🙋🏽 6 funding opportunities, 2 Book launches & 1 update from India!
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Hi friend!
This month, we bring you several exciting updates from People Powered. We launched two books 📚 authored by our members that explore innovative approaches to help people become more active democratic citizens. We hope you'll find the recap and books valuable for your work!
We spotlight a new member, ✨Janaagraha, who is transforming urban life in India. Read our interview with Santosh Nargund, the head of participatory governance. We also introduce a new team member and share the latest call for our mentorship program. 🌟
Read all of this, along with updates from our members and partners, funding opportunities, and more below!
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Two new books show how we can help people become more active citizens
How can participatory democracy create more active citizens? Dive into the key takeaways from the recent launch webinar of two books authored by our members — Educating for Democracy and Activated Citizenship — where we explore how participatory budgeting in schools and citizens' assemblies are helping people learn and practice democracy in communities worldwide.
Transforming urban life in India: How Janaagraha puts people at the heart of governance
One of the newest People Powered members has been doing great work to revolutionize urban governance in India: We’re proud to share the story of Janaagraha! Learn about their participatory budgeting in Bengaluru and transformative projects in Odisha to create more inclusive and sustainable cities that put people at the heart of decision-making.
Introducing our new Learning and Evaluation Manager — Ryan Goehrung!
New team member alert! Ryan Goehrung joined the People Powered team as our new Learning and Evaluation Manager. He joins us through the prestigious Leading Edge Fellowship program by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), which matches recent PhD graduates with organizations advancing social justice and equity. Ryan G. will help us understand, communicate, and grow the impact of our work to accelerate transitions to participatory democracy around the world. Learn more about Ryan today.
Apply for the Rising Stars Mentorship Program!
Applications for the Rising Stars Mentorships are open again. If you are a government official, staff, or civil society representative, you'll have the chance to receive guidance to launch or enhance your participatory programs. You will be assigned to one of our carefully selected 28 expert mentors from 20 countries. Meet with them over six months as they provide tailored support for your initiative.
This is the final round of applications for 2024, and limited slots are available, so apply before September 27!
Participation Factory released their Civic Tech Market Report 202, covering major trends in digital participation, with insights from industry experts, including our Program Associate Melissa Zisengwe!
Ciudadanía Inteligente launched a new tool as part of the Abre Alcaldías project called DemocraciaKit. It's a gamified platform designed to help public servants and civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean build participatory projects in 7 steps.
Democracy International launched a petition that demands it is ‘Time for a truly democratic United Nations’ with 1000 signatures and growing.
Involve and Demos published a Citizens’ White Paper setting out a practical, costed roadmap to embedding citizen participation in national policymaking in the United Kingdom.
The Democratic Society is working with citizens to develop tools and build capacity to address pro- and anti-democratic grievances in policymaking. This effort involves co-designing and experimenting with practices considering emotions in the policymaking process. The initiative is part of the EU Horizon PLEDGE consortium.
Meri Harutyunyan and the Yerevan Open Government Partnership team in Armenia have begun implementing the participatory program they developed in the Climate Democracy Accelerator, kicking off with a roundtable session on the Yerevan Green City Action Plan.
Asuntos del Sur opens calls for Reconocimiento a la Innovación Democrática (Recognition of Democratic Innovation), a participatory initiative to foster democratic innovation in Latin America. The process invites citizens to propose and vote on ideas to strengthen democracy and civic engagement across the region.
Open Government Partnership: Five Recommendations to Connect Youth with Public Institutions in Quintana Roo
World Bank: Designing sustainable participatory processes: Lessons from Kenya
September 10–October 9: OGP Local Deep Dives: Public Participation, Gender and inclusion, Anti-corruption, Fiscal Openness, and Open data
September 25–27: The Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa
October 8: From Design to Implementation: Citizens' Assemblies.
October 10–11: BMW Innovation Forum
October 17–19: International Observatory on Participatory Democracy conference (Valongo, Portugal)
October 22: Democracy Innovations Workshop (Arizona, US)
October 22–24: Citizens’ Assembly School (Arizona, US)
October 23–25: Decidim Fest 2024
October 31: World Cities Day
Legislative theater manual: This detailed manual in English, Romanian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Greek and Polish is for practitioners interested in using legislative theater in their work, with practical tools and exercises.
Proposed model for a citizens' climate assembly in the Balearic Islands, Spain: This climate assembly model (in Spanish) was adapted specifically for archipelagic contexts, taking into consideration principles and criteria for insular and regional levels.
Exploring worldwide democratic innovations - a series of case studies: This research report explores participatory culture and experiences across the globe with cases from Georgia, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Taiwan, North Macedonia, and more.
See more featured resources from on the Resource Center!
DFAT, Australian Government: Call for multi-year proposals to address transboundary development challenges in the Mekong subregion (Deadline: October 11, 2024)
Commonwealth Foundation: Open call with grants up to £30,000 for projects in the commonwealth that seek to facilitate constructive engagement between civil society and decision-makers (Deadline: October 24, 2024)
The Agency Fund: Open call for projects that demonstrate socioeconomic impact and will serve 1M or more within several years, directly or indirectly (Deadline: October 31, 2024)
National Endowment for Democracy: Grants to advance democratic goals and strengthen democratic institutions (Deadline: January 7, 2025)
Multitudes Foundation: Open call for incubation and scaling grants for organizations building more inclusive politics in Europe (Rolling deadline)
The Democratic Odyssey: Open Call for Observers for the Democratic Odyssey Transnational Peoples' Assembly
Proximate: We Need a "Just Transition" for Democracy, by Josh Lerner
San Francisco Chronicle: Elections alone won’t save democracy in U.S. or elsewhere. Here’s what will help, by Joe Mathews
Boston Review: Beyond Elections, by Josh Lerner
SSIR: Starting With the State: Strategic philanthropy should go global and invest in good governance, by Tim Hanstad
Accountability Lab: Building (unfunded) accountability into the localization agenda – Part 1, by Jean Scrimgeour
Apply for mentorship
Learn more about the books that invite us to (Re)learn Democracy
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