When recent college graduates go prospecting for public service jobs, few bother to drop off their résumés at city hall. “Local government is not even on their radar,” admits Micki Callahan, San Francisco’s human resources director. Across the country, many big cities face the same empty pipeline just as a wave of baby boomers prepares to retire.
A new program dubbed City Hall Fellows is designed to bring eager young faces into municipal government and help avert a looming talent shortage. “City halls are gray,” says Bethany Rubin Henderson, a 32-year-old Los Angeles trial lawyer who started the fellowship program. “Cities have not been able to get bright young folks in the door.”
Her solution: build an elite national service corps for America’s cities. City Hall Fellows receive entry-level wages, paid by the host city, for a yearlong stint in local government. They tackle work under the direction of top-level city officials on everyday challenges such as transportation, public works, or housing. Fellows also receive extensive training in how cities work.
To design the program, Henderson borrowed from other well-known programs that recruit idealistic recent graduates, such as New York City’s Urban Fellows Program (of which she is a veteran), Teach for America, and City Year. But City Hall Fellows adds a unique requirement. “Our fellows have to have a connection to the city where they are placed,” Henderson explains. “We want to increase the chances they will stay on and spend a substantial portion of their career in that community.”
Now in its second year, City Hall Fellows is operating in Houston and San Francisco. Talks are under way with more cities, although tight municipal budgets have slowed expansion plans. Meanwhile, interest from applicants is soaring. This year, the program received more than 500 applications for 16 openings.
Houston native Niiobli Armah applied for the program to take a break from graduate studies in social science. He thought he knew his hometown pretty well, but a year working as a City Hall Fellow changed his mind. “I’ve spent my whole life in this city,” he realized, “and yet I’ve never really seen it.” Tasked with developing a neighborhood wellness program, he did grassroots outreach in low-income communities across Houston.
Once young people get an inside look at city government, Henderson predicts, they will change their minds “about where you find the most exciting public service work.” That’s what happened to her when she was a New York City Urban Fellow.
When her fellowship ended, Henderson proceeded to Harvard Law School and then to a boutique law firm. But the idea of attracting young talent to city hall “just kept nagging at me,” she says. She left her law practice to launch City Hall Fellows in 2007 and won an Echoing Green fellowship in 2009. “The leap is always hard,” Henderson admits, “but in my heart and in my gut, this feels right.”
Read more stories by Suzie Boss.