Prepare yourself to run and govern by learning the context around the biggest policy issues impacting your constituents, the stories and language your constituents use to speak about these issues, the governing authorities you will have access to once in office to affect these issues, and experts you can consult to dig deeper when needed.
The Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center team will be your guide. For over 13 years, they have been the go-to source for rigorous, independent, nonpartisan, statewide policy research & analysis for Pennsylvania lawmakers and NGOs.
This course is generously supported by The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation. Participants receive full tuition waiver.
Don't worry - you don't need to become a policy expert to run for office successfully or govern effectively. But to develop, build connections around, and defend your platform, it's important to be solidly familiar with the major policies affecting your community: the basic background, the prevailing positions and narratives, and the political constituencies behind them. And to tune and eventually deliver on campaign promises, it’s crucial to understand the authorities and tools you will have in government, and where you may need the support of others. By the end of this course, you will be better equipped to navigate Pennsylvania's policy & governance terrain.
We will prepare you in six stages, answering key questions along the way:
You will complete the course having developed your own tailored policy briefing book with stories from your future constituents that you will be able to reference on the campaign trail and beyond.
We welcome and encourage any candidate or prospective candidate for Pennsylvania elected office to sign up. Whether you are considering a 2021 local or judicial race or a 2022 state-level race, this course will prepare you to engage on the issues that matter to your future constituents.
Current elected officials and their staffs, as well as community organization staff, may also wish to sign up. Strengthen your tradecraft, preparing to deliver results for your community and communicate your successes.
We also highly encourage candidates to bring along a partner from your (future) campaign team or kitchen cabinet with whom you can discuss issues and tackle assignments. Please have your partner sign up on this page, as well.
Instruction is conveniently online, accessible through our web platform and iOS and Android apps. Additionally, we will sync up during one-hour live session each week through Zoom video conference.
This cohort tentatively launches the week of January 11th and runs through the week of February 15th. Timing of live sessions will be determined based on a survey of those registered.
Lessons are split into bite-sized video lectures that you can easily fit into your busy schedules. Exercises and supplemental readings help reinforce and localize what you've learned. Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center and Empowered To Run staff will facilitate the course and keep you on track with achievable deadlines.
In your capstone project, you will interview a diverse set of your own community members about the policy issues you've learned about, hear their perspectives, and capture their stories and language.
Requirements to earn your Certificate of Completion will be provided at course launch.
As this is the inaugural self-paced cohort of this course, we ask all participants to commit to providing periodic feedback during the course and agreeing to brief interviews with training staff before and after the course.
Reactions to previous courses taught by Empowered To Run
THIS IS AMAZING. I cannot even begin to explain how much pressure this takes off of me trying to figure this out on my own... I honestly loved it and I’d do it again in a hot second! It’s put me on the best start I could have asked for.
I can't imagine figuring all of this out on my own; and given I am starting from scratch; it would have taken me a lot longer to find a mentor who could have helped me... The Empowered to Run course certainly has given me more confidence and shortened my timeline in running for office.
This is an awesome program! As someone who works on a lot of local (and often first time candidates') campaigns, I can tell you that this is a solid model and will be sure to recommend it.