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Hi members,
We hope you had a great May! In this June member update check out our recap of workshop week, register for our June member workshops on school participation, apply for our latest accelerator programs and help us grow the People Powered community!
Workshop week highlights
We ran our first-ever virtual workshop week, gathering members, partners, funders, and participants in the Inclusive Democracy Accelerator (IDA) and the Mainstreaming Participation Accelerator (MPA) for shared learning, reflection and action!
Together, we explored some of the most pressing questions in our field: How do we bring more voices into government decisions? How can we rebuild public trust through participation? And what does it take to make inclusion a lasting feature of how institutions work?
Find out more about the key takeaways and highlights!
Find out what the regional hubs were discussing here.
Are you an expert on, or curious about, participation in schools? Join our upcoming June member workshops!
June 23 & 26
One of this year’s winning PP Decides projects aims to develop pedagogical materials that teachers, civil society officials and other practitioners can use to bring participatory democracy to schools. To achieve this, we are developing new Participation Playbook tracks; compiling and translating resources; synthesizing impact data; and developing guidance on the digital tools in schools.
We are developing these resources with and for People Powered members, so we’re inviting you to get involved in the resource development process. During two member workshops on June 23 and 26, we will share an update on what we’re working on and what we’ve learned so far. Participants will also engage in a conversation about what school participation looks like in their context — to highlight similarities and differences across regions. This discussion will help us to tailor the resources so that they’re useful for your work.
Please note that AI notetakers will not be allowed into the session. Notes and key takeaways will be shared after the workshop.
We'll also repeat the workshop on Thursday for members in different time zones:
📅 Date: April 24, 2025
⏰ Time: 12 pm –1pm ET / 4pm - 5pm UTC
📍 Location: Zoom
📅 Date: April 28, 2025
⏰ Time: 8am - 9am ET / 12pm - 1pm UTC
📍 Location: Zoom
Community Updates
Apply for our programs to improve your skills in participation!
We have three exciting programs now open for applications. Feel free to share with your networks!
Bonus: Members have a higher chance of being accepted into our programs, so take advantage of this opportunity to learn more and apply below.
🌍 Democratic Innovations Accelerator (DIA)
For governments and CSOs working on youth participation in Europe and Horizon Europe countries.
🌱 Inclusive Democracy Accelerator (IDA)
For governments and CSOs engaging youth, women, and displaced people in Latin America, Africa, Asia, or Eastern Europe.
💡 Rising Stars Mentorship
Short-term, focused support for solving specific participation challenges—this round is open to EU and Horizon Europe applicants.
Apply by July 1, 2025
👉 Apply for an Accelerator or Mentorship
These programs have supported actions such as:
A Citizens’ Assembly in Georgia and a youth-designed digital platform in Berlin—projects transforming public participation through local innovation in Europe.
Participatory policymaking that led to a new climate adaptation policy in Zimbabwe, new regenerative agriculture practices, reduced deforestation, and more inclusive community participation.
Winning access to clean water for 44,000 people in Kenya through government partnerships.
Help us grow the community!
We’re always expanding our network with new individuals and organizations practicing participatory democracy around the world. Know anyone who would be interested? They can apply to become a People Powered member here! Feel free to reach out to the Community Building team at membership@peoplepowered.org if you’d like to recommend someone for membership.
Opportunities
How does a Resilient Civil Society Defend Democracy against Authoritarian Regimes? (Brussels, June 12)
📆 June 12, 2025
⏰ 9:00 - 11:00 AM (In-person)
📍 FNF Europe Regional Office in Brussels
Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Global Innovation Hub, is running a panel on the resilience of civil society in protecting democracy against disinformation operations from authoritarian regimes, focusing on Taiwan. The panel will include experts from FNF and Cofacts, a crowdsourced fact-checking chatbot, as well as a workshop for shared discussions and learnings.
Register here!
Five dimensions of scaling democratic deliberation: With and beyond AI
📆 Date: June 17, 2025
⏰ Time: 11 AM EST
📍 Location: Online via Zoom
This online event organized by DemocracyNext explores AI’s potential to transform and scale democratic deliberation. Speakers include Oliver Escobar, Kyle Redman and Manon Revel.
Register here!
URBIS: The Smart Cities Meetup
📅 Date: June 10–12, 2025
📍 Location: Brno Exhibition Centre, Czech Republic
URBIS 2025 is the leading Smart City innovation platform in Central and Eastern Europe, co-organized by Participation Factory, a People Powered member, and returning to Brno this June with an expected 5,000+ participants and representatives from over 600 cities. This year’s edition places citizen participation and civic tech at its core, making it a major moment for the participatory democracy and digital governance communities.
Updates from members
What has the community been working on this month?
Ciudadanía Inteligente has launched a platform to monitor legislation and strengthen political advocacy, called Transparentes.cl in Chile!
Blair Glencorse of Accountability Lab was interviewed on their research on the Sustainable Ambassador Podcast, speaking on the impact of USAID’s closure, and what it reveals about financial vulnerabilities across the sector.
Member publications
Read the latest from our community!
Check out these Dialogue sessions on Citizens’ Assemblies with experts all over the world, including our member Iswe.
Shared Future is putting together a resource library! Check out their latest briefing paper on participatory budgeting in schools.
Welcome to our newest members!
We are excited to introduce one new organizational member this month! Here’s some information about them:
Just a reminder that you can access the Member Directory Airtable via this link. Use the password PPmembers24 to log in!
Organization members:
Icon Data Learning and Labs CBO is a youth-led and youth-serving community organization based in Kenya promoting data-driven community transformation for sustainable development. They work closely with community members, youths and local leaders on participatory democracy by equipping them with skills and knowledge on meaningful community participation. The contact is Levi Juma.
Join us in offering a warm welcome to our new member! We look forward to engaging and learning from them.
We hope you have a great June, and we look forward to seeing you soon at one or more of these events!
The People Powered team