Progressive
Governance Academy
We ensure that state and local elected officials have the resources, assets, tools, and skills that are needed to become powerful and effective leaders. The program is jointly hosted by Local Progress, re:power, and the State Innovation Exchange.

Helping You Lead and Govern

Despite large investments to get progressive candidates elected to office, very few resources exist to support elected officials once they begin to govern. The skills you need to win an election – like fielding, fundraising, communications – are not the same skills you need to govern effectively – such as policy analysis, constituent outreach, coalition management, and parliamentary procedure.

The Progressive Governance Academy exists to ensure that state and local elected officials that align with us have the resources, assets, tools, and skills that are needed to become powerful and effective leaders.

We ensure that state and local elected officials have the resources, assets, tools, and skills that are needed to become powerful and effective leaders. The program is jointly hosted by Local Progress, re:power, and State Innovation Exchange.

Are you Newly Elected?

The Progressive Governance Academy is a great opportunity for you to build your leadership and gain the skills you need to govern effectively. 

As a part of the program, you will have:

  • A cohort of top-notch trainers exclusively comprised of state and local elected officials who intimately know the challenges of governing.
  • Compelling and adaptable skills-building curriculum that gets right to the root of the challenges related to governing, while helping to empower legislators to be their most effective while in office. We’ve built this curriculum together, based on the deep history of training and progressive governance between these three organizations.
  • A plethora of opportunities specifically for state and local officials to develop and hone the skills necessary to succeed, learn and grow. These training events also provide an opportunity for deeper relationships among like-minded state and local legislators for shared learning.

Blog And Featured News

Porchá Perry demonstrates with other workers in Lansing, Michigan, in favor of bills restoring local control to pass workforce and labor policies on Sept.13, 2023. A new report finds growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back. (Photo courtesy of SEIU Local 1)

States are pushing back with anti-labor laws as union popularity grows, policy experts say

A new report co-authored by New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab details how localities are fighting back against state anti-labor legislation.
The Chevron Richmond Refinery is seen in 2023. In the summer of 2012, a massive blaze broke out at the refinery. | Eric Risberg/AP

California city’s $550m deal with Chevron could be a national model for environmentalists

California cities have a new playbook for beating Big Oil. In mid-August, Chevron caved in the face of a local initiative that would have taxed every barrel it produced within Richmond’s city limits at its century-old, 3,000-acre plant just north of San Francisco.
Photograph of police sirens in the dark (Photo by Michael Förtsch / Unsplash)

Traffic Violence Is Up. Policing Isn’t the Answer.

Traffic enforcement has a place in reducing traffic violence. But LP Legal Fellow Kat Kerwin explains that without a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy, it will fail to reduce fatalities and only put Black and Brown drivers in harm’s way.

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