Citizen participation, self-empowerment, DIY-democracy – all good concepts, but how can we achieve them in practice? Municipalities play an important role in encouraging residents and organizations to participate and actively engage with fellow members of the community.
Participation Next is a unique, socially intelligent platform that helps municipalities connect citizens, organizations and local initiatives based on interests, connections and location, making participation easy and fun.
While Participation Next may resemble a social media platform like Facebook, it is specifically designed to encourage and facilitate citizen participation. The easy-to-use platform allows users to create a profile highlighting areas of interest in which they are currently active or want to be active. The system connects users, organizations and local initiatives together.
Participation Next includes a game element to make participation even more enjoyable. Users can accumulate virtual “participation points” that can be redeemed for rewards such as services from the municipality. A municipality could award additional virtual points to stimulate participation in a particular activity.
While technology helps facilitate citizen participation, CGI also has a roadmap for generating awareness, as well as a tailored approach and guidance for smooth rollouts. To determine the right approach for your municipality, we use the Participation Next Analysis Model to chart the way to a successful implementation.
Neighborhoods where residents participate, or want to participate, in activities together are often more pleasant, safer neighborhoods. Municipalities can encourage such environments using Participation Next.
