Springfield Tenants Unite and Empower Missouri are partnering to host the Housing Justice Fellowship Program in an effort to build and strengthen tenant power. Launched in 2023, our first cohort brought together rising leaders from the Springfield area for a six-month program. In 2024, we will begin our second cohort and expand to include leaders from more communities around the state, with a focus on the Rolla, Columbia, and Springfield areas.
We believe that in order to challenge and change injustice in our society, we must build political power and organization in the communities directly impacted by those injustices. The goal of the fellowship is to help tenants learn valuable skills and leverage collective power through building and strengthening the city wide tenant union and movement for housing justice.
Fellows will participate in eight trainings over six months on the politics of housing in Missouri and their local community, and how to organize/strengthen a tenant union. They will work with their neighbors to bring tenants together to address housing issues and complete outreach activities including distributing flyers, one-to-one meetings, canvassing, community meetings, tabling events, text and phone banking. Through immersion in a community of peers committed to building equity, fellows will develop skills such as effective communication with peers and decision-makers, identify issues and solutions in their buildings and neighborhoods and build capacity to organize tenant power in their communities. The cohort will organize events that bring tenants together to build a city-wide tenant organization.
This program will require a time commitment of around 2-5 hours/week. Fellows will be supported by a small stipend while participating in the fellowship (a maximum of $1100 over the course period, dependent on continued participation and meeting of milestones).
Over the six month program, we will cover:
The Housing Justice Fellowship is designed to allow rising leaders and organizers to develop skills and strategies that will allow them to develop their own organizing projects. The fellowship culminates with presentations on strategic plans and actions for these projects. In addition, fellows who participate in the program will create a new community of fellow organizers, who will have access to fellowship-specific trainings following the fellowship period.
It is expected that fellows will prioritize attendance at every session. They will be held primarily on weekends, with occasional meetings after work hours.
If you have any questions, please contact Vee Sanchez at [email protected].
We are preparing to launch our second cohort of the Housing Justice Fellowship, which will begin in the fall of 2024. If you are interested in learning more about the Fellowship, please fill out the form below, and we’ll follow up with you with more information, including when applications will be open for our next cohort.
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