Found on campuses and in cities across nearly 40 states, the Roosevelt Network is built on the principle that changing who writes the rules can help fulfill the ideals of American democracy and build true public power. The network supports student-led, scalable policy campaigns that fight for the equitable provision, distribution, and accessibility of public goods at the campus, local, and state levels. In addition to its student-led activities, the program leverages the power of its alumni network—which includes public officials, lawyers, teachers, nonprofit executives, and researchers—to expand opportunities for the next generation of policy leaders. A program of the Roosevelt Institute, the network operates alongside leading economists and political scientists to bring the ideals of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt into the 21st century.

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Vision

The Roosevelt Network envisions a world where the ideals of democracy are fulfilled in America so there is true public power through our government.

 

Mission

The Roosevelt Network changes who writes the rules by training, developing, and supporting emerging progressive policymakers, researchers, and advocates across the US, focusing on communities historically denied political power.

As a program of the Roosevelt Institute, the Roosevelt Network operates alongside leading economists and political scientists in Roosevelt’s think tank to bring the ideals of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt into the 21st century. The Institute is also the nonprofit partner to the FDR Presidential Library.

Graphic showing the structure of how the different sections of the Roosevelt Institute are related.

The Roosevelt Network is run by a team of full-time staff members based in New York. National staff members are not students; it is their full-time job to support the work of students across the network.

 

The Network Structure

Flow chart explaining how the Roosevelt Network is structured. Topper includes logos of five different Network chapters. Text reads “The Roosevelt Network has people in about 40 states across the country, organized on college campuses and in cities. We work with current undergraduate students and program alumni.” with an arrow pointing to outlines of a group of people. Beneath that is the text “Our student leadership team organizes people and policy ideas each year. They’re paid to support the work of Roosevelters—from chapters to projects.” Beneath that is an arrow that points to the text “ Our alumni organize with each other and students to help build progressive infrastructure across the country, to support current student work, and to help develop Roosevelt’s own pipeline.” Beneath that is an arrow pointing to the text “National staff works full-time to support that work. We do this by building structures and frameworks, trainings, partnerships, and strategies.”

 

The network organizes its chapters into five  regions:

Northeast | Mid-Atlantic | South | Midwest | West

 

Each region has a three-person team that works to organize our student chapters. 

  • Regional Coordinators: Oversee the region as a whole and set a vision or direction. They take the lead on region-wide events, actions, or policy work.
  • Chapter Organizers: Work directly with established chapters to set goals, establish structures, host events, and more.
  • New Chapter Coordinators: Research and recruit people on target campuses in each region, and help folks build chapters on their campuses or in their cities.

The network has seven policy coordinators who lead in an issue area. They support student-led projects in this area across the whole country.

  • Education
  • Economy
  • Human Rights
  • Democratic Access
  • Energy & Environment
  • Health Care
  • Financialization of Higher Education 

The network also has two other positions on its leadership team: 

  • Communications Coordinators: The communications coordinators focus on chapter-level press and promotion, as well as chapter-level digital strategy. They work with chapters and projects across all regions.
  • Community College Organizers: We have two student organizers who focus on building relationships with community college faculty and administration across the country. Their goal is to eventually seed chapters at these institutions.