POPVOX Foundation Launches “Departure Dialogues” to Give Former Federal Employees Nonpartisan Platform for Sharing Recommendations to Congress on Fixing Federal Services
Former federal employees now have a secure, nonpartisan platform to share candid recommendations about fixing government services through “Departure Dialogues,” launched today by POPVOX Foundation in partnership with the Foundation for American Innovation, Niskanen Center, the Partnership for Public Service, and Civil Service Strong.
The initiative addresses a critical gap: while Congress creates policies, it often lacks insight into how those policies actually work on the ground. Departure Dialogues empowers recently terminated civil servants and contractors to contribute their expertise about implementation challenges and reform opportunities in a safe, structured environment.
“POPVOX Foundation and our partners are grateful to the thousands of federal employees who have dedicated their careers to public service,” said Marci Harris, executive director of POPVOX Foundation. “As many transition out of government, Departure Dialogues gives them a meaningful way to pass along what they’ve learned about how to strengthen the programs they’ve spent years implementing.”
The platform uses TheirStory’s oral history technology to capture employees’ observations, then synthesizes responses using AI to identify systemic patterns. This approach transforms individual experiences into actionable intelligence for Congress, oversight bodies, and reformers.
“The thing we hear all the time is that federal employees have the real insight into what barriers Congress has inadvertently placed in the way of program efficiency — but it’s almost impossible to get those insights through the Legislative Affairs bottleneck to the people in Congress who can act on them. Our goal is to give departing federal employees an opportunity to share those insights without being drawn into partisan bickering — and to help Congress be smarter as it works to rebuild and strengthen agencies and programs going forward,” said Anne Meeker, deputy director of POPVOX Foundation and Departure Dialogues’ project lead.
“Departure Dialogues invites you to help Congress understand what works, and speak directly to them in ways you were never allowed to during your public service,” said Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recoding America. “It’s not about just giving feedback; it’s helping close a feedback loop that too often goes only one way and prevents them from passing laws that actually make government work better.”
“Federal workers often have the best solutions for improving the work of government, yet these ideas typically fail to make their way to Congress,” said Jenny Mattingley, vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service. “Departure Dialogues will be an integral resource to ensure the policy recommendations and expertise of the public servants leaving government are available to Congress to inform legislative solutions.”
“You don’t learn about red tape from the system that created it. You learn about it from the frontline bureaucrats who had to push through the roadblocks. Departure Dialogues captures their insights so political leaders can see the real barriers and cut through them,” says Kevin Hawickhorst, policy analyst at the Foundation for American Innovation.
“The loss of expertise and institutional knowledge from the federal workforce should concern us all. It is critical that civil society organizations step in to capture as much knowledge as we can as some 200,000 civil servants walk out the door at the end of September alone,” said Rob Shriver, managing director of Democracy Forward's Civil Service Strong initiative. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with POPVOX Foundation and other participating organizations in support of the important work of the Departure Dialogues project.”
The resulting knowledge base will provide Congress with unfiltered, ground-level intelligence to enhance evidence-based, outcomes-driven policymaking. Phase one focuses on former civil service employees, with later phases expanding to contractors and political appointees.
Former federal employees and contractors interested in participating can visit popvox.org/departure to submit a video or written insights.
POPVOX Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world.
