Based on new methods and trends in citizen engagement, this training course gives you the knowledge and tools to create engagement that actually makes a difference as a practitioner. The purpose of the training course is to provide knowledge on how to create ambitious citizen involvement based on the ideas behind citizen gatherings and citizen things – a field that is growing worldwide and that we as organizations have extensive experience with in a Danish context.
You will learn how to develop the democratic processes in your municipality or organization in a way that goes hand in hand with sustainable and legitimate solutions to difficult challenges. Together with other practitioners with similar experiences, you will be equipped to integrate citizen and member engagement in your organization. With these tools, you can take engagement to an ambitious and meaningful level.
Specifically, we will delve into the deliberative toolbox, looking at international examples, challenges and opportunities. In this way, we access the knowledge that can create ambitious engagement processes – e.g. citizen gatherings. As trainers, we share our experience of facilitating more than 15 completed citizen gatherings in Denmark.
During the four days of the course, you will gain a basic understanding of what deliberative democracy and its possibilities actually consist of and, not least, how this can be used to develop and advance your organization in practice. You will learn how to plan, organize and execute citizen engagement processes in a way that creates the desired change for both citizens/members and for you and your institution.
We dive into the deliberative toolbox with all its international examples, challenges and opportunities. And, not least, knowledge of how to implement ambitious engagement processes such as citizen gatherings in practice. We share the practical organizational knowledge we’ve gained from more than 15 citizen gatherings and a host of other participatory processes we’ve conducted in Denmark.
In four days, you will gain a basic understanding of deliberative democracy – participatory models, concepts of democracy and the field’s most important trends and innovations. You will learn about involvement and participation and gain methods and tools that will equip you to plan, organize and implement involvement and participation processes that create change for citizens/members, yourself and your organization.
Learning objectives
- An opportunity to reflect on what democracy is, how the interplay between system and everyday democracy can be understood and thus a new language for democracy innovation, participation and citizen and member involvement
- Basic insights on how to create engaging and ambitious involvement. Including through the citizen assembly and citizen consultation formats and the international OECD standards for the same
- Insight into some of the best international and Danish examples of deliberative democracy in practice and experiences from some of the organizations and decision-makers who have already initiated and organized participation that has really made a difference.
- Overview of how a deliberative participation process -including a citizen assembly- proceeds from A-Z
- Reflection on your role as an organizer of participatory processes – including your own collaboration with facilitators or other partners
- Understanding the difference between facilitating and supporting citizen gatherings and other citizen engagement formats
- Increased awareness of how to design professional participatory processes and a broader methodological repertoire
- Reflection and ideas on how you can use your new repertoire of democratic tools in your work more generally
The training course has been adapted to specifically target practitioners who want to become even better at working with inclusion. You will be equipped for the work, but will also become part of a larger professional network of practitioners, all of whom have or are currently working to push the boundaries of participation in a Danish context.
Educators:
Anne Mette Holme Bertelsen, Component
Zakia Elvang and Kolja Dahlin, We Do Democracy
Where:
Democracy Garage, Rentemestervej 57, 2400 Copenhagen NV
When:
January 15, 9:00 am – January 16, 2024 at 16:00
February 26, 9:00 am – February 27, 2024 at 16:00
Read more and sign up for the training course here.