Across our network, Local Progress consistently hears that our members are eager to learn. With structural constraints from a lack of staff to packed schedules, many local elected officials barely have enough time to legislate, let alone gain new skills. In the past, Local Progress has offered policy-specific courses like our Housing Leadership Lab to provide our members with tangible learnings to strengthen their skills as representatives and policy makers. From that success, we’ve heard from members that they’re interested in more and hungry to learn.
Building on the work of the Housing Leadership Lab, Local Progress proudly launched our first-ever Communications Cohort at the beginning of this year. Rather than focusing on communications within a specific policy area, we opted to focus on communications itself. With a rapidly changing digital landscape and a radically different press environment than existed a decade ago, we know that local officials need dedicated time to get up to speed on 21st-century comms practices to be effective communicators. Over 11 weeks, we brought together 22 members from small towns and big cities to become better communicators, stronger speakers, and adept digital practitioners.
Bringing together almost two dozen officials from 15 states, our cohort kicked off over Zoom at the start of 2025 with our first online session. Building to a final in-person meeting in Washington D.C., our cohort worked to cover all the basics of modern political communications before diving deep into several critical topics. From understanding changing video habits to learning best pitching practices, our incredible comms team led members through one-hour sessions every Monday night. With guest speakers, homework, and member-to-member learning, we elevated local officials’ understanding of communications to meet the changing moment
A sampling of screenshots from our virtual sessions!
To end our course, we gathered in Washington D.C. to see communications professionals taking our lessons learned and applying them in the real world. Together, we finished our sessions before heading out to tour the studios at WAMU, where several of their reporters and editors graciously answered all of our burning questions on how the local news works. From there, we spoke with the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy shop, to learn the ins and outs of messaging on a progressive economic vision. Finally, we traveled over to the Capitol to meet with progressive superstars Representative Rashida Tlaib and Summer Lee to hear how they navigate an ever-hostile press environment in Congress. Throughout our time in D.C., members saw the skills we learned applied in real time as congress members battled for their priorities on the house floor, local journalists reported on changes in the city, and policy wonks built polling to support a bold progressive agenda.
“The Comms Cohort was an amazing experience where I got to learn new things and build on the skills that I already had. By working together with other elected officials and staff members, I was able to build my confidence in new forms of communication and get live feedback from my peers. My experience not only build skills to help me lead my community, but it has also resulted in friendships and people that I can go to when I need support!” – Local Progress Member Leanne Greenberg
Some photos from our amazing DC trip!
Our first ever communications cohort was an incredible learning experience. From our time on Zoom to our trip to DC, LP members and staff took away so many important lessons both on communications and on building strong bonds between local officials. On the LP side, we came away with a better understanding on how to support members with communications needs across the network and a few critical takeaways.
- Local elected officials are eager to build skills.
- Whether it’s an in-depth policy lunch or a multi-week online course, local elected officials are looking for opportunities to build skills and knowledge. Our communications cohort received nearly 70 applications and our most consistent piece of feedback was asking for longer sessions. With so few opportunities to learn on the job, local officials want courses like this to grow and learn to be better in their roles.
- Investing in just communications specific work is crucial in the digital age.
- Far too many resources for local officials includes communications only as part of a support system, but doesn’t focus solely on it. With digital trends changing each year and cash strapped newsrooms becoming increasingly difficult to pitch, it’s more important than ever to support comms work solely as a topic itself. Local officials need dedicated time to just focus on communications so they can stay on top of best practices and continue to effectively communicate with their constituents.
- Building communications skills is also about building confidence.
- It is not uncommon for many of our members to feel uncomfortable wading into the complex media environment, and nervous to make a misstep. But through dedicated communications support, we build skills that build confidence. By demystifying the fast paced world of political communications, we’re providing members with critical information to approach this work with confidence. Unlike policy skills that have a unique time and place, comms skills are ever needed whether it’s dealing with a constituent, answering a press request, or developing a line of questioning for an upcoming hearing. These skills help members in all aspects of their work and make their job easier.
A big thanks to everyone across the Local Progress network for your support in making our first Communications Cohort an incredible success. This was truly a full team effort delivering knowledge courses each week to our amazing cohort members. We’re planning another cohort for sometime next year so stay tuned for more information!
The inaugural Comms Cohort class.
- Jack Porter – FL
- Clint Weirick – CA
- Emmanuel Alcantar – CA
- Alida Fisher – CA
- An Bui – OR
- Nina Waters – CO
- Angelina Gurule – CO
- Kayla Matos – NY
- Roxanne Martinez – TX
- Diana Melendez – TX
- Brittany Short – TX
- Ashley Vargas – IL
- Kesha Hamilton – MS
- Azim Gray – NJ
- Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin – WA
- Harrie Farrow – AK
- Leela Ramachandran – MA
- Adam Campbell-Schwartz – MA
- Chelsea Merta – MO
- Kimmy Sauer – MD
- Miguel Sanchez – RI
- Leanne Greenberg – AZ
