September news: share your democracy story + AI webinar [Closes soon]
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Last call: Applications for the Democracy Stories Lab close on September 14.
If you make short videos, illustrations, or graphics and you have something to say about what democracy looks like when people actually hold power over their own lives, this is for you. Original or already published. Four winners take home $1,000 each, five honorable mentions $500, and every winner gets amplified across the People Powered and Democracy Narratives Alliance networks and featured at a global screening event.
Next week: How Is AI Changing Citizen Participation?
What should AI actually be doing in democratic participation, and what should it be kept away from? A new report from the OECD and Bertelsmann Stiftung maps 50 use cases across 22 countries, from chatbots helping residents access public services in Bogotá to tools helping facilitators surface common ground in Derry, along with the risks that come with each. Join us on September 16 to unpack the findings with the researchers and with practitioners already using these tools, including Co-operation Ireland and WeVis Thailand.
From findings to practice: a workshop on September 30
On September 30, we move from findings to practice. In facilitated breakout groups led by practitioners working with these tools, you will compare approaches, surface shared challenges, and leave with concrete ideas to apply in your own work.
Practice what you preach: how networks can benefit from participatory democracy
At American University in Bulgaria, generative AI had turned into a standoff: faculty "navigating in the dark," students in what one organizer called "basically a free-for-all." So Vlada Kolesnikova brought both sides into the same room to write the AI rules together. Through People Powered's Digital Democracy Accelerator, that idea became a process, and it worked well enough that we funded an expansion to five more universities, where administrators are now ready to adopt what their communities developed.
Practice what you preach: how networks can benefit from participatory democracy
Organizations that advocate for democracy spend a lot of time asking governments to share power. Not many turn the question inward. But the Youth Democracy Cohort, a network of more than 600 youth organizations coordinated by the European Partnership for Democracy, did! With support from People Powered, EPD ran its first member-wide decision-making process on Decidim, letting members set the network's own priorities. Read on for what they learned, and what any network should know before trying this on itself.
Meet Estela our new Program Manager, Europe
Ask most people about participatory democracy in Europe and you'll hear a story about progress. Estela Vidal, who leads our programs across Europe, has been doing this work for twenty years, and that story doesn't match what she's seen. In our latest Q&A, she talks about what two decades across Malawi, Spain, and Ireland have taught her about power, and why Europe's reputation as a participatory success story looks more complicated from the inside.
Politize!: Civic Education Institute has received the European Union Human Rights Prize for its work advancing civic education and democratic engagement. The team is heading to Brussels this month to build new international partnerships.
Perfect City and National Civic League recently collaborated with the NYC Civic Engagement Commission to launch Better Public Meetings NYC, a new initiative focused on improving how New Yorkers participate in local decision-making through public meetings. The project explores how creativity can help make public meetings more inclusive, engaging, and even joyful — with more work planned in cities across the US.
Maria Milosh’s Open Facilitation Library has been selected for Mozilla’s Democracy x AI cohort, which supports projects exploring how AI can strengthen rather than undermine democracy. The project focuses on what good facilitation should look like as AI becomes more involved in digital deliberation and collective decision-making.
Katy Rubin and The People Act have launched a global map of Legislative Theatre in partnership with the Legislative Theatre Center of Poland. It already features more than 40 projects across 19 countries, showing how communities are using creative participation to influence policy and democratic practice.
September 15–17: Consul Conference 2026 (Munich, Germany)
September 16: How is AI changing Citizen Participation? (Online)
September 21-23: International Observatory on Participatory Democracy Conference (Krakow, Poland)
September 29–October 1: Athens Democracy Forum (Athens, Greece)
September 30: AI and Citizen Participation: A Practitioner Workshop (Online)
October 1: Global Democracy Coalition Global Forum (Athens, Greece; hybrid)
October 7-10: Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy (Gaborone, Botswana)
November 2–3: World Forum for Democracy (Strasbourg, France)
November 18–19: FIDE Forum 2026 (Vienna, Austria)
Five dimensions of scaling democratic deliberation: With and beyond AI: This paper by Sammy McKinney and Claudia Chwalisz from DemocracyNext proposes a five-dimensional framework to evaluate the role of AI in strengthening democratic resilience.
The Alberta Narratives Project: This guide from Climate Outreach focuses on practical guidance for climate and energy communicators to engage with the general public.
Voice insecurity: Mapping the consequences of institutional exclusion & charting a path to democratic renewal with citizens' assemblies: This report from FIDE North America introduces a framework adapted from food insecurity to explain why citizens feel a deep lack of agency in modern democracy.
