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.

Training and Support

• Trust the People: THE expert trainers inspiring and empowering people everywhere to really bring democracy home. Enjoy 8 weeks worth of in-depth and fun training to equip your local community 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.

Case Studies

• S. Yorkshire Climate Assemblies- a council enabled Assembly that will make recommendations on the route forward for South Yorkshire.

• 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 who made a set of 15 recommendations to tackle local issues related to climate change.

• Video on Cheshire East People’s Panel on the Cost of Living with Positive Money.

• Los Indignados Assemblies in Spain- based on assembling ad hoc citizen coalitions to help push back and challenge specific government actions

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

• Scotland: Grassroots To Global

• Hull: Co-operation Hull

Alternative and Supplementary Guides to Deliberative Democracy

• XR's Citizen's Assembly Rebel Toolkit guidance

• Power With Assemblies Handbook

• Community At Work: Deliberative Democracy manual

• Open Space Technology: Alternative models of deliberation

• Better Evaluation: Goldfish Bowl Meetings

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

Books

• 'From What If to What Is' Rob Hopkins
• 'DIY Community Action: Neighbourhood Problems and Community Self-Help' - Liz Richardson

Other Resources

• Community Assemblies Telegram chat channel Ask anything. Share your positive stories.

• Power of Community Imagination Podcast

• Polis- Opininion Collation Software for Voting; the software we used during the People's Assemblies at The Big One (April 2023) for crowdsourcing opinions.

• Participedia Website tracking deliberative processes

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

• 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."

• Humanity Project

Resources For Citizens' Assemblies

See Citizens' Assemblies information on the Toolkit here

Reflecting on interacting with a government-led Climate Citizens Assembly Lessons to learn to ensure inclusivity, fairness, transparency and more. Essential reading for Citizens Assembly enthusiasts.

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Need More Help?

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

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

OR Drop in 3pm every Friday Meeting ID: 821 9800 8751 Passcode: 203667