The LELI Fellowship is a paid, 12-month program that trains people with lived experience of homelessness to work as lived experience consultants — shaping strategic plans to reduce homelessness, supporting their implementation, and evaluating whether they deliver. Our flagship cohort works with Contra Costa County, and the training can be customized for any municipality. And because lived experience rarely stays in one lane, Fellows also train to consult across the other systems they've navigated — behavioral health, disability, workforce development, youth welfare, aging, and more.
The fellowship builds from the inside out — first equipping Fellows with the skills and relationships they need, then putting those skills to work inside the County's strategic plan to reduce homelessness.
Fellows begin by building four core capacities: a leadership identity rooted in self-validation; fluency in the system they've navigated — the Continuum of Care, coordinated entry, County services, and funding streams; applied consulting skills — how to read a strategic plan, interpret system performance data, and deliver findings decision-makers can act on; and the ability to direct AI as a research tool — so technology amplifies their judgment rather than replacing it.
This phase includes structured introductions to County staff and Continuum of Care partners, so Fellows begin building the relationships their consulting will depend on.
Self-validation, confidence in civic spaces, and understanding the value of lived expertise in policy rooms.
The Continuum of Care, coordinated entry, County health and housing services, funding streams, and how decisions get made — plus the neighboring systems Fellows have navigated: behavioral health, disability, workforce development, youth welfare, and aging.
How to read a strategic plan, interpret system performance data, run community feedback sessions, and deliver findings decision-makers can act on.
Fellows learn to direct AI to process volume and translate languages — keeping interpretation and meaning-making in their own hands.
Fellows shift from training into practice, working across the full arc of the County's strategic plan to reduce homelessness: shaping the plan through drafts and formal input; supporting implementation through workgroups and program design advice; and evaluating outcomes through system performance data and community feedback — celebrating what's working and strengthening what could work better. And where the cohort's experience reaches, that consulting extends into the other service domains Fellows have navigated — behavioral health, disability services, workforce development, reentry, youth welfare, and aging.
Fellows also run community feedback sessions with people currently experiencing homelessness — so the plan stays accountable to the people it exists to serve, and the County gains a feedback loop no annual count can provide.
Reviewing drafts, delivering formal input, and bringing the perspective of people currently navigating the system into planning conversations.
Advising on program design and helping implementation stay true to the plan's intent — as participants, not observers.
Reviewing system performance data and community feedback to assess what's working, for whom, and what could work better.
Convenings with people currently experiencing homelessness, so findings stay grounded in what the community is living right now.
Fellows leave the program with more than a certificate. They leave with real applied research experience, a professional network rooted in civic infrastructure, and a documented body of policy work they can point to.
Fellows are compensated at rates that recognize the value of their expertise — not as a stipend, but as pay for real work. Lived experience is treated as the professional asset it is.
Reading strategic plans, interpreting system performance data, running feedback sessions, and delivering findings decision-makers can act on — skills that translate directly into consulting, peer support, and policy careers.
Fellows learn to use AI as a research tool — directing it to handle scale, language translation, and volume — while keeping analysis and meaning-making in their own hands. A skill set with growing demand across sectors.
Fellows build working relationships with County staff and Continuum of Care partners — contacts and credibility that persist long after the fellowship ends and position Fellows for sustained impact.
Fellows deliver real input into real County processes. That work is documented, attributed, and portable — a body of evidence that demonstrates consulting capability to future employers and partners.
Fellows join a cohort of peers who share the experience of navigating homelessness — a source of ongoing collaboration, mutual support, and collective advocacy beyond the fellowship year.
The skills Fellows build — civic research, AI direction, policy engagement, community facilitation — are in growing demand across sectors. LELI is designed as a career launchpad, not a one-time program.
Counties, Continuums of Care, and state agencies increasingly fund lived experience consultation — across homelessness, behavioral health, disability, workforce, youth welfare, and aging systems. Fellows leave with the training and track record to do it professionally.
Fellowship experience stacks with peer support specialist certification and roles across the homelessness response system — outreach, navigation, and housing services.
Advocacy organizations, think tanks, and government offices need analysts who connect quantitative data to the lived realities behind the numbers.
Experience evaluating a live countywide plan — with AI-assisted analysis in the toolkit — translates directly into program evaluation and continuous-improvement roles.
When Fellows bring lived expertise into the County's planning table, everyone benefits — the community, the professionals who serve it, and the plan they build together.
Shaped by people who know firsthand what helps plans succeed — from design through implementation to evaluation.
Fellow-produced input delivered into strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation on timelines relevant to active decisions.
Through the Civic Signals Network and Fellows' feedback sessions, the County gains a closer-to-real-time picture of homelessness between annual Point-in-Time counts.
The Civic Signals Network, the alumni network, and the replicable LELI model give the County lived expertise it can engage across service domains — beyond any single cohort or funding cycle.
LELI is designed for people who have navigated homelessness and the continuum of care — exactly the expertise strategic plans need at their tables. Our flagship cohort works with Contra Costa County, and the training can be customized for other municipalities. No prior policy or research experience is required; that's what the fellowship builds.
Current or former lived experience of homelessness — sheltered, unsheltered, doubled-up, vehicular, or transitional. You define your experience; we don't gatekeep it.
Experience navigating a homelessness response system — in Contra Costa County or your own community, past or present. Experience with other systems — behavioral health, disability, workforce, reentry, youth welfare, aging — adds to what you bring.
Any age, any background. Young people with lived experience are encouraged to apply.
Committed to the full 12 months — with wraparound support to make that commitment possible.
No prior policy, consulting, or research experience required. That's what the fellowship builds.
Currently experiencing homelessness? You are eligible, and we will work with your circumstances — no fixed address or technology required to start.
This isn't a volunteer opportunity. LELI makes concrete commitments to every Fellow who joins the cohort.
Paid compensation at rates reflecting the professional value of lived expertise and civic research work.
Wraparound support to address barriers — transportation, technology, scheduling, and honest guidance on how fellowship pay may interact with benefits.
Real access to the County's planning, implementation, and evaluation processes — not observer seats, but participant roles with documented findings.
A research platform — the Civic Signals Network — designed around Fellow judgment, not around algorithmic efficiency.
Recognition — Fellow-produced findings are attributed to Fellows, not to the organizations that support them.
Reach out to the LELI team directly. We're happy to answer questions about eligibility, the application process, or what to expect as a Fellow.