Additional Learning

More Resources

If you are seeking one to one advice on how to organise or run your assembly, one of the Assemblies Escalation Working Group holds an 'ask anything and share experiences' drop in every Friday afternoon at 3pm. Drop in link for this.

Training and Support

• Trust the People: THE expert trainers inspiring and empowering people everywhere to really bring democracy home. Enjoy 8 weeks worth of fun, in-depth training to equip your local community in how to organise and run an effective magical experience in deliberative democracy. And it's totally free, twice per year from the experts in building deliberative democracy.

• Involve: public participation charity, on a mission to put people at the heart of decision-making.

• Humanity Project: an NGO offering practical support to local groups wanting to set up what they call a 'Pop', i.e. a popular assembly. NB their immediate goals of popularising assemblies is shared with XR, but they do not share XR's Third Demand. At the time of this update (August 2024), their volunteers may recommend organisers not refer to XR support in organising.

• Assemble Video Course NB This is geared towards upcoming elections and influencing Parliamentary or other regional government candidates

• 2025-2027 Strategic Plan - Hope For The Future

• People Powered Democracy Accelerator 6 month training course.

• Egin- unlocking "...the collective power of communities in Wales to take their first steps towards tackling climate change and living more sustainably..."

Community Assembly Case Studies

• Cornwall County Hall Assembly is a great case study, which has demonstrated how initial NVDA has successfully become a partnership with the District Council. Members of the initial community assembly now have representation on key decisions at a much wider level. Because progressive participation in what was previously deemed 'Council business', we have collated everything we can on the Cornwall 'escalation' experience with a dedicated page for this uniquely inspirational model for other groups to follow. Please go to our Cornwall Assembly Escalation to Regional Government Collaboration page here.

• S. Yorkshire Climate Assemblies- a council enabled Assembly that made recommendations on the route forward for South Yorkshire. NB the Mayor backs the popularisation of assemblies.

• Blaenau Gwent Climate Assembly- This was the first climate assembly in Wales.

• Blackburn People's Jury on Climate Change Crisis - September 2022- a group organised by the council and the Sortition Foundation; they came up with 15 recommendations to tackle local issues related to climate change.

• Cheshire East People’s Panel- video on the cost of living with Positive Money.

• Los Indignados Assemblies- Spanish ad hoc citizen coalitions to challenge specific government actions.

• COP26 Global Assembly- produced a report answering the question 'How can humanity address the climate and ecological crisis in a fair and effective way?' Findings in their report came from both a Global Citizens' Assembly, and self-organised Community Assemblies around the world.

• Grassroots To Global- Scotland.

• Co-operation Hull

• Eastbourn Citizens and Local Authorities Partnership

Additional Guides to Deliberative Democracy

• XR's Citizen's Assembly Rebel Toolkit guidance

• Power With Assemblies Handbook (Google doc)

• Community At Work: Deliberative Democracy manual

• Open Space Technology: Alternative models of deliberation

• Better Evaluation: Goldfish Bowl Meetings

• Skill yourself up and boost your confidence in talking to politicians, be they local, regional or national: Hope For The Future

Books

• 'From What If to What Is' - Rob Hopkins
• 'DIY Community Action: Neighbourhood Problems and Community Self-Help' - Liz Richardson
• We Need to Talk About Climate: How Citizens' Assemblies Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis - Graham Smith

Other Resources

• Power of Community Imagination Podcast

• Participedia: Website tracking deliberative processes

• Decidim: A digital platform for citizen participation. Free, open and safe technology.

• The Innovation in Politics Institute identifies, develops and applies innovations in politics, to strengthen democracy in Europe and beyond. Their mission is "to recognise and support those political professionals who have the courage to break new ground, are creative and achieve better results – across party lines and across borders – to make democratic politics more successful".
  They also: "co-create long-term programmes with a positive impact on politics and society, like awards for state-of-the-art political work, training and networking opportunities for political professionals, and platforms for democratic practice exchange."

• People Powered Impact Report.

  • This international NGO trains and wants government and civil society leaders to form a cohort of innovators interested in launching participatory programs to shape climate policy on topics such as regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, just transitions, clean transportation, decarbonization, and more.
  • To be selected for this program, applicants must be from governmental institutions, civil society organizations, or non-governmental organizations. The program is open to applicants from all over the world, with 15 spots per cohort. This NGO also convenes international organizations and leaders to connect global work on climate engagement and participation.

Citizens' Assemblies

See Citizens' Assemblies information on the toolkit.

Need More Help?

Join the Community Assemblies Telegram chat channel. Ask anything, share your positive stories.

Email the Assemblies Escalation Campaign with your questions at communityassemblies@extinctionrebellion.uk