# Community Assemblies Organisers' Help Pack
For use by XR Local Groups or similar
# Why Run Community Assemblies?
It’s time to bring the power of deliberative democracy into our communities!
We must end all fossil fuels and transition towards a society shaped by ordinary peoples’ recommendations for social and ecological justice that arise out of deliberative democracy processes. XR believe that we need citizens’ assemblies to allow ordinary people to come up with fair, long-term solutions for the most pressing issues of our times.
The reason for XR’s third demand for a citizens assembly on climate and ecological justice isn’t well understood, but experiencing community assemblies in our local communities can open the conversation about how deliberative democracy can work at a national level.
When we organise Community Assemblies in our local areas around the UK, people experience a new and empowering way of improving their quality of life. This can be done in ways that require more or less work, depending on what your Local Group objectives are.
Community Assemblies will be:
Locally embedded: How Community Assemblies are run is completely up to your organising group. You can follow the guidance here, or try out a local variation. Every community is different, so you need to do this in a way that has meaning for those taking part .
Collaborative: Community Assemblies are most interesting and enriching when they are attended by people from all kinds of backgrounds. You are more likely to achieve diverse participation if you work with a range of organisations and community groups and plan your Community Assembly collaboratively.
Goal-oriented - Although taking part in a Community Assembly is an empowering experience, it’s not an end in itself. So when you co-design your local Community Assembly, an important part of your plan should include what you want to do with the outcomes.
By organising local Community Assemblies, we can:
Grow our local networks and continue to build local alliances, build on outreach and formulate questions to deliberate on together;
Keep up the pressure on local politicians, statutory regulators and companies; accountability is essential to a healthy democracy.
Spread the word about deliberative democracy and empower people in the process to start / build a local campaign or project in collaboration with other groups.
# Need Urgent Support?
Key Resources: