Leadership Newark
Public Policy Fellowship
Our Public Policy Fellowship program equips emerging leaders with the necessary tools and insights to navigate the complexities of policy-making, enabling them to advocate effectively for their communities and drive meaningful change in Newark’s socio-economic landscape.
Empowering Leaders
Building Community
Driving Change
Fostering Growth
Public Policy Fellowship
Overview
What is Public Policy?
Public policy is the means by which a government maintains order or addresses the needs of its citizens through actions defined by its constitution. The policy, a set of guiding principles provides the way government manages the matters of any given community.
Why a Public Policy Focus?
Because we aim to build a stronger community.
The Fellowship peels to the core through a process where our competitively selected group of participates work together to identify the problem(s) and/or root causes of a problem impacting the greater Newark community negatively. Our participants then challenge the status quo, identify & formulate solutions and suggested new approaches. This leads to new policy formation and implementation as well as evaluation where appropriate.
Additionally, in the case of the LN fellowship numerous individuals compete and collaborate to influence policymakers to act on problems. We encourage our participants to use a variety of tactics and tools moving a positive agenda forward for the greater good, including advocating their positions publicly, attempting to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue.
What is Leadership Focus?
Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal. Leadership development and training is a strategy to strengthening the skills of our participants to enable them to better engage and influence policy makers as well as the citizenry on behalf of critical public policies that may need to be changed on behalf of the community.
Program Design
Curriculum
In the two-year program, Leadership Newark Fellows will:
- Sharpen their leadership skills
- Increase their understanding of important city and regional issues
- Learn to build coalitions to solve problems
- Develop a network of new relationships with other leaders
- Gain connections to the individuals and institutions that can help improve the community’s future
Year One
- Retreats
- Team-building exercises
- Simulation activities
- Physical challenges
- Issue Seminars/Dinners
- Government & Politics
- Economic & Community Development
- Health & Human Services
- Public Safety & Criminal Justice
- Education
- Arts & Culture
- Environmental Equity & Justice
- Skills Training
- Strategic Planning
- Budget & Fiscal Analysis
- Communications
Year Two
- Hone in on skills acquired
- Leadership Project
- Implementation/Presentation of Leadership Project
- Develop active partnerships
- Established Member of an influential network of civic leaders
Apply to the Public Policy Fellowship
Join Leadership Newark’s Public Policy Fellowship to strengthen your leadership skills and make a difference in Newark.

