Crowdsourced Ideas for Participation in London

We believe that participation is a really good thing for Camden, it’s not a luxury, it’s the only way we can solve the challenges facing our borough. There are lots of people working to make London a city where everyone can influence decisions that impact them, we got some of the together and asked them 2 questions.

One idea to make London a more participatory city?

• Requirement for councils to deliver over 30% of their funding through participation model (through intermediaries if required) 

• More communication that's accessible, and multi media 

• Implementing regular town hall meetings where citizens can voice their concerns, ideas, and suggestions to local government officials could help make London a more participatory city. 

• Active reach beyond the usual suspects across a wide range of areas 

• Nurture the great expertise and motivation that exists in all pockets of London by investing in capacity building 

• Clarity around how we decide who is included and who is left out - who decides who is trusted 

• Training for communities to harness the knowledge and power 

• Participatory community investment to bring assets into community ownership 

• Participation around investment, housing, the terms of private investment and so much more 

• (Funded) peer learning across councils who are running/ interested in participatory schemes 

• Institutional funders being genuine about understanding and sharing power 

• Partnerships between business statutory and vcs 

• Get current decision makers within funding comfortable with losing power 

• Citizens with more decision-making power 

• All London boroughs to have one or more participatory budgeting panels made up of residents 

• More enlightened funders 

• Awareness of the benefits 

• Proof it makes better decisions 

• More people knowing about ways to get involved 

• More networking/learning opportunities about how it’s done. 

• An infrastructure fund to support vcs organisations to lead participatory activities 

• More power to councils! 

• More opportunities for young people (youth boards, etc) 

• Opening up community spaces to host participatory decision making 

• Community led investment in capital infrastructure and community space 

• More engagement with schools 

• Empowering community with skills and knowledge 

• Pooled participatory funding 

What could you do to make London more participatory? 

• Offering opportunities for those who feel their voices are not heard 

• Making participation more equitable so that those furthest away are able to join in 

• Develop a London wide framework /toolkit 

• Trial participatory funding 

• Be more active in looking into how our youth participatory approaches can be shared in a London place based context 

• Help connect boroughs who are developing participatory budgeting and place based giving 

• Enable councils with more resources to share with areas that don't 

• Have a meeting with the Mayor 

• Devolve money to existing community organisations to lead participation 

• Try participatory funding and talk to other funders about the experience 

• Advocate for community voices when making granting plans, decisions, audits, etc 

• Involve communities we wish to reach in decision making about our funding - do so explicitly and share learning with other funders 

• Advocate for participatory grant giving across my sector and with our public sector partners  

• I would love to see more community groups/organisations given capital to redistribute with support from those with great knowledge and insights on participatory grant making 

• Provide capacity building to community/grassroots groups to create olid foundations for them to have a say 

• Shout about the work that is happening already - and get more people on board! 

• Ensure our grantmaking is as participatory as possible 

• Create a participation index/ kitemark that boroughs want to meet! 

• I will tell ten people about the inspiring stories and ideas I've heard tonight 

• Give councils the connections, confidence, knowledge and community to shift how they operate 

• As a social worker, I can ensure to involve the children and adults voices in decision making and encourage different approaches such as FGC’s etc 

• Challenge non-participatory thinking and approaches 

• Fund participatory skills building programmes 

• Join a community participatory board 

• Ask more questions!! 

• Get rid of the GLA 

You can read more about the work we’re doing to advance participation here.