Fellows will enroll in “Social Movements,” an academic taught virtually by faculty at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. The semester begins the week of August 28, 2024 and ends December 21, 2024. LDSJ pays all registration and tuition costs for fellows. The course will take place on Mondays from 6:15-8:45 ET. If you are interested in reviewing the Spring 2024 syllabus, please email Bianca.

All fellows are required to attend two in-person week-long retreats led by movement leaders with at least a decade of experience. Retreats build community and strengthen fellows’ power analysis and strategy skills.

The retreat curriculum will explore:

• Fellow’s purpose and commitment to movement work

• Tools to make their leadership more sustainable

• Leadership philosophies rooted in people’s power and facilitate other people’s growth

• Assessing movement power to define or refine organizational or coalition goals

• Leveraging political moments and innovation towards long term agendas

• Building authentic relationships to organize across difference

Fellows arrive to retreats on Sunday, programming runs through Thursday evening, and fellows depart on Friday. LDSJ will cover the costs of lodging, travel, and most meals, and will share the retreat locations with fellows accepted into the program.

The first retreat will be Sunday Oct. 6 to Friday OCt. 11. *Friday Oct. 11 is Yom Kippur. LDSJ will accommodate a Thursday evening departure for those observing the holiday.

The second retreat is Sunday Dec. 8 to Friday Dec. 13.

Fellows will have access to individualized career coaching, mentorship, and workshops to explore ways to build a strong, sustainable movement career. In addition to individual career coaching, fellows will practice and receive peer coaching to build a supportive network of peers, work through real-time issues, practice mutual accountability and encouragement, and sharpen key leadership and communication skills.

Read about current Emerging Leader fellows here. Past Emerging leaders have said this fellowship:

• Provided them with theoretical and historical grounding in social movements

• Connected them to a community of support and learning

• Gave them the space to questions, explore and strengthen their approach to organizing and their values

• Provided the language they needed to express what they already knew they were good at, and guided direction for how to build that out and apply it

• Centered them in both the fact that they want to remain in movement and the ways they want to show up in movement

• Helped them define their role within movement work

• Reinforced that through community they can transform themselves and society

• Encouraged them to practice leadership skills in real time

• Stressed the importance of strategy, delegation, and cross issue connections

LDSJ will notify applicants selected to interview via email by the end of May 2024. Applicants will interview via Zoom in June 2024. Applicants selected for the Fall 2024 cohort will be notified via email by the end of June 2024.

Applicants do not have to pay to apply or participate in the fellowship. Their employers or host organizations will be asked to make a contribution on a sliding scale. Contributions are suggested – not mandatory – and do not carry weight in the application or interview process. We have robust scholarships available to all applicants.

• Organizations with an annual budget of $5+ million = suggested amount of $750 per participant

• Organizations with an annual budget between $2-5 million = suggested amount of $550 per participant

• Organizations with an annual budget less than a $2 million = suggested amount of $350 per participant

LDSJ’s approach to leadership development involves “hard skills”' training along with worldview, history, critical thinking, and reflective practice about the world we want to build and how we get there. Our programs teach disparate lineages and crafts of progressive social change, and encourage constructive, generative dialogue. LDSJ believes that social change work is stronger when its practitioners are deliberately exposed to diverse approaches and traditions that they may be unfamiliar with. This includes different traditions of organizing and social movement work as well as policy and communications. Our analysis and training aims to reflect the intersectionality and interdependency of issues and movements.

LDSJ takes feedback from instructors and fellows seriously, and iterates on the program accordingly. For example, LDSJ adjusted the fellowship to be semester-based because a full academic year proved to be too long. We extended the amount of time for in-person retreats to one week to improve the learning experience and increase opportunities for building community. We also have structured retreat programming to account for jet lag and other factors.

The academic course requires two and a half hours of class time and ~2-3 hours of reading and assignments outside of class each week. Fellows must be fully present (i.e. no work commitments or meetings) during the in-person retreats. They must also attend all career services workshops.

Attendance is mandatory for all components on the fellowships. If accepted, you will receive a memorandum of understanding that outlines what we expect from fellows and grounds for dismissal from the program.

All fellows will receive a certificate of completion. If accepted, you will learn about an opportunity to pursue an Advanced Certificate in Organizing and Social Change through the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.