The role of young people as independent actors in their own right, able to define and become architects of their future has changed over the years. In thinking this through, we might look back and reflect on how the concept of youth participation has evolved over the decades since the student led protest movements of the 1960s. Much has changed. In a series of 5 short blogs Jez Hall looks at emerging democratic innovations.
News
North of Tyne Climate Citizens’ Assembly Completes it’s Deliberations
The North of Tyne Citizens’ Assembly is due to report its findings in May 2021. The Citizens Assembly involved 50 people from the region in the north east of England. Their role was to help shape the region’s response to the climate crisis.
Glasgow Youth-Led Climate Crisis Legislative Theatre
A winner of the NESTA Democracy Pioneers award in 2020, this project is a collaboration between Glasgow City Council, Katy Rubin, and Shared Future CIC.
Over the next 9 months, we’ll be tackling the climate crisis through an intensive legislative theatre project led by young people. The proposals will target both the Council’s climate strategy, and the COP26 conference that’s taking place in Glasgow in Nov 2021 with leaders from around the world.
Democratic Journeys: Participatory Budgeting in a time of Covid
“We need to learn from the history of building back better. That we need to enable individual citizens to define how investments for their benefits are spent”.
The podcast series Democracy Journeys, by the Association of Municipalities and Regions of Sweden(SKR) is about citizen dialogue, co-creation and democracy at local and regional level. Each episode focuses on various innovations that help to develop democracy. Episode 38 focus on the effect of COVID19.
The three ways of a good society
In springtime Shared Future Director Jez Hall is feeling hopeful. In our Easter blog he reflects on the behaviours that build a good society:
Altruism, democracy and stewardship.
Relating back these big themes to the work we do at Shared Future on local democracy, climate change and to support mutual aid. And it all started with a dream.
Warwick District People’s Climate Change Inquiry
Shared Future partnered with Warwick District Council to facilitate a People’s Inquiry into Climate Change, a people powered solution to the climate emergency.
Kendal Citizens Jury on Climate Change
What should Kendal do about climate change? That was the challenge tackled by a diverse group of local residents of Kendal during the summer and autumn of 2020. Commissioned by Kendal Town Council and facilitated by Shared Future, we believe the Kendal Climate Change Jury was unique in being both the first fully online Climate Change Jury in the UK and also by the way it mobilised citizens through a crowdfunding campaign.
Warwick District People’s Climate Change Inquiry releases recommendations
Following three months of evidence gathering and deliberations, members of the Warwick District People’s Inquiry into Climate Change will be announcing their recommendations at a public launch on Thursday 25th February.
Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast: Participatory Budgeting
The Reasons to be Cheerful podcast, hosted by Ed Miliband MP and Geoff Lloyd featured Participatory Budgeting. Ed and Geoff were talking about a BIG idea that’s transforming how towns, cities and even schools are run across the world. Participatory budgeting (PB) involves letting citizens decide how public money is spent.
Free Resources for Participatory Budgeting
We have contributed to a number of free resources on participatory budgeting. We want to pull these together and share these with you. For a number of years we have been talking about participatory budgeting(PB) can empower citizens. And also providing important services to help people take action or improve their participation processes.
Erasmus+ Youth PB Accelerator Project
We believe that young people should have a voice in shaping their future through participatory democracy. One of our current projects is a joint project funded by Erasmus+, working with colleagues in Poland, Spain and Northern Ireland, to develop a ‘toolkit’ to encourage best practice and the inclusion of Young People in local participatory budgeting(PB) processes.
It reveals a serious accountability vac…