, the other half of the team, is the HR associate, has been with SVA for more than two years, and deeply cares about people. Her background is in psychology and criminal justice, she’s dreamed of becoming a therapist or social worker, and she’s found her stride serving in non-profit HR roles to improve the lives of the people that do the work. She answers everyone’s questions with patience, clarity and grace and often gets shout-outs from our sponsored projects for being “extremely accessible and willing to help make things super smooth” (words from one of our project’s leaders).
The department also builds systems and creates blueprints that facilitate organizational operations and compliance so that the people within the ecosystem are equipped to drive their organizational missions forward without stumbling through the roadblocks of bureaucracy, uncertainty, and fear.
This is critical, especially at times when the people we are made of – Black, Brown, working class, Queer and Trans, and immigrant folk – are being targeted and persecuted. The human resources team’s goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to do their organizing jobs, while maintaining compliance that supports risk mitigation.
It’s not easy though. We strive to give our sponsored projects as much freedom and autonomy to coalesce their organizations and build leaderful movements in the ways that make most sense for them, whether that be member-based, cooperative, volunteer, or something else. But, as the intermediary and fiscal sponsor, SVA incurs the risk if something doesn’t comply with labor laws or other employment regulations. So, it’s an ever-shifting balancing act and the team is always striving to solicit feedback, improve systems, and enhance the experiences of the humans that make up the ecosystem of our work.
Caption: SVA’s HR team leading a “roses and thorns” session during our May 2026 All Member Gathering seeking feedback to improve systems.
Stay tuned for more stories from our other departments.
