The Roosevelt Network

The Roosevelt Network develops and supports undergraduate college students and early career professionals—in particular, those who hold identities historically denied political power—to be the next generation of leaders in the progressive policy ecosystem. We are creating a pipeline of new leaders who champion ideas that rebalance power in our economy and democracy. As a program of the Roosevelt Institute stewarding the legacy of Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt into the 21st century, we believe that we can rewrite the rules by changing who writes them.

Our Theory of Change

The Roosevelt Institute envisions a future where our economy and democracy work for the many, where politics and power are multiracial, and where, as FDR once said, “government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.” We invest in people—from undergraduate college students to experts qualified for federal appointments—and deploy them to shift paradigms and build toward this future.

In service of that vision, and as the entry point for the Institute’s progressive pipelining project, the Roosevelt Network develops and supports undergraduate college students and early career professionals—in particular, those who hold identities that have historically been denied political power—to be the next generation of leaders in the progressive policy ecosystem.

Through engagement with the Roosevelt Network, students and early career professionals will:

• Unite around a progressive, pro-democracy, post-neoliberal worldview that helps shift paradigms away from entrenched views of how the world works and toward a more equitable future.
• Gain meaningful access to premier progressive leaders and thinkers whose scholarship and activism is helping change the reality of US politics.
• Deepen the skills needed for careers in public policy by developing the ability to synthesize data, analyze problems, and craft solutions.
• Utilize our career services and professional development support and graduate from network programs equipped to take the next professional step—whether that’s pursuing a new student leadership opportunity, joining the workforce full time, or identifying and navigating professional pathways in the progressive ecosystem.
• Be welcomed into an intergenerational network of progressive thinkers and doers who celebrate the diversity of our members, operate in deep community with one another, and provide holistic personal and professional support to one another.

The Right is experiencing the successes of its decades-long strategy to invest in their people and deploy them in service of conservatism. The Roosevelt Institute, starting with the Roosevelt Network, believes we can serve as a progressive alternative: that we can rewrite the rules, and we can change who writes them.