Our News

Participation isn’t a one-off project. It is altering how local government works. That’s why the City of Malmö (Sweden), one of the Speak Up partners, is developing a long-term approach to grow its capacity for participation. To achieve this, they organised three experimental learning sessions acros...

Sterk Hoogkerk, a participatory budgeting project, has been up and running for two years now and getting ready to start its third. This means that, for the past two years, the inhabitants of Hoogkerk (Netherlands) have been dividing €300.000 to local projects. The projects were ideas submitted, vote...

Across Europe, local governments are always trying to find better and more efficient ways to connect with their citizens and increase participation. Often, these methods materialise on the internet, in the form of articles, podcasts, newsletters, or social media posts. However, it’s often hard to ge...

In 2024, the province of Drenthe (Netherlands) organized its very first hybrid citizens’ assembly on the topic of housing. This initiative was a direct result of citizens’ requests for stronger involvement in provincial decision-making. The method combined a deliberative assembly with broader public...

With the Climate Village pilot initiative in Skive (Denmark) nearing its end, residents and local partners gathered for a Climate Exhibition celebrating the projects created over the past year. In total, 25 citizen-led projects were presented, each one funded by the municipality but fully imagined,...

To address the issue of waste, two swap shops have been set up in the climate villages of Skive (Denmark), by the citizens themselves. There, you can hand in used items for others to benefit from, an initiative that has especially created excitement among the youngest in the area. Toys are changing...

In Mechelen (Belgium), a holistic project to restore and transform the river that runs through the city was subject to a large experiment in layered participation and inclusive design. The project focuses on making space for both nature and the public by restoring the river into a rewilded and cooli...

Every summer, France comes alive with a nationwide initiative: “Quartiers d’Été” (Summer Neighbourhoods). This program brings communities together through free, family-friendly cultural activities. Thanks to the efforts of local social centers, underserved communities are offered the opportunity to...

How can we efficiently engage citizens in conversations and decision-making for climate change? Our partners in Malmö recently tested a method developed by the Klimatriksdagen, who have conveniently shared all their tips and tricks for creating a climate citizen assembly in a handbook. This document...