Abundant Elected Fellowship
What Fellows Get
Learning & Support Community
November 14 – 16, 2025 & May 8 – 10, 2026
Learn Abundance policymaking and political skills. Enjoy field trips and fellowship.
Our core curriculum is custom designed by the Abundance Accelerator at UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab and includes:
Abundance 101:
- Pursuing “abundance” in public policy with a people-centered framework.
- Explore common policy bottlenecks that constrain progress— regulatory, political, and institutional.
- Generate ideas for unlocking policymaking that leads to abundance.
Crafting Policy
- Learn two key frameworks for policy development: Eugene Bardach’s Eightfold Path and the Possibility Lab’s IMPACT model.
- Learn to craft policies that center people and draw on evidence.
- Analyze policy tradeoffs, understand budget and financial constraints, and incorporate participatory methods to engage affected communities.
- Work effectively within government systems to achieve policy goals.
- Chart a clear and powerful path from concept to implementation.
Innovating in Government
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Learn the building blocks of government innovation, from shifting organizational culture to fostering cross-sector partnerships to reimagining public engagement.
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Gain tools to design innovation projects, propel systematic changes, or pilot new ideas.
Building Evaluation into Policy: Fostering Outcomes-Focused Culture Change
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Learn foundational concepts in evaluation in real-world government settings.
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Define success through clear, actionable metrics and design evaluation strategies that prioritize outcomes over outputs.
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Understand what good and bad program evaluation looks like, and how to add good evaluation systems for existing policies or programs.
Winning: Political Skills for Getting Hard Things Done:
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Understand successful tactics for generating political support.
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Learn how to build effective (and sometimes unlikely) coalitions.
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Understand how to wield influence when you lack authority.
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Learn strategies for building a pipeline of future aligned colleagues.
Communicating for Impact:
- Master the use of Marshall Ganz’s Public Narrative framework: Story of Self, Story of Us, Story of Now.
- Learn storytelling skills to build confidence in your leadership and inspire others to take urgent action.
Small Cohort Advisories
After the Kick-off Training Weekend, we will create Small Cohort Advisories of up to 6 Fellows led by an Advisor, a seasoned former elected official.
Each Advisory Cohort will self-select 4 virtual meeting times between the two Training Weekends (11/17/25 – 5/8/26). Advisors will provide skill reinforcement based on the needs/interests of their Fellows, as well as connect Fellows with resources needed for their selected projects. The group will troubleshoot and advise each other on selecting and designing their projects.
Policy & Practice Deep Dives
From January – April 2026, Fellows will be offered several virtual Policy & Practice Deep Dives with subject matter experts based on Fellows’ interests. Fellows must attend at least one policy deep dive and may attend as many as they’d like. Fellows may invite a team of key staff to attend Deep Dives with them. We have an extensive network of partners – Fellows can propose a topic to pursue, and we’ll find the expert.
Topics may include:
- Abundant housing policy
- Abundant public safety initiatives
- Abundant child care policy
- Streamlining permitting & processes
- Systemic Debottlenecking: Procurement
- Systemic Debottlenecking: Hiring
Project selection & coaching
During the training period, each fellow will select an Abundance policy or practice they want to implement over the next year to benefit their community. Advisors will assist in selection and design.
Following our Closing Training Weekend, May 8-10, 2025, Fellows will self-select at least 4 virtual meeting times over the next year to check-in on implementation of their projects and receive coaching & support from Advisors. Advisors will remain available as mentors and to connect Fellows with resources.
