Location: Durham, NC
Region: National
Founding: 2020
Founders/leadership: Yashna Maya Padamsee, project lead; advisory council: Tara Shaui Ellison; Chanda Jones; Mijo Lee; Felicia Martinez; Mae Singerman
The RadOps Network started in 2016 as an online social media group of over 500 people to build a support and resource-sharing network of like-minded operations workers within social movement organizations. The RadOps Project is the next step, building off of the RadOps network and framework, and seeks to uplift and make accessible the RadOps approach through shareable media and resources such as toolkits, social media infographics, online interviews, panels, and workshops.
Operations include the work areas of operations, administration, finance, events, development, volunteer and intern coordination, and/or the often invisible behind the scenes work in progressive and radical organizations, cooperatives, volunteer groups, and businesses.
The RadOps approach is an explicit justice-based framework and method; and RadOps has a demonstrated commitment to movement building and anti-oppression values and behavior, including centering the voices, experiences, and leadership of BIPOC, people with disabilities, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and others targeted by systems of oppression.
In many organizations, administrative work, which is historically women’s work or feminized labor, is devalued. RadOps see the operations, finance, and human resources teams and our/their labor as an integral part of the greater work. This value of respecting historically women’s work, respect for invisible labor, and honoring the dignity of all labor is put into action within each organization by valuing the work of the full team.
