USCPR Palestine Youth Organizing Fellowship

Grassroots movements make political change possible.

Since February 2020, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights has built a national network of dedicated youth organizers within our broader grassroots advocacy network to nurture campaigns and tactics that translate grassroots power—local boycott campaigns, student divestment wins, and local policy changes—into change in federal policy. Together we will end the federal policies that invest our tax dollars into oppression of the Palestinian people, and reinvest in community needs to build justice from the U.S. to Palestine.

Through the fellowship program, we mentor rising leaders and help nurture their local campaigns to transform U.S. policy towards justice. With USCPR, fellows build their skills through organizing trainings and strategy exchange workshops with other fellows. With their organization, fellows bottomline key local work on basebuilding, leadership development, and campaign planning. Together we can build our movement’s power, by building up powerful grassroots organizations that can win local boycott and divestment campaigns, making possible a more just future of sanctions on apartheid Israel and justice for the Palestinian people.

Header photo by Laura Albast

Paid Palestine Youth Organizing Fellowship – Apply by Sept. 10

Apply by: September 10 at this form

Time frame: Oct. 10-Dec. 22 [11 week fellowship that can be renewed for a total of 11 months max]

Monthly time commitment – read more details about the program’s offerings below. Please only apply if you are committed to participating in the full program: ~32 hours/month

• Mentorship check-ins with USCPR staff and tracking accomplishments: 3 hours/month
• Coaching checkin-ins with USCPR coaches: 1 hours/month
• Organizing & campaign-building skills workshops learning alongside other fellows & USCPR staff: 1.5 hours/month
• Stipended support of your local organizing: fellows set their own hours, but we estimate fellows working on their local organizing for about 6-8 hours/week

Location: Anywhere, with a preference for hubs of left organizing; all fellowship calls are all remote. Fellows will be invited to a summer in-person convening with COVID-19 safety protocols in place.

Compensation: = $2,024-$2,376 stipend for the 11 week term, based on years of organizing experience (approx. $23-$27 per hour of the fellowship). Fellows are encouraged to take 1 week/5 days off as paid leave during their term.

Fellow responsibilities:

• Bottomlining organizing for and building shared leadership of a local campaign that builds political power towards an end to U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid and ethnic cleansing policies against the Palestinian people. Campaigns are expected to engage the local community, even if the leading organization is a campus-based group, and campaign target(s) can include institutions, corporations, or government (such as a city council or a member of Congress.)
• Building membership and leadership in your organization through local outreach strategy that fellows design, via methods like canvassing, outreach, community events, political education, social media, phonebanking, or textbanking. Fellows also help build vital infrastructure in their local organization like developing norms, meeting facilitation, and coalition collaboration systems.
• Participate in the program offerings to grow concrete organizing skills and long-term relationships, and transfer that skill building by training your local groups.
• Track your basebuilding wins, campaign escalation wins, and accomplishments for personal accountability and to support grassroots fundraising for the continuation of the program.

Program offerings: USCPR offers fellows:

1. A stipend to support their local organizing. Fellows set their own hours. Most fellows extend for 1-2 terms.
2. Collective brainstorming between the fellows in an orientation on historical movements and organizing skills, featuring skilled organizers, followed by monthly workshop focused on base-building, campaign escalation, and navigating shared challenges. [1.5 hours/month]
3. Monthly sessions from one of our 9 peer organizing coaches, along with as needed texting and call support. Peer coaches are mostly former fellows and are paid for their time. [1 hour/month]
4. Regular support when you need it from your USCPR mentor (Leah or Celine) through check-ins designed to help you troubleshoot or access resources, help you structure and order your outreach and campaign-building work, and help you reflect on base-building, building shared leadership, and campaign escalation. [3 hours/month]

Qualifications: USCPR recruits a cohort of ~7-10 fellows across different cities. You are a good fit if you are:

• Age 15-35 and based in the U.S.
• A leader in a local org, or hosted by a local Palestinian organization, that has a base that wants to organize around Palestine.
• Ready to build, or already working to build, a campaign that advances justice for the Palestinian people, targeting a government, institutional, or corporate target.
• Committed to an abolitionist vision of the future, in which Palestinian people, Black people, brown people, Indigenous people, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, immigrants, women, non-binary folks, and all people are free. Fellows are expected to share our commitment to collective liberation including our principles in our common principles, anti-racism principles, and gender justice principles.

Learn more from the slides from our fellowship info session webinar. Current and past fellowship information is available at: uscpr.org/youthnetwork.

About the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)

USCPR is a political home for all who believe that freedom for the Palestinian people is an integral part of achieving our collective liberation. We provide resources and strategic support to the U.S.-based Palestine solidarity movement, channeling grassroots power into positive change in U.S. policy and public opinion. We work with local organizers and activists, policymakers, movement leaders, media, and advocacy organizations to advance a rights-based, accountability and justice-oriented framework from the U.S. to Palestine.

USCPR is committed to a diversified workplace. People of color, women and GNC people, LGBTQIA folks, and people of diverse religious backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply for the fellowship.