Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program

Calling all urban professionals with a high drive for success! Apply now for the 24-month “Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program”. This program is sponsored by German Marshall Fund’s Urban and Regional Policy Program (GMF) with partners Cleveland State University (CSU) and Virginia Tech University and is now taking applications for any and all experts with working experience in the realms of economic development, public administration, community development, urban planning, and other related fields.

Selected fellows will be placed in one of seven pilot cities that hope to benefit from “Strong Cities, Strong Communities”; Chester, PA, Detroit, MI, Youngstown, OH, Cleveland, OH, New Orleans, LA, Memphis, TN, or Fresno, CA. The ultimate goal that the program looks to its fellows to achieve is an overall strengthening of local communities through efficient local governance and the execution of beneficial economic plans and visions. Fellows will be placed in a local government agency for a 2 year period, working on a team to discover and subsequently implement ideas that are the best solution in nieghborhood strenghtening. 

Aside from the work done in the pilot cities, certain fellows will have the opportunity to train at CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs in their renowned public management training academy. While there, they will receive mentoring from experienced practitioners within their field as well as academic scholars from the University. All fellows will also have the ability to utilize the GMF’s network of international practitioners for further mentoring, sharing of ideas and information, and a continued conversation on development strategies in neighborhood strengthening.

This is a great opportunity for any mid-career professionals out there to make a significant impact on communities across the country. The networking resources provided by the GMF single-handedly display a program that strives for success by pushing their fellows to do their best by working and learning from the best. These pilot cities can benefit from the new urbanist ideal of starting small and looking at the block, street, and building, and applying all aspects of this lens to the bigger frame - the neighborhood, the district, and the corridor.