Seeking: Fall 2021 Volunteer Policy Organizers

If you are policy-minded, democratically-spirited, and looking for a way to help movement legislators champion transformative ideas, we would love to work with you

We at the Democracy Policy Network (DPN) are seeking policy-minded, democratically-spirited volunteers to work with us this Fall to package transformative state policy for the movement’s state leaders. Our Fall 2021 Policy Organizer Cycle is kicking off in early November — and the application to join us for it is open through October 22nd. If you would like to organize a policy kit with us, we would love to hear from you:

What’s the Democracy Policy Network?

Founded in 2019, the Democracy Policy Network (DPN) is an interstate network that organizes policy support for the next generation of state leaders working to deepen democracy in statehouses across America. By organizing policy experts, volunteer researchers, and statehouse leaders to gather, package, organize, and amplify a transformative, deep-dive policy agenda spanning every state issue, we aim to accelerate the democratic transformation of America. Learn more in our launch video below:

A new generation of legislators, armed with a fresh vision of deepening democracy — more power to more people in more ways — is shaking up statehouses across America. But a state policy gap threatens this groundswell! Movement policy is scattered and traditional policy infrastructure isn’t bold enough. There’s no synchronized, interstate offensive to counter the anti-democratic policy assault on the states. And the Movement’s state legislators feel isolated and understaffed. They want backup from an interstate community.

DPN aims to provide that backup by organizing policy support for the Movement’s state legislators and staffers. A new think tank isn’t what’s needed. The Movement’s ideas are out there — and the Movement’s state legislators are ready to champion them. What’s needed is some interstate organization and coordination. That’s where DPN comes in:

1. We train policy organizers to gather and package state policy ideas from Movement advocates and thinkers.

2. We publish policy kits that make transformative state policy ideas radically accessible — and ready to champion.

3. We convene the Movement’s state legislators to connect them to one another and to the Movement’s policies.

4. We support members of our state legislator network as they champion big ideas in their respective statehouses.

DPN’s mission is to organize an interstate policy agenda and a community of state leaders to champion it. Learn more at our website, DemocracyPolicy.network.

What’s a DPN policy organizer?

At the center of our policy system are policy organizers: passionate people working to gather promising state policies from Movement experts and advocates, package them into useful policy kits for our network of state legislators, and amplify them to legislators, journalists, and the public at large.

When you join up with DPN as a policy organizer, you are paired with a policy project (ex. “mass decarceration," “teenage voting,” “clean water.”) You are then trained to scour the Movement for reports and precedents — and to pick up the phone to speak with experts and practitioners. We then take that research and, with an eye toward
our vision of a deeper democracy, begin to package it into organized, accessible, and useful policy kits for state legislators. These kits aim to consist of everything you need to champion the policy: background context, detailed explanations of policy elements, case study analysis, talking points, model legislation, packets of articles to read for more information, a list of experts to contact for further inquiries, and more.

As you gather, package, and amplify your policy kit, you are supported all along the way. All policy kit projects are assigned an editor that helps guide you through the process. You are placed in a community with other policy organizers — and you help each other out on slack and through routine team calls. And all policy kits follow a specific process and format that splits your project into manageable steps.

Read more about our policy organizing system here and check out the policy kits made this past year here.

Would I be a good fit as a policy organizer?

If you are policy-minded, democratically-spirited, and love reading, writing, and talking with experts, you would make a great volunteer policy organizer. You don’t need to be an expert (yet!) and you don’t need to have professionally done things like this before. We are a great on-ramp for folks wanting to get started in the policymaking process. We love working with students, young (and young-at-heart) idealists, and folks working in other professions but who have some free hours each week to help out with the cause.

Also, the policy kit process is very self-directed — so you can devote as many or as few hours as you can each week to organize your kit. We have some policy organizers that give five hours a week and work on a longer time horizon and others who devote twenty hours a week and work on a shorter time horizon. So we are flexible to fit what works for you.

How do I apply?

Apply at DemocracyPolicy.network/Fall2021 or by clicking the image below. The application is quick — we just need a bit of information about you and your interests to see if you are a good fit for our Fall cycle.

We are processing applications on a rolling basis, but our hard deadline is October 22nd.

We hope you can join us — and pass this information along to others who you think would be interested.