EMILY’S LIST Launches Ignite Change Fellowship to Engage Community Advocates

For Immediate Release
June 16, 2020

EMILY’S LIST Launches Ignite Change Fellowship to Engage Community Advocates

EMILYs List is now accepting applications for inaugural Ignite Change Fellowship.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, is launching its inaugural Ignite Change Fellowship, a nine-week virtual initiative to train women community leaders and advocates to prepare them for a future run for office.

The Ignite Change Fellowship will launch in July 2020 and will be capped at 30 participants.

“The formation of this fellowship program is critical to the fundamental mission of EMILYs List to elect pro-choice Democratic women,” said EMILYs List President Stephanie Schriock. “Ignite Change makes room for even more women who may have never considered running for office – those have exhibited a passion for giving voice to the concerns of communities that are often left out of the conversation.”

The fellowship has been created in an effort to foster emerging leaders who have shown an interest in combating the issues that already exist in their communities, and to build a diverse pipeline of women running for office who have led in their communities in different ways. This is also part of how EMILYs List is adapting and responding to the realities of the pandemic. While in person trainings had to be canceled for the summer, this virtual opportunity for these thirty women ensures we can continue to engage with future leaders safely from their home communities.

“Now more than ever, we’re seeing the need for leaders who truly have their finger on the pulse of their community,” said Stefanie Brown James, vice president of training and community engagement at EMILYs List.

“As activists and community advocates lead the shift in how underserved communities and communities of color are being treated, it becomes crucial that the shift happen politically. This fellowship will provide an opportunity for leaders to do just that.”

In addition to serving EMILYs List’s mission of electing pro-choice Democratic women, the fellowship is designed to facilitate the leadership of applicants from historically underserved communities, including, by way of example, women of color, LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people, women from rural communities, and women with disabilities.

Applicants should additionally exhibit the following:

• experience serving as an organizational leader or advocate in their community
• an eagerness to potentially run for office in the future
• no prior or current history of being a candidate or running for office

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Click here to apply and to get more information.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $600 million to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 150 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and nearly 1,100 women to state and local office. Nearly 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. During the historic 2017-2018 cycle, EMILYs List raised a record-breaking $110 million and launched a record independent expenditure campaign. We helped elect 34 new women to the House, including 24 red-to-blue victories; enough seats to have delivered the U.S. House majority alone. Since the 2016 election, more than 50,000 women have reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices.