The Quaker Voice Legislative Fellowship Program encourages the active engagement of fellowship holders in the state legislative process through mentorship, skill development, and partnering with legislative advocates in their work. Participants do not need to be Quakers. The program provides a $500 stipend.
Quaker Voice Legislative Fellows are young adults ages 16-35 who live or study in the state of Washington (or outside Washington if recommended by a Quaker Meeting). Each Fellow joins a group working to support action in the state legislature on issues in environment, police and prisons, healthcare, affordable housing, and other justice concerns. The Fellow develops background materials and tracks legislation, in partnership with an experienced Quaker Voice citizen advocate. Each fellow has an opportunity to see in depth how a lobbyist works by shadowing Paul Benz, our Senior Legislative Advocate, for a day. Travel costs to Tacoma for the Annual Meeting, to Olympia for Quaker Lobby Day, and Olympia for the shadow day are covered by the program.
For more on Quaker Voice on Washington Public Policy, see our website. You can watch the final reports of the fellowship holders from previous sessions here:
- 2021 Presentation and discussion with young activists with Quaker Voice for Washington Public Policy, describing their work in the Washington legislative process. ~ Spring 2021 Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting [53:41 minutes on YouTube]
- 2022 Presentation and discussion with the Young Quaker Voices — April 2022 Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting [23:53 minutes on YouTube]
- Quaker Voice Legislative Fellows 2025 [21:39 minutes on YouTube]
- Quaker Voice Legislative Fellows 2026 [14:49 minutes on YouTube]
This year’s program begins October 1, 2026, and ends April 30, 2027.
Applications are being accepted until Sept 6th. See below for more information.
Application and selection:
To apply, submit an application form, including a short essay (100 – 200 words) about why you want to participate. The deadline for application is Sept 6th. Decisions are expected by Sept 11th.
Expectations for the participants include:
- Attend the Quaker Voice Annual Meeting (Oct 3rd, in person in Tacoma at Tacoma Friends Meeting), and Quaker Lobby Day (date to be set for mid-February, participation can be online or in person in Olympia).
- Attend the relevant working group meeting online, once a month October through April. Make a short report on legislative action in the area the participant is tracking at each meeting.
- Meet with legislative advocate twice a month before session and weekly during session. Raise questions with legislative advocates as needed.
- Create one public outreach effort during the program. This might be a letter to the editor, op-ed piece, or social media post on their issue. It must be publicly available.
- Make a short verbal report on the experience to an online wrap-up session that is open to all Quaker Voice activists.
- The program also hopes that participants will bring new people into Quaker Voice, particularly young adults. The participants might do this, for example, by bringing Quaker Lobby Day to their attention.