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Learn More About Hosting a Fellow

Apply here by February 8, 2023 to host a Lead for North Carolina Fellow as part of the School of Government’s Fifth Cohort! 

Lead for North Carolina (LFNC) is the pilot state affiliate program of Lead for America. It is being run by the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government (SOG), in partnership with the NC City and County Managers Association (NCCCMA), NC League of Municipalities (NCLM), and NC Association of County Commissioners (NCACC). The program’s sponsors include: AmeriCorps, The State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and The Anonymous Trust.

The goal of LFNC is to implement a fellowship program for recent college graduates that:

  1. Provides added capacity to economically distressed local governments across the state that have difficulty attracting and retaining talented young employees;
  2. Serves as a bridge between local governments (specifically in economically depressed communities or communities with special needs) and the School of Government and professional associations;
  3. Increases the diversity within local governments to better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve;
  4. Creates a pipeline to MPA and other graduate programs in NC;
  5. Fosters the development of young talent in local governments across NC, particularly in areas that have historically (or are projected to have) a difficult time attracting and retaining sufficient talent; and
  6. Promotes a greater sense of civic responsibility and encourages fellows to leave the fellowship with a deeper appreciation and dedication to their personal communities and our civic institutions.

Through the LFNC program, fellows will gain a new perspective and appreciation of local government, understand the most pressing issues facing our communities, establish relationships with partner universities and organizations, and gain opportunities to engage with a growing alumni network of similarly minded individuals.

 

LFNC has successfully placed 75+ fellows across the state and we are now recruiting local governments to participate in our fifth fellowship year. Fellows are asked to serve one year (August 2023 – June 2024). At the conclusion of the first year, fellows and governments may decide to renew the contract of the fellow for a second year. Some local governments may opt to make the employee a full-time employee. For example, the City of Wilson recently appointed their fellow to serve as the human relations officer on the city’s leadership team.

  • By February 8, 2023 Local government applies to participate in the program
  • February 13, 2023 Local governments are notified of their status as a host site and eligible jurisdictions are notified of the final subsidy amount
  • By February 24, 2023 Local government commits to the program
  • Early-May Local governments interview fellows
  • May / June, 2023 Local government assists fellow with identifying housing (if needed)
  • July 20 – August 4, 2023 SOG Summer training program
  • By August 7, 2023 LFNC Fellow start year of service with host jurisdiction

Each host local government will commit to the following:

  • Agree to supervise the fellow and set the fellow’s work scope, the fellow will be employed by UNC-Chapel Hill
  • Abide by UNC-CH policies and AmeriCorps policies and procedures
  • Identify specific projects and/or scope of work for fellow to perform during fellowship period. Include a mix of short- and long-term projects.
  • Assign a direct supervisor to the fellow who will provide regular feedback to the fellow and conduct quarterly performance assessments and reviews.
  • Identify one or more mentors to the fellow to help the fellow become an accepted and productive member of the local government.
  • Conduct weekly check-ins with the fellow.
  • Afford fellow meaningful training and professional development opportunities and allow fellow to participate in any required LFNC trainings.
  • Assist fellow in locating reasonable rental housing (if needed).
  • Keep LFNC Executive Director informed of any issues with fellow or fellowship.
  • Comply with any data collection requirements of the program.

For legal purposes, Fellows are employed by UNC-Chapel Hill. The jurisdiction provides a supervisor to set the work scope and provided day-to-day supervision.

Fellows receive a living stipend of $30,200 divided in monthly installments. Their service year begins August 2023.

Additionally, Fellows receive health insurance and a Segal Education Grant from AmeriCorps of $6,500 to use towards graduate school or their student loans. Fellows also receive student loan forbearance and receive 3 graduate credits from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Please note that subsidies are available to local government hosts in economically distressed communities in the first year of the program. On a quarterly basis, jurisdictions receiving subsidies will invoice the School of Government for the amount of the sub-award. The School of Government will then distribute the funds to the governmental unit. Subsidies are determined by economic need and population. LFNC uses the NC Department of Commerce’s tier ranking and the Economic Innovation Group’s Distressed Community Index (by zip code and by county) to determine the subsidy amount. The most economically distressed communities (Tier I or Distressed) with the lowest population can expect to receive subsidies up to approximately 75% of the total cost. The total subsidy amount will be determined based off the total host applicant pool. LFNC anticipates awarding up to $480,000 in subsidies to participating host governments in cohort five.

We welcome any NC local government to apply to host a fellow, including regional local government entities (COGs). Our selection criteria will favor a government with demonstrated capacity needs, a commitment to providing meaningful work and professional development opportunities for a fellow, and the ability to financially cover the costs of the program. Priority will be given to local governments located in economically distressed communities with demonstrated need. Local governments interested in hosting fellows will be asked to complete an application by February 14, 2022. We are committed to creating a process that has as low of barriers to entry as possible. As such, the application will take minimal time to complete. To complete the application please email Dylan Russell (russell@sog.unc.edu). Local governments must be able to provide a firm commitment to host a fellow in August 2023 by March 1, 2022. This will allow LFNC the opportunity to recruit highly qualified applicants with regional connections to your jurisdiction.

Fellows will receive training from the SOG, and fellows and host local governments will receive support throughout the fellowship from the SOG, as well as our partner organizations, the NCLM, the NCCCMA, and the NCACC. Specifically, fellows will participate in up to three weeks of graduate-level training from the SOG. Fellows will build on leadership, communication, and presentation skills, while also gaining new skills and knowledge in areas like economic development, emergency management, capital finance, and budgeting. The training will require fellows to participate in case studies, group presentations, and produce memos for evaluation from School faculty.

We often look for opportunities to engage the fellow’s supervisor and colleagues in our training model. For example, local government employees were invited to Cohort 1’s Summer Academy for a one-day grant writing workshop. In the winter training for Cohort 1, local government employees will be invited with their fellows to an equity and inclusion workshop. LFNC seeks out opportunities to train fellows and opportunities to engage their supervisors and colleagues. Additionally, fellows will participate in monthly zoom calls throughout the fellowship, each focused on a different topic related to working in local government. And fellows will participate in weekend intensive advanced training on a pertinent topic sometime around the six-month mark of the fellowship.

Lead for North Carolina’s mission is to prepare the next generation of future public service in North Carolina. We hope to help young leaders return to their hometowns / regions in service of their communities — particularly to places that struggle the most to recruit and retain young talent. As such, we focus on placing fellows in rural and economically distressed communities, and understand that for many of these host institutions, financial resources are often significantly limited. While we believe that it is important for all host governments to have “skin in the game” in the form of financial contribution, we are also committed to accessibility and work to do everything we can to support financially strapped host institutions in creatively financing their fellowship. Our team can work with your government on the following opportunities.

  • Receive a Subsidy from the Program. We are able to offer governments in economically distressed communities subsidies ranging from $10,000 to $33,700.
  • Place-Based Philanthropy. Many family/local foundations and corporations understand the mission of Lead for North Carolina and would be happy to support your government and underwrite costs associated with hosting fellows. We believe that community-based foundations, corporations, and private donors could help local governments finance fellows and could contribute to the education and training of fellows. The School of Government’s Development team is happy to work alongside your government to explore community-based fundraising options.
  • Cost Sharing with Other Jurisdictions. Consider sharing a fellow with a neighboring jurisdiction or county to cut costs. This allows for fellows to work on regional issues while providing constant communication between jurisdictions. Fellows could play the coordinating role across these jurisdictions and move strategies forward on projects that risk stalling because of the lack of a dedicated person acting as coordinator.

One of the strengths of the program is that it is designed to meet the needs of the jurisdiction. This means the fellow scope of work can vary across jurisdictions. During the Summer Academy, the manager and fellow co- create the workplan to meet the fellow’s professional development goals, while also meeting the jurisdiction’s needs. Our cohort of fellows are working on the following projects:

  • Grant writing to increase capacity
  • ADA compliance
  • Broadband access
  • Economic development
  • Citizen engagement initiatives
  • Strategic communication plans
  • Emergency response plans
  • Policy briefs on technical subjects
  • Environmental sustainability
  • Community health initiatives
  • Hurricane recovery & resiliency
  • Intergovernmental relations
  • Coordinating interjurisdictional collaboration
  • Immigrant communities
  • Infrastructure projects
  • Utilities projects
  • Event planning

Our 16 fellows from Cohort One secured more than $10 million in grants to support community initiatives and projects and provided $1.8 million in estimated cost savings to the governments, creating an excellent return on investment for local government partners. By the end of the first year of the program, 94 percent of local governments surveyed reported that hosting an LFNC Fellow helped expand their organization’s capacity to achieve goals and 88 percent said fellows helped them to complete work they had previously been unable to prioritize. We encourage you to learn more about the placements and work of our fellows at lfnc.sog.unc.edu

Lead for North Carolina is the first state affiliate of Lead for America. As a state affiliate, we share the common mission of placing young future public sector leaders in local government positions. However, Lead for North Carolina is administered and operated by the SOG. The School is responsible for the local government recruitment, fellow recruitment, fellow training and support, and the administration of the program in North Carolina. The School has invested significant resources to ensure Lead for North Carolina’s success. The program was designed by a team of ten faculty and staff members and has a full-time executive director dedicated to maintaining operations. Lead for North Carolina works closely with Lead for America to recruit fellows that would be strong candidates for our local governments, but the main operations of the program are defined and set by the SOG, in consultation with our partner organizations.

Once we have a firm commitment from our host local governments, we will actively recruit for a pool of fellows who have strong connections to the regions in which the local governments are located. LFNC has partnered with LFA to engage in a robust fellow recruitment process on college campuses across the state. Fellows engage in a detailed and rigorous screening process to ensure a final pool of high-quality applicants who have a demonstrated commitment to public service, a strong interest in the local government profession, and a record of exemplary personal character. LFNC focuses on recruiting public service–minded individuals from North Carolina’s public and private colleges who desire to return to their home region to serve. Managers or hiring directors from each host jurisdiction will be invited to interview a select pool of fellows with strong connections to the region in which the local government is located.