Public policy is at its strongest when we are all at the table. As we have seen for generations, an all-white Congress will mass-produce policies that benefit only whites. The Daniel Initiative SET Project’s fellows will bring radical change in one generation by transforming the makeup of our governing bodies.

You will work directly with Breon Wells, the project’s executive director and president & founder of the Daniel Initiative’s for-profit consulting branch. Breon has over 10 years of experience navigating Washington politics in a range of positions.

In this focus area, you will leave with three tangible skills: (1) analyzing legislation, (2) writing legislation, and (3) tracking legislation.

Bills are complex. With training on reading into their real-world implications, we empower our fellows to see how Congress affects their lives. Understanding of critical legislative details arms activists and grassroots organizers to meaningfully engage in the public policy arena.

We take our fellows into the minds of legislative drafters. How does specific language affect broader social justice movements? What proposals must be included to provide adequate protections for repressed populations? How do we ensure proper implementation to make our ideals a reality? These are questions you will learn to ask and effectively answer.

The real players in Washington are two steps ahead of the news cycle. At the Daniel Initiative SET Project, you will learn to track legislation from committee to the president’s desk, developing strategy before stories break to the public.

It is time for repressed minorities to own their government. Public policy has too often been a weapon of oppression, but with the Daniel Initiative SET Project, it is a tool of liberation.

Executive Director Breon Wells attends the second 2019 Democratic Presidential Debate in Detroit. The Daniel Initiative SET Project fellows graded candidates’ criminal justice transformation policies ahead of the event.