Community Foundation announces funding for NI’s first Citizens’ Assembly
(via the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland)
The Community Foundation has added its support to plans for a Northern Ireland Citizens’ Assembly with funding of £30,000.
Since 1979 the Foundation has been supporting innovative initiatives, focused on the role that ordinary citizens can play in dealing with the issues that matter most to them.
The proposed Citizens Assembly is an exciting new project and we anticipate it being one of many future initiatives where community and voluntary sector organisations play a leading role in fostering the involvement of citizens in decision making processes that impact all our lives.
The majority of funding for the project has already been provided by Building Change Trust, which supports and invests in the voluntary and community sectors in Northern Ireland. It is an independent charity established by the Big Lottery Fund and staffed by the Community Foundation.
The Citizens’ Assembly will see the random selection from the electoral roll of up to 100 people from across Northern Ireland who will debate and vote on issues that politicians have yet to resolve. It will be delivered by a charitable think-tank called Involve which has run previous Citizens’ Assemblies in other parts of the UK.
Read more via the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland…