Supporting Changemakers
We celebrate the ongoing impact of assembly members who stepped up, spoke up, and kept going. Wherever possible giving them new and creative ways to be more impactful in their community.
Transforming extraordinary people into active citizens
Deliberative democracy – which includes ‘citizens’ assemblies’ – imagines everyday citizens as active, creative, and collaborative. Willing to work together with people from all backgrounds and political persuasions.
But, once a deliberation has ended, too often those involved are not helped to continue meeting. Passion can dissipate, and their recommendations can be ignored.
For many people, taking part in a citizens’ assembly is their first experience of getting involved in their communities and in local politics. They learn new skills, gain more confidence, and often they don’t just want to stop there.
A positive introduction to deliberative democracy with post-assembly support can be a jumping off point for people to become more active and engaged citizens in other areas of their lives.
That’s why we dedicate time to help our assembly participants think through how to apply their newly found passion and experience of working collectively.
How we support Assembly members to push for change
Supporting self-organising
We support those who want to keep meeting, online and in person. Encouraging them to continue to push for change, and be creative building wider community awareness.
Facilitation training
We bring together willing participants from different processes to develop their own group facilitation skills. This helps grow the diversity of future assembly facilitators.
Speaker training
Working with our expert partners we offer everyday citizens public speaking and media training so that they can continue to advocate for their recommendations.
Lobbying MPs
We work alongside MP engagement specialists Hope for the Future to train participants in holding effective meetings with political leaders.
Launch Events
We support participants to deliver their recommendations to stakeholders and members of the public through co-designed launch events.
Connecting participants
We explore ways to bring participants from different processes together to support collective action and advocacy.
CHANGEMAKERS CASE STUDIES
Cumbria Climate Assembly
Working with Zero Carbon Cumbria, the Cumbria Climate Assembly is making a real impact. We are helping participants build momentum towards a standing citizens’ assembly.
Preston People’s Climate Jury
The Preston People’s Climate Jury invited 30 Preston residents to have their say on how to tackle climate change across the city and make their recommendations to local leaders about how the city should act in response.
Blackburn With Darwen Jury
Over 12 months, we supported former jury members to present their recommendations to stakeholders, hold the council to account, meet their MPs, and set up a climate café, amongst other things.
Bude Area Community Jury
The Bude Area Community Jury, which was commissioned by Bude Climate Partnership, brought together 34 citizens aged 16 to 86 from across the wider Bude area to tackle the challenges of rising sea levels in the region.
Lancaster District Local Climate Engagement
Following the Lancaster People’s Jury we ran the Local Climate Engagement project. Over many years we’ve been supported some of the same participants, using a wide range of engagement processes.
Work with us
We can design, organise and facilitate citizens assemblies and juries on just about any topic of public concern. We have facilitated over 40 processes both in the UK and further afield. They happen both face to face and online, and we adopt creative approaches to ensure everyone can contribute as equals.
