Can civil society organisations offer local

government any ideas on citizen engagement?

Sarah Allan, Democratic Reform Lead, Involve

@SarahAllanUK @InvolveUK

Cllr Tim Cheetham, Cabinet Spokesperson for People (Achieving Potential), Barnsley MBC

How is this session going to work?

Three ideas from best practice CSO engagement

Emphasis on impact

People want to make a difference on issues they care about.

Demonstrating why being involved is making change happen.

Journeys of engagement

• Completely different journeys

• Linking steps within journeys

Levels of activity and engagement

People have different amounts of time and different levels of interest in each issue….

The case for

The risk:

Less relevant

Always in the wrong

Using CSO ideas

• Positively providing steps in the journey.

• Make links between own activities.

• Regularly provide a range of ways to engage.

The challenge

Group discussion

1. Reaction to presentation

Loose focus: “Do CSO engagement ideas offer anything useful to efforts to renew local democracy? If yes, what?”

2. What could be taken forward from here as a next step? (at least last 15mins)

We need 3 ideas for the ideas bazaar.