Participatory processes and Community as Partner
Community and participatory processes can open up enormous potential when we accompany them in a way that is participatory in a deeper sense.
Here, we won't be talking about citizen participation in the most usual sense, but “Community as Partner”, processes in which the community (neighbourhood, village, local community, etc) will be an active participant in managing its community processes: using its talents and better understanding its diversity in order to shape the future it wants to share and meet its needs through mutual support and the support needed from entities that can back it. We will also talk about municipalism and local politics, deliberative processes and citizen assemblies, community activation and the Oasis Game, amongst other things.
Areas and processes we accompany you in
We accompany participatory and community processes
The sphere of participation (citizen, community, social, etc) is at a moment of potential change. For us it's important to work from and towards real participation, or alternatively through generating clear and quality spaces for consultation if that is the aim.
Wherever there are people who share time, space and objectives, there is a richness and diversity of talent and of profoundly human aspirations and an enormous creative potential for building their own shared, regenerative and transformative future. Where there is a burning or emergent issue that influences the life of a community, there is also the potential to search for new and creative solutions.
For example, how can we manage shared public spaces? How do we use the resources available? What future do we imagine for our village, neighbourhood or community? What are our shared needs, and how can we meet them? How do we position ourselves with regard to current issues like environmental pollution/welcoming refugees/rural depopulation, etc?
The community becomes a "community as a partner to tackle complex situations, to give shape to its future and follow collaborative and creative paths which take into account diversity in the community and caring for people.
This means, for example:
Activating the community around an emergent issue (social, environmental, co-existence, etc), and working on the community's collective vision for the future.
Generating ideas and proposals, establishing priorities and taking informed and inclusive collective decisions.
Creating moments of deep and generative dialogue around difficult issues, challenges faced by the community or opportunities that emerge.
If we know how to listen to all voices, diversity will become richness and an engine of creativity.
We start by establishing the goals and intentions which have led us to this active participation or community activation.
After that, we will begin the process of community activation. We will also give space to transforming conflicts or sensitive issues with the community, as well as giving time to generating proposals and taking informed decisions that are supported by the group.
For each of these stages, we will use different approaches and tools designed for each of these steps or contexts.
What participative areas and processes do we accompany you in?
Our horizon is to accompany community processes by looking at the community as an ecosystem, where the different voices and points of view enrich and give life to the vitality of relationships.
Through nurturing and giving space for these relationships to develop, we accompany the community's self-activation. Through communicative processes and clear and transparent decision-making, we create fertile ground for collective creativity and for new paths and creative possibilities to emerge.
Community activation and Oasis Game: we accompany community activation processes using the Oasis methodology devised by the Instituto Elos,This is a collective game which creates cohesion and activates a community by means of a process that culminates in the transformation of a physical space through community work and gives continuity to what is generated during the event.
we promote deliberative processes in order to generate deeper democracy and a change at the political level. Together with other entities, we are collaborating to promote these kinds of tools, which are called upon by institutions to address particularly complex issues where it is necessary to reach shared decisions by listening to the diversity of voices. An example of these deliberative processes is a local assembly drawn by lot, whose purpose is to be a space to take binding decisions on important issues like climate change, pollution, emergencies, etc.
We accompany community processes through the different group facilitation methodologies and any of the tools you find on this page.
Any other needs? Tell us about your case and together we will explore the possibilities and the community process it might be most appropriate to generate.
Community activation and Oasis Game: we accompany community activation processes using the Oasis methodology devised by the Instituto Elos,This is a collective game which creates cohesion and activates a community by means of a process that culminates in the transformation of a physical space through community work and gives continuity to what is generated during the event.
Community as Partner, Municipalism and local politics: beyond the usual "citizen participation" there is a wide world of possibilities for allowing a community to participate in its own life and decisions. These are the processes we accompany. We also try to strengthen participatory municipalist initiatives, and that way of doing politics that directly involves the community. Meeting spaces for neighbours/neighbourhoods/villages/communities using processes that are participative and democratic in a deep sense. For this, we use different group facilitation methodologies, forums, popular pedagogy, etc: sometimes accompanying the community in spaces around a specific emergent issue, sometimes giving continuity to processes that have already begun, sometimes with processes we initiate and accompany long term. We can also accompany the internal processes of local municipalist groups themselves, to care for their relationships, the weaving of the group and the quality of their internal processes.
Community and citizen participation: sometimes, as an institution, local council, etc, you will want support to design and put into practice participatory processes in your town, village, neighbourhood or community. Using the approach already explained with regard to Community as Partner, we accompany you in generating spaces for listening, consultation or participation for this group by generating the conditions for processes to be carried out with care and be clear, participatory and reinforcing of the social fabric, thus enable the community to empower itself.
Citizen assemblies and deliberative processes: s Social Facilitation (also La Prossima Cultura in Italy and Cultura Facilita in Spain), we promote deliberative processes in order to generate deeper democracy and a change at the political level. Together with other entities, we are collaborating to promote these kinds of tools, which are called upon by institutions to address particularly complex issues where it is necessary to reach shared decisions by listening to the diversity of voices. An example of these deliberative processes is a local assembly drawn by lot, whose purpose is to be a space to take binding decisions on important issues like climate change, pollution, emergencies, etc.
Any other needs? Tell us about your case and together we will explore the possibilities and the community process it might be most appropriate to generate.