Addressing Philadelphia’s Gun Violence Epidemic

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellowship is a two-year, full-time, hands-on position for early career professionals. Fellows work collaboratively with a host organization and the Stoneleigh Foundation to execute a project that advances the missions of these organizations and enhances Fellows’ professional skills and leadership development. The Fellowship provides salary, benefits, and a stipend for professional development. See our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

2023-25 FELLOWSHIP SOLICITATION

The Stoneleigh Foundation is seeking applications from nonprofit, academic, and public sector organizations that are interested in hosting an Emerging Leader Fellowship focused on addressing gun violence from a policy, practice, research, advocacy, organizing, or communications lens.

As of September 15, there have been 360 fatal and 1,354 non-fatal shootings in Philadelphia. This represents a 5% increase year-to-date in gun violence compared to 2021, which was the city’s deadliest year in at least half a century. Beyond the physical and mental consequences for victims and survivors, firearm violence has a significant impact on the surrounding communities that bear witness to these incidents. Only 21% of shootings in 2022 have an associated court case, suggesting that the criminal justice system, which has limited ability to address the root causes of gun violence, offers an insufficient remedy to this crisis. Fortunately, many other key stakeholders—such as public health practitioners, community organizers, advocates, media, foundations, and concerned citizens—are committed to addressing Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis through a multidisciplinary lens.

Over the last several years, the Stoneleigh Foundation has built a growing portfolio of investments focused on gun violence, including: strengthening the role of youth voice in prevention policy efforts; using data to identify promising intervention opportunities; and deepening the media narrative to focus on root causes and solutions. We believe that meaningful and effective efforts to address gun violence must integrate a broad array of strategies and stakeholders working collaboratively to accomplish specific and clearly articulated goals.

To that end, we will focus the work of our next cohort of Emerging Leader Fellows on the enormously challenging and complex issues related to gun violence. The types of projects we will consider include, but are not limited to:

• Projects that meaningfully engage and center the perspectives and voices of communities and individuals with lived experience of gun violence and its effects.
• Projects that emphasize a public health approach to gun violence prevention and/or research that evaluates the impact of related programs.
• Projects that identify and address the primary drivers of firearm violence.
• Projects that explore and address motivations and barriers to firearm ownership and possession among youth.
• Projects that explore the regional variation of gun violence in Philadelphia neighborhoods and communities and how the cultural context informs gun violence and its effects.
• Projects that incorporate perspectives across disciplines and develop new and innovative approaches for gun violence prevention.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

Organizations interested in hosting a 2023-2025 Emerging Leader Fellow must submit an application form and a two-page summary describing the project they are interested in pursuing (guidelines below). A select number of applicant organizations will be advanced to the full proposal and candidate recruitment phases. Stoneleigh will interview the top two finalists from candidate recruitment and engage in a collaborative process with each host organization to select final candidates for its Board of Directors’ approval.

SUMMARY GUIDELINES

Project summaries should be limited to two pages, 12-point font. Summaries should include the following sections:

• About Your Organization: In a paragraph, describe your organization, its mission, and how the mission relates to the problem you are seeking to address.
• Problem Statement: In a paragraph, please describe which aspect of gun violence your project will address.
• Project Description: Tell us about your project. Include goals, key stakeholders, project partners, and activities. Explain how the project addresses the problem as outlined in this summary, whether your strategy differs from previous work, and how the project will add value to Philadelphia. Please include in your project description any approaches you plan to use and any outcomes you will achieve within the 2-year time period of the project.
• Emerging Leader Fellow: Describe how the Emerging Leader Fellow will benefit from leading this project, including opportunities to develop professionally and learn new skills. Discuss your organization’s capacity to effectively supervise and mentor an Emerging Leader Fellow.

Access the Stoneleigh Foundation’s rubric for evaluating project summaries here.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Applications for organizations interested in hosting an incoming 2023-2025 Emerging Leader Fellow are now closed. Applications for candidates interested in becoming a 2023-2025 Emerging Leader Fellow will open on April 17, 2023.

HOW TO APPLY

Please check back in the spring for details.