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.