BRIDGE NORTH TEXAS
A transformative leadership and political education experience rooted in faith, offered in partnership with the Center for Theology and Justice at Brite Divinity School.
The People's Fellowship unfolds over a full year, moving fellows through three seasons: learning the foundations of organizing in the Fall, apprenticing in real community work in the Spring, and building a shared public action together in the Summer. There are a few different ways to take part, outlined below.
The full year-long experience is free. It includes Fundamentals of Organizing in the Fall, an apprenticeship in the Spring, and a week-long public action in the Summer. We offer three ways to take part.
Accredited certification
For fellows who want the Accredited Certificate from Brite Divinity School
Fall, two courses
Fundamentals of Community Organizing
Prisons, Policing, and Abolition in the New Testament
Spring
Community organizing apprenticeship
Summer
Public action intensive
Earns Brite's Accredited Certificate
Full program completed within one year
Certification
For fellows who want the full year without Brite's Accredited Certificate
Fall, one course
Fundamentals of Community Organizing
Spring
Community organizing apprenticeship
Summer
Public action intensive
No Accredited Certificate, no Prisons course
Same full year-long fellowship
Paid track
For people who want just one piece, without the Fall cohort
Option A
Community organizing apprenticeship
Option B
Public action intensive
No Fall cohort required
Stand-alone, a la carte only
The Fall cohort (Fundamentals of Organizing) is only for people ready to commit to the full year-long journey. If you're not sure you can commit to the full year, we encourage you to wait for a future cohort rather than start now. Fellows completing the full year must register in advance for the following semester — Fall cohort members continuing on to Spring need to register in the first two weeks of October.
Three semesters, each with its own rhythm and timeline.
Applications open now
Registration open in October
Registration opens in February
Essential background on organizing theory and power analysis, with concrete skills training built on a curriculum that treats lived experience as a cornerstone of collective action.
Fellows pursuing the Accredited Certificate track also take this course, which explores racial capitalism and plantation capitalism rooted in the U.S. system, exposing students to frameworks for interpreting sacred text alongside social systems for the sake of liberation over oppression.
Every community fellow applicant (non-Brite student) applies with a project or initiative they're working on or would like to bring to life. Applicants who are chosen spend the semester developing, refining, and building their project with support from organizers, mentors, and the broader Bridge North Texas ecosystem. Fellows who complete the full year-long cycle may be selected to continue their work through the Bridge North Texas Imagination Lab, a nine-month incubator where projects are resourced and supported toward becoming durable community institutions.
Your project should be rooted in community need and connected to at least three of BNTX's four lanes of work.
Developing leaders, building belonging, or creating spaces where people learn, grow, and connect — a political education series, a mentorship program, a leadership cohort, a gathering space.
Ask yourself: does this project help people grow their skills, deepen their relationships, or find a home in the work of social change?
Shaping narrative, mobilizing people, or using art, music, storytelling, faith, or media to shift what feels possible — a publication, a civic engagement campaign, a faith-rooted organizing effort.
Ask yourself: does this project change how people see themselves, their community, or what's possible?
Meeting real needs, building trust, and creating pathways from surviving to thriving — a mutual aid network, a health resource program, a resource hub.
Ask yourself: does this project meet people where they are and build the kind of trust that leads to long-term relationships and power?
Working to shift systems, policies, or the distribution of power — a campaign, an advocacy effort, a voter mobilization initiative, a strategy to hold institutions accountable.
Ask yourself: does this project have a clear target and a plan to engage it?
The CN Initiative (Cwiny Nia)
A nonprofit based in Garland, Texas that restores dignity, stability, and opportunity for individuals and families impacted by poverty, housing instability, and justice system involvement. Through trauma-informed care, housing stabilization, bail support, and community leadership development, CN Initiative builds pathways home for people who are unhoused, held pretrial because they can't afford bail, or rebuilding after incarceration.
A project like this doesn't have to be fully built when you apply. What matters is a clear community need, a sense of who you're trying to serve, and a vision for how your work builds power over time.
This fellowship is for people ages 18–80+ who have been actively involved in community work, whether as grassroots organizers, mutual aid participants, faith leaders, volunteers, super-volunteers, veterans, directly impacted individuals, or nonprofit and civic leaders. If you've been showing up for your North Texas community in ways big or small for at least three years, we want to hear from you.
There are no degree requirements to participate. What matters most is your lived experience, deep care, commitment to growth, and a project or idea you're ready to build.
A community organizer, political strategist, and coalition builder rooted in the belief that ordinary people, especially Black, working-class, and faith-driven communities, hold the collective power to dismantle systems of oppression and build a more just society. He is the Founder of Bridge North Texas, a 10-year regional campaign to build political, narrative, and economic power in North Texas, and currently serves as the inaugural Community Organizer in Residence at Brite Divinity School's Center for Theology and Justice.
A retired Army veteran and former adjunct professor at CUNY's School of Labor and Urban Studies, Edwin's publications, A World Changers Guide to Giving a Damn and How Black Churches Can Change the World, offer a window into the values, strategy, and leadership behind his approach to long-term social change.
Interested applicants can join us for a virtual information session on Monday, July 20th at 6pm CT.