2023 preview: Member vote results, new programs and a job ad
/At People Powered, we practice the participatory democracy that we preach. Each year, our members around the world decide our top priorities, and then we turn these priorities into action.
In 2022, our 77 member organizations and 53 board members voted on how to spend $200,000 and which individuals should join our board of directors. Our members voted to approve three priorities for 2023, and staff will also focus on expanding three priorities from prior years. Special thanks go to One Project for investing in this process, showing how funders can practice democracy too! Will you join in supporting this global work?
2023 member priorities
People Powered members approved funding for three projects in 2023:
1. Organize an in-person member meeting
People Powered staff look forward to hosting members in Mexico (not pictured: tacos!)
We will organize the first in-person meeting of People Powered members, to build relationships, plan our work together, and develop and test global tools and resources. We can’t wait to transform democracy in Mexico City in May!
We’re looking to hire an external meeting facilitator to help us align the global participatory democracy community around shared priorities. Please share and respond to the request for proposals!
2. Strengthen regional hubs
We will dedicate additional resources to our first two regional hubs, in Francophone Africa and in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, to help members better address specific local challenges and opportunities for participatory democracy.
3. Hire a fundraising manager
Our members have lots of great ideas for projects to implement, so they voted to invest in a fundraising manager to mobilize more funding and resources. The new hire will help raise funds for the other priorities identified by our members this year:
Small grants for research and projects.
Guide to low-tech participation tools.
Interactive database and map of members and projects.
Global survey of participatory budgeting participants.
Summer school or academy for participatory democracy practitioners and researchers.
Short videos and podcast content on participatory democracy.
Creation of a monitoring, evaluation and learning process for the work of People Powered.
Training and support for effective communication with governments.
Regional hubs launch kit and introduction of an additional hub
New communication channels for members.
Please share the job ad with good candidates! The location is remote and we welcome applications from candidates anywhere in the world. The application deadline is January 23.
BONUS: International residencies for members
After a year of planning, we’ll also launch a member exchange project approved in 2021: The Democracy Residencies program, a joint venture between Extituto de Política Abierta and People Powered. Through this three-month program, which will take place between February and May, People Powered members and Demo.Reset participant organizations will test and develop democracy tools and projects (such as the member priorities above) in person, by hosting individuals from other organizations for short-term residencies.
Expansion of current programs
In prior years, our members voted for us to develop innovative new global resources and programs to grow participatory democracy. In 2023, we’ll take several of these programs to the next level.
Release the Participation Playbook
For two years, we’ve worked with over 60 experts to synthesize what we know about how to plan participatory and deliberative democracy programs, and to make that knowledge more accessible to governments and organizations around the world. In 2023, we’ll publicly release the Participation Playbook, a groundbreaking, interactive, online tool for designing participatory programs.
Launch new accelerator programs
We’ll offer comprehensive training, mentorship, funding and support to help cohorts of governments and organizations start participatory programs. In 2023, we’ll add digital democracy to our accelerator programs, which already include climate democracy, so community members can decide the digital and climate policies that shape their lives.
Improve and expand participation technology ratings
We’ll release updated ratings of digital participation platforms, adding new digital tools, a more user-friendly format, and data from a global user survey.
Thank you!
This work wouldn’t be possible without our members, staff and financial supporters.
This is our final news announcement for the year! The entire People Powered team will be off December 23-January 2. We hope you enjoy an end-of-year break!
