2026
CUE Fellowship
Applications for the 2026 CUE Fellowship are now open! We're looking for diverse leaders, innovators, disruptors, and healers to be in our next cohort of racial justice leaders ready to tackle the most pressing equity issues in Chicago. Learn more about the Fellowship and apply by January 20, 2026!
Selection Process
Interested candidates are encouraged to apply for the CUE Equity Fellowship. In addition, CUE solicits nominations from its network of stakeholders. Nominated candidates will receive an invitation to complete the Fellowship application. The Fellowship selection committee, composed of CUE staff and Fellowship alums, reviews all applications and recommends candidates to be invited to participate in Selection Day, an interactive scenario-based interview process alongside other Fellowship candidates. As part of accepting to be part of the Fellowship, selected candidates must be able to commit to monthly full-day trainings.
Important Dates
November 10
Application Opens
December 18
March 13
Interview Selection Day
May 2026
Announcement and Welcome Dinner
november 20
january 20
Application Deadline
March 2026
Finalist Notification
June 2026
CUE 2026 Fellowship Program Begins
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.
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, envision 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
Facilitating Transformational Change
The focus of Shifting Hearts and Minds LLC lies in evaluating the existing culture of the organization to uncover underlying implicit values.
Subsequently, this project guides the organization in deliberately defining
collective values and facilitating a transformation in organizational culture.
2
Liberating Community Research in Chicago Neighborhoods
This project aims to shift power, establish accountability mechanisms, and
foster conditions for community-led liberatory solution-focused research,
thereby reducing opportunities for extractive research practices.
3
Cut the Tape
"Cut the Tape" is a progressive pro-growth, pro-development, pro-investment agenda that, when implemented, will allow Chicago residents to
see more affordable housing and more vibrant commercial corridors in their
neighborhoods more quickly!
Partner organization
For the CUE Fellowship, our learning community extends beyond the Fellow to the partnering organization. The approach is for the Fellow’s equity project to be embedded in the organization’s ongoing work, not as an individual effort, but as part of the institution’s priorities. For this reason, having a pre-existing relationship (as a board member, staff, or longstanding collaborator) is important. This shared commitment between the Fellow and the organization is essential to ensure the project’s lasting impact.
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We are looking for partner organizations that are helping reshape Chicago's civic institutions through:
DECISION-MAKING
Partner organizations have the power to influence and reimagine policies, programs, or processes within campaigns, government, or law.
NARRATIVE-SHAPING
Partner organizations have the power to shape narratives in the arts, media, philanthropy, or research.
MOBILIZING
Partner organizations have the power to mobilize in advocacy, coalitions, or organizing.
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
pARTNERSHIP fee
The CUE Equity Fellowship is funded in alignment with our vision for transforming power. Partner organizations that have a candidate selected for the CUE Fellowship contribute to the cost of the program on a sliding scale based on the organization's annual operating budget.
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