In Bispebjerg, young people thrive far better than they and others think. More are employed and/or in education, and they are generally better off than the expectations and stories that young people are told. However, there are also young people in Bispebjerg who do not thrive and are not part of the city’s communities. The City of Copenhagen has invited young people from the district to help find solutions to this challenge through a citizens’ assembly.
We Do Democracy is tasked with facilitating and designing a young citizens’ assembly, the first of a series of local Copenhagen assemblies. The local Copenhagen gatherings are part of the City of Copenhagen’s project to strengthen citizen involvement. In addition to the Copenhagen Collection, the efforts include the Copenhagen Parliament and the Østerbro Citizens’ Collection.
The core question and process
In the citizen assembly, 24 young people between the ages of 14 and 24 from Bispebjerg will work on 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 3 meetings and an open public 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 produce a report with recommendations. The recommendations are submitted at the end of the year to the Children and Youth Committee in the City of Copenhagen, which has committed to discuss the recommendations at a minimum of one committee meeting in the spring of 2024.