Community Action Policy Fellows Program

Overview of Fellowship Program 

Generously funded by the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute (“The Institute”) is excited to open applications for the 2025-2026 Community Action Policy Fellows program. The Institute will support two individuals interested in addressing basic needs and/or environmental justice concerns through policy change - and with funding from the Pritzker Children's Initiative, we are opening up a third fellowship specifically for a new parent (child age 0-3) to focus on the needs of young families.

The fellowship is a part-time, flexible 10-month paid work experience (from October 2025 to August 2026) that will allow three community members to engage with Institute staff and build momentum on YOUR policy idea(s) by developing advocacy, research and outreach skills that will serve you in strengthening your ideas and your community. This experience is intended for applicants from backgrounds of financial hardship, for whom this fellowship would be an opportunity to create change. 

Submit your application through our online form until September 22nd, 11:59pm EST.  

Read more below about the program, including about past Fellows, position details, and application prompts. We also have a blog post from last year's Policy Fellow, Sarah, who wrote about her experiences in the program. 

Our Program Aims To:

• Support work on important community issues you care about, related to basic needs or environmental justice

• Learning skills for future jobs or career opportunities 

• Gain hands-on experience in creating and running a policy change campaign 

• Receive mentorship on the policy formation and change process 

• Learn how to do research and storytelling using different methods and tools  

Fellowship Package:

• You earn $25 for every hour you work, up to seven hours per week

• You receive your pay every two weeks 

• We will contribute 5% of your pay to retirement savings 

• Work hours are flexible 

• Experienced advocates and researchers will mentor you 

• You’ll get materials to build your portfolio and tasks to help you learn important skills 

Commitment of Fellows in Program:

• Fellows are expected to spend 5-7 hours per week on activities and assignments

• They will regularly engage with staff during the fellowship and meet based upon availability

• Fellows will collaborate with staff to create and support one or more ideas for policy change. These ideas should help more people meet their basic needs or focus on environmental justice. 

• They’ll conduct outreach and engage with people in their community to see if their ideas are addressing a need and what else they might need to do through the campaign process 

• Fellows will make materials such as reports, social media posts, and other various materials as assigned and relevant

• With help from staff, fellows will do research, talk to people and work to make their policy change ideas real through engaging with lawmakers, doing detailed research and talking to the media alongside other actions as relevant 

• Fellows are subject to all Institute Staff Policies, which will be reviewed upon program acceptance

Timeline 

• Fellowship runs from October 2025 to August 2026

• Here is our current timeline for the program:

• September 22nd, 2025 @ 11:59 pm: Application Deadline  

• September 23rd - September 30th: Interviews and reference checks (please be sure that your references are available in this window)

• Week of October 1st, 2025: Selected Community Action Policy Fellows Notified  

• October 20, 2025: Institute Community Action Policy Fellows Program Starts  

• January-March 2026: Fellows Engagement at the Indiana Statehouse  

• August 2026: End of Fellowship Celebration 

Application Prompts:

 You will need to complete these questions to have a full application. The application form that requires a Gmail account to log-in [here] provides the opportunity for you to upload audio/video responses to the relevance to fellowship aim prompts below [of 2 minutes or less] or a written response of 3 paragraphs [written responses are required for the non-Gmail account application here]. You will also need to provide details for at least one person who can talk about why you're a good match for this program. This could be a boss, coworker, community leader, or someone else who knows you well. They must be available from September 23rd to September 30th to call.

The question prompts for the application are below: 

• Relevance to Fellowship Aims 

• What community issue are you most passionate about and why is it meaningful to you? 

• How do you think your community issue can be addressed through policy changes, what would your community look like if your policy change happened?  

• Relevant Background 

• Please describe any experience you have with advocacy or why you want to be more involved in advocacy? 

• Are you currently part of any organizations or grassroots movements? If yes, please describe the organization and your involvement.

• What skills would you like to learn, improve or develop further? 

Previous Fellows:  

	Sarah Harlow  2024-25 Policy Fellow Read Sarah's Blog Post
	Roshawn Neal  2024-25 Policy Fellow Read Roshawn's Blog Post