City Hall Fellows is a Teach For America-style leadership training program that simultaneously serves as a mini-think tank for our partner local governments. Our primary initiative is a 12-month-long, post-college, pre-graduate school Fellowship program that integrates hands-on, full-time work experience inside local government with intensive training in how cities work and the people, issues and organizations that influence local policy.  Our Fellows spend their service year working on high-need government-run initiatives in cities where they have personal ties.

City Hall Fellows groups Fellows in cohorts within a partner city or metropolitan region. During their service year, each Fellow works full-time as a special project assistant for a senior local government administrator or official. Fellows are matched to work placements based on the host government’s immediate needs and the Fellow’s skills. Our placement process ensures that new talent is spread throughout government agencies, not concentrated solely in high-profile political offices.  Check out the Fellows' pages to see the types of placements our Fellows have and the work they do.

Intensive Civic Leadership Training

The year-long Fellowship starts with a 3-week orientation designed and run by City Hall Fellows that grounds Fellows in the cultural, social and political history of their host community and prepares them for the fellowship year.  Thereafter, Fellows gather weekly for a half-day to participate in our intensive, proprietary Civic Leadership Development Program (CLDP). Facilitated by a City Hall Fellows employee, the CLDP takes Fellows on a structured exploration through the context and operations of local government. Fellows learn about the structure of their host government (including budget, civil service, labor and unions, and the governmental, quasi-governmental and non-governmental organizations which regulate, impact or provide public services to or within that community), the services the host government provides, the host government’s policy-making process, and the relationship and interactions between both local and state and local and federal government. Networking and engaged reflection are built into this curriculum. Through guided discussions with policy-makers, policy-influencers and subject matter experts, behind-the-scenes site tours, reading assignments, and hands-on practice with policy-making (in the form of service projects), Fellows develop the knowledge, skills and network necessary to become effective local civic leaders.


Download a PDF of the CLDP curriculum overview.


A select, nationwide group of academics from all disciplines advise on the design and content of the Civic Leadership Development Program.  Meet the National Academic Advisory Board. 

Applied Practice in Evaluating and Recommending Local Policy Initiatives

During the year Fellows perform individual and group service projects as part of the CLDP. These projects are designed to directly engage Fellows in their areas of interest, tie together the applied skills, academic information, and local knowledge that they will acquire during their service year, and provide them with work product that will be useful in applying for post-Fellowship academic and professional opportunities. The service projects are truly applied learning - these projects provide our partner cities with analysis, data, and viewpoints they otherwise would not be able to generate internally.