Copenhagen Citizens’ Assembly in Bispebjerg

“The vast majority of young people in Copenhagen’s Northwest district are in education, engage in leisure activities and/or are employed, but the young people themselves significantly exaggerate how normal it is as a young person to live a street-oriented and risky life in the district. Conversely, the young people underestimate the proportion of the district’s young people who have started an education after primary school.”

This is the conclusion of the 2021 Nordvest survey, conducted by sociologist Aydin Soei, who is also an expert in Copenhagen assemblies. Young people are thriving to a high degree, but there are still challenges with well-being and self-perception among Bispebjerg’s young people. Despite the positive overall picture, the survey points to several challenges when it comes to the well-being of the area’s young people. As part of a new youth strategy, the City of Copenhagen has therefore invited young people to participate in this citizen assembly, where they will jointly formulate recommendations to the municipality on how to make youth life in Bispebjerg even better.

In the citizen assembly, the young people will work with the following core task: “We need your help to find out how we can ensure that all young people in the district thrive”. The process starts in September and over the following months, the young people will gather for four meetings and an open citizens’ meeting. During the meetings, they will hear presentations on the topic, they will work on mapping the challenges they think are most important, and finally, they will draw up a series of recommendations. At the end of the year, the recommendations will be submitted to the Children and Youth Committee of the City of Copenhagen, which has committed to address the recommendations at a minimum of one committee meeting in the spring of 2024.

The Copenhagen Assembly in Bispebjerg is the first in a series of local Copenhagen assemblies aimed at increasing citizen participation in the municipal political decision-making processes in Copenhagen Municipality. We Do Democracy facilitates the Copenhagen assemblies, and Bispebjerg’s youth will ultimately formulate recommendations that will be given to the children and youth committee in the municipality, which has committed to work on the recommendations at at least one committee meeting.

You can take a closer look at the project’s results on the project website and follow We Do Democracy’s social media platforms for regular updates from the Copenhagen Assembly.