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Why run Community Assemblies?
It’s time to decide for ourselves, together! The current political system is failing to take the actions we need. We must end all fossil fuels and transition towards a society shaped by ordinary peoples’ recommendations for social and ecological justice th...
Training & Support
We highly recommend that in the run up to your assembly, you pull together volunteers who want to help facilitate and/or note-take and run practice sessions face-to-face, or even online. Offer practice sessions in the run up to the community assembly to help y...
Creating a Team
“I can’t change the world on my own, it’ll take at least three of us.” - Bill Mollison Below, we have listed a few working groups that may help you get a community assembly off the ground. They constitute best practice, not a minimum requirement. Your local g...
Connecting with the Community and Allies
Relevant teams: Alliance Building, Outreach and Integration Before you attempt to bring a community together in Assembly, you need to actually familiarise yourself with that community. This will help you to select an assembly question that matters to the peopl...
Assembly Framing, Scope and Topic
Relevant teams: Your local group and ally organisations The exact framing and scope for the assembly need to be agreed upon before any promotional work can occur. The destination and legitimacy of the results of the assembly should be discussed and decided upo...
Assembly Planning
Advance Preparation Choose the venue Assemblies are usually held in public spaces like town squares or outside prominent places like a city or town hall. They are designed to be as open as possible so that members of the public can easily join in. They are al...
Script for People's Assembly
Please note that this script is written in such a way as to ensure that those who are new to people’s assemblies are fully supported throughout. If you are an experienced PA facilitator and are working with those who understand how PAs work, understand their h...
Dealing with Difficult Interactions
Sometimes when you are running assemblies, or doing community work in general, you might have difficult interactions with people. Whilst there is no easy way to overcome these, here are some suggestions: Refer to the line from the inclusivity statement: We wel...
Hand Signals
Assemblies maintain inclusivity and ensure all voices are heard equally by using hand signals to facilitate the discussion. Point (or ‘I would like to speak’) When someone in the group wants to say something, they should point their index finger up and wait f...
What are Community Assemblies?
Community Assemblies (also known by other names) are a structured way for a group of people to discuss issues or make decisions collectively. All voices are heard and valued equally; in the spirit of inclusion, no one person or group dominates the discussion....
Main Facilitator
Input Phase What do you need to mention as the Main Facilitator in the Input Phase? Welcome everyone. Introduce yourself with a sentence or two. Tell participants what this event is, i.e. a Community Assembly to “hear your voice on the question of …. ?” Ask i...
Roles
Each assembly needs: Main Facilitator (Ideally two with a gender balance) Sometimes called Lead Facilitator. They are responsible for the overall running of assembly, timekeeping, and the delivery of all relevant information. They facilitate the discussion u...
Structure of a Community Assembly
There are three main phases of a community assembly, these are the input phase, the deliberation phase, and the integration/feedback phase. Input Phase This phase can be broken down further into the introduction and input, the latter of which can be of varying...
Breakout Group Facilitators
Breakout Group Facilitators are mainly needed in the deliberation phase of a Community Assembly, with at least one facilitator per group. What do you need to do as a breakout group facilitator during the deliberation phase? Introduce yourself briefly. (Say ...