Civitas Fellowship for Congressional Staff

The Civitas Fellowship for Congressional Staff is a Christian leadership development program for early/mid-career Hill staffers, exploring the “what” and “how” of Christian public service. Over the course of two months, staffers meet for dinner to:

• Learn to think critically about the role of government and civil society in addressing public policy issues; 
• Build meaningful relationships across the aisle;
• Strengthen leadership skills by co-leading discussions and participating in prayer.

Staffers meet on Thursday evenings at 6:30 PM for dinner and discussion in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

This program is ideal for staffers who are looking for community, want to learn what different Christian political traditions have to say about Christianity and public service, and hope to gain leadership experience and skills they will use during the rest of their time on the Hill. Civitas runs twice a year, both in the Spring and in the Fall. 

Applications for Fall 2025 are open now and will be accepted until August 31 at 11:59 PM. Are you interested in the Civitas Fellowship for Congressional Staff? Or do you know someone who should apply? Email marykathryn.praamsma@cpjustice.org with your questions and/or nominations. 

Civitas Fellows will attend weekly dinner meetings for the two-month duration of the program.

• Each meeting starts with dinner before moving into an hour-long, seminar-style discussion.
• Discussions center around readings regarding Christian public service and its implications on Capital Hill. Authors include Abraham Kuyper, Richard Mouw, and Jim Skillen, as well as other scholars examining Christian civic presence.
• The readings are designed to equip Fellows to engage in discussion with each other about their own reflections, questions, conclusions, and applications of the ideas presented through Civitas.
• Civitas Fellows will apply their learning through practical workshops and exercises that directly relate to their roles as early career Hill staffers.

The Civitas Congressional Community is a bipartisan group of Hill staffers who are committed to their faith in God, to seeking truth and understanding, and to loving their neighbors through public service. Civitas Fellows recognize that the bonds that tie us together as Christians are stronger and more meaningful than our party affiliations–and want to investigate the meaning of Christian public service on Capitol Hill in 2025.

The 2025 Fall Cohort of Civitas will hold its first meeting on Thursday, September 4 at 6:30 p.m. The complete list of meeting dates for Civitas, Fall 2025, are as follows:

• Thursday, September 4, Session 1: Christian Public Service
• Thursday, September 11, Session 2: Public Service for Public Justice 
• Thursday, September 18, Session 3: Government and Civil Society as Partners for Public Justice
• Thursday, September 25, Session 4: Working Together Despite Differences 
• Thursday, October 2, Session 5: Politics, Idolatry, and the Common Good
• Thursday, October 9, Session 6: Keeping the Faith and Working Within a Party
• Thursday, October 16, Session 7: Public Justice Applied: Institutional Religious Freedom 
• Thursday, October 23, Session 8: Tools for Answering the Call to Public Service