Menorcans co-design plan to end residential exclusion
Kuorum provided the digital participation platform and expert advice that made this process possible. Initially, the Island Council and the Kuorum team got down to work by conducting a preliminary analysis of the situation. The available resources were sized and a map of the actors affected by the housing issue was drawn up. The groups that would act as the driving force were also identified and convened for a face-to-face meeting. Afterwards, a communication plan was drafted with measurable milestones for the following months.
Once the analysis phase was completed, the participatory process began with a perception survey on the causes of residential exclusion. This type of survey is very useful to raise awareness of the issue while capturing a large number of emails from interested citizens. Once the survey was completed, participants were invited to a launch event where the results of the survey were compared with the reality of the housing problem on the island. In this way, the attendees indirectly received training to prepare them for the next phase of the process: the online debate.
In this new phase, we started the dissemination tasks in our own and external media (Facebook Ads, press, radio, television, posters, etc.). Online debates are always complicated to dynamize. For this reason, in addition to traditional dissemination, workshops were held in high schools and universities to receive contributions from students using creativity and brainstorming techniques.
Once the deliberation period was over, the best proposals received through the participation website were selected. And a final workshop was organized to give them more solidity using a technique known as Innovation Canvas. Kuorum was in charge of writing a final report with the conclusions of the project. The case of Menorca is a good example of how a topic as complex as housing can be worked on in an open way with the citizens if the participatory process is well designed - in this case, including a previous analysis, a perception survey, an online debate and several workshops with professional facilitators.
Finally, the Consell presented the commitments acquired with some of the citizen proposals in a press conference. According to the Councilor for Housing and Participation, Cristina Gómez, "the Island Council of Menorca has managed to work together with the citizens on a problem of relevance for the island, strengthen the training of its public employees, build a segmented census of participation and learn new techniques for the implementation of participatory processes". Projects like this one are common in the most innovative city councils and regional governments, such as the City Councils of Vienna, Toledo or Manchester.
"A very valuable exchange of ideas was achieved."
At Kuorum we help people around the world make collective decisions that matter. Tell us your goals and we'll tell you how we can help.
Request a demo
