What if everyone had access to benefits and protections regardless of work status?
The Work//Shift Fellowship is a place for independent workers to come together and imagine radically different safety net solutions.
Over 12 months, fellows will engage in a shared learning journey designed to challenge assumptions, expand what’s possible, and cultivate bold new ideas for a future where everyone has access to the protections and supports they need to thrive.
Rather than beginning with predetermined solutions, the fellowship creates space for inquiry, imagination, and collaboration—bringing together people who may never otherwise work together to explore what a reimagined social safety net could become.
We are looking for freelancers, gig or other unprotected workers and those working in the freelance space, including but not limited to:
- Builders
- Artists
- Researchers
- Domestic workers
- Home health care workers
- App-based workers
- Disability rights advocates
- Policymakers
- Journalists
If you know that we can do so much better than the current broken systems, please join us!
Applications Are Open
Application Period: September 8 – October 26, 2026
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we encourage interested applicants to apply early.
Key Dates
- Applications Open: September 8, 2026
- Applicant Webinar: September 17, 2026, 9–10:30 AM PT / 11–12:30 PM CT / 12–1:30 PM ET
- Applicant Webinar: October 1, 2026, 5–6:30 PM PT / 7–8:30 PM CT / 8–9:30 PM ET
- Application Deadline: October 26, 2026
- Interviews: November 2-16, 2026
- Notification of Decisions: December 7, 2026
- Fellowship Begins: January 2027, with an in-person cohort gathering
Learn More About the Fellowship
Interested in the Work//Shift Fellowship and want to learn more before applying? Join us for an upcoming virtual information session to hear more about the fellowship, the application process, and what to expect as a fellow. There will also be time for questions.
Both sessions will cover the same information, so please join whichever works best for your schedule.
Upcoming Webinars
September 17, 2026
9–10:30 AM PT / 11–12:30 PM CT / 12–1:30 PM ET
October 1, 2026
5–6:30 PM PT / 7–8:30 PM CT / 8–9:30 PM ET
Why This Fellowship?
The social safety net was built around the assumption of stable W-2 employment. Yet millions of workers—including artists, freelancers, caregivers, domestic workers, and others in nontraditional forms of work—have always existed outside those systems.
As more and more peoples’ work increasingly resembles gig work, the limitations of our current safety net are becoming more visible. This moment isn’t just about systems breaking. It’s about recognizing they were never built for everyone, and that those who have been excluded are often best positioned to imagine and design alternatives.
The Work//Shift Fellowship exists to create the relationships, shared learning, and collective imagination needed to begin building a future where everyone can thrive, regardless of how they work.
Who Should Apply?
We’re looking for people who are already thinking deeply about the future of work, and freelance work in particular—even if they don’t yet have all the answers.
Applicants might include:
- Organizers and movement builders
- Policy advocates and researchers
- Storytellers
- Cooperative and systems entrepreneurs
- Artists and cultural workers
- Labor and worker advocates
- Community leaders
- Academics
- Technologists
- Builders working in emerging models of care, ownership, or economic systems
We welcome applicants from a wide range of sectors, geographies, lived experiences, and communities.
Most importantly, we’re looking for people who are:
- Curious and eager to learn
- Open to challenging their own assumptions
- Excited to collaborate across disciplines and sectors
- Motivated to build a more equitable future of work
- Interested in contributing to a growing network advancing new ideas for worker protections and economic justice
What Fellows Will Experience
The fellowship is designed around four stages of collective learning:
Unlearning: Question assumptions about work, institutions, and the systems that shape our lives.
Sensemaking: Develop a shared understanding of today’s political, economic, and cultural landscape.
Envisioning Possibilities: Explore historical examples, community-based innovations, and emerging models that expand what’s possible.
Building: Generate ideas, relationships, and collaborative opportunities that contribute to a more just future for workers.
Throughout the fellowship, participants will learn from guest practitioners and one another, bringing their own experiences and expertise into the collective learning process.
Fellowship Details
- Duration: 12 months
- Time Commitment: a baseline of 10 hours/month
- Cohort Size: Approximately 8 fellows
- Format: Hybrid, including virtual gatherings and select in-person convenings
- Launch: January 2027 with an in-person cohort gathering
- Support: Fellows will receive a $30,000 stipend for participation.
Emerging Projects
We expect and hope that new ideas and collaborative initiatives will emerge through the fellowship.
However, you do not need to arrive with a fully developed project.
This fellowship is designed for people who are exploring important questions and are open to shaping their work through shared learning and collaboration. Rather than importing fully formed solutions, the fellowship is designed to create the conditions where the right ideas, relationships, and projects can emerge together.
What We're Looking For
Successful applicants will demonstrate:
- A strong commitment to improving conditions for gig workers, freelancers, artists, or other unprotected workers
- Curiosity and a willingness to question existing assumptions
- Openness to learning and engaging with new perspectives
- A collaborative mindset and ability to work across disciplines
- Strong relationships within their communities or fields
- A desire to contribute to a growing ecosystem advancing new ideas for worker protections and economic justice
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have a fully developed project?
No.
The fellowship is intentionally designed for people with important questions, emerging ideas, and a willingness to explore them alongside others. We expect many of the strongest ideas and collaborations to emerge during the fellowship itself.
Is this a policy fellowship?
Partly, but not exclusively.
The fellowship welcomes organizers, researchers, artists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, policymakers, and others working to improve conditions for gig workers and other unprotected workers. We believe transformative ideas emerge when people from different sectors learn and build together.
Can I participate while working full time?
Yes.
The fellowship is intentionally designed to accommodate participants who are engaged in existing professional or community-based work.
Will there be additional funding available to support ideas or projects that emerge from the fellowship?
The $30,000 fellowship stipend supports participation in the 12-month fellowship at a baseline of 10 hours per month (all meetings, any reading, writing or planning assigned as homework). We hope that new ideas, projects, and collaborations will emerge through the fellowship, and the curriculum is designed to support these kinds of outputs. And at the same time, the products that may emerge from the fellowship are not the purpose of the program – the relationships built and learning cultivated during the fellowship are the primary intended outcomes. Depending on the ideas that develop, there may be opportunities to explore potential resources or support for implementation or further exploration, but fellows should not enter the program with the expectation of receiving additional funding for projects that emerge.
What is the time commitment for the fellowship?
Fellows should plan for a baseline commitment of approximately 10 hours per month over the 12-month fellowship. This includes participating in virtual cohort meetings, engaging with curriculum and learning materials, individual reflection, and connecting and collaborating with other fellows.
Fellows will also participate in two in-person cohort convenings. The first will take place in Southern California on January 29–30, 2027, with January 28 and 31 as travel days. Details about the second convening will be shared in advance.
What do you mean by “gig work”?
We use gig work broadly to describe work that happens outside of a traditional, ongoing employer-employee relationship. This can include freelance, contract, project-based, temporary, on-demand, and platform-based work.
Gig workers might include rideshare and delivery drivers, freelancers, artists and cultural workers, independent contractors, caregivers, domestic workers, and others whose income comes from short-term, project-based, or nontraditional work arrangements.
Who is the fellowship designed for? Do I need to work directly with gig workers or freelancers?
The fellowship is designed for people who are thinking deeply about how to improve conditions for gig workers, freelancers, artists, and other unprotected workers. You do not need to work directly with these workers to apply, though some present or past experience with gig work (first-hand, or indirectly) will be helpful to your application.
We welcome people approaching these questions from many perspectives, including organizing, policy, research, arts and culture, technology, entrepreneurship, worker advocacy, economic development, and community-based work. What matters most is a meaningful connection to the issues the fellowship explores and a commitment to imagining a more equitable future of work.