become a cue fellow
Our Fellowship application is currently closed.
Please check back for updates!
THE CUE MODEL
The CUE Equity Fellowship is a year-long program designed to bring together 15-20 leaders across identities, neighborhoods, and perspectives in government, media, research, philanthropy, storytelling, organizing, and advocacy, to strengthen their racial equity practice. This diverse group of Fellows is a powerful learning community that serves as both a catalyst and support to build a more equitable Chicago by reimagining its structures, policies, and practices through a racial equity lens.
THE cue fellow
CUE Fellows are leaders, innovators, disruptors, and healers of all different kinds. We look for Fellows to come into this work with:
CREATIVITY
Imagining, creating, and collectively envisioning a better future.
STRENGTH
Possessing a strong foundation in racial equity with an understanding that transformation work is rooted in the collective.
COMMITMENT
Build relationships by sharing the work and moving at the pace of trust.
COURAGE
Put values into action to challenge systems that have brought us to this point.
Our FELLOWS Say
" I’ve stayed in the CUE network because of this deep connection rooted in people who love our city and each other, and know that we can collectively work across sectors to make a city that works for all of us a reality. "
Jessica Sullivan-Wilson, 2017/2018 CUE Fellow
THE cue CUrriculum
CUE is a critical reflective learning community. Our best learning happens through relationships and action. We work to cultivate a community of change agents with shared frameworks, strategies, and tools to create change.
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Our Fellowship creates opportunities to analyze, explore, and implement:
Racial equity frameworks
to set a shared vision of equity, highlighting the Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA).
policy tools
to study and address racial disparities in our communities.
civic change strategies
that have been successful in the past.
Community organizing
to put our values into practice.
The racial Equity project
As bell hooks reminds us, “one of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone.” At CUE, we cultivate this community as a space to reimagine systems, vision together, and develop new ways to move our city forward.
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Throughout the Fellowship, this collective visioning leads to projects that tackle systemic inequity and drive change, with each Fellow defining a Racial Equity Project to reimagine a structure, policy, or practice through a racial equity lens.
PAST CUE FELLOWSHIP PROJECTS
1
Go Green On racine
A transit-oriented development project to strengthen the transit hub and economic vitality of the 63rd and Racine corridor.
2
Designing for Self Determination
A Pathway for Redeveloping Closed Schools. The project centered on bringing awareness about school closures, enabling inclusive and open dialogues, and sparked collective imagination about the future of social infrastructure in Chicago.
3
Shifting Philanthropic Culture
Cultivating a Community of Practice to Expand Racial Equity in Family Foundations. The project centered on developing a new norm by reimagining how family foundations conduct site visits, what they look for in proposals, the types of organizations that are funded, and who makes funding decisions.
Sponsoring organization
Fellowship candidates are required to name a sponsoring organization that will serve as a partner in developing and implementing their Racial Equity Projects. Before applying for the Fellowship, they should have a pre-existing relationship with this organization. That relationship could be as a staff member, board member, or similar leadership role, or as a volunteer or longstanding collaborator.
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We are looking to partner with sponsor organizations who are helping reshape Chicago's civic institutions through:
DECISION-MAKING
Sponsor organizations have the power to make decisions in campaigns, government, or law.
NARRATIVE-SHAPING
Sponsor organizations have the power to shape narratives in the arts, media, philanthropy, or research.
MOBILIZING
Sponsor organizations have the power to mobilize in advocacy, coalitions, or organizing.
sponsorship fee
