Tomorrow: National Civic League Hosts Webinar on Citizen's Assemblies, Register Now

In the introductory webinar hosted by National Civic League, Promising Practices: Citizens Assemblies 101, explore the fundamentals of Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) and their role in modern democracy. This webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of how Citizens’ Assemblies work, their history, and their impact on public policy. Hear from speakers Matt Leighninger, Marjan H. Ehsassi, Brandyn Keating, and Jillian Youngblood! Register today for the webinar tomorrow, August 28th at 12pm ET (11am CT, 10am MT, 9am PT). Read the blog post below and learn more here.

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Release: Promising Practices Webinar: Citizens’ Assemblies 101

​August 28th at 12pm ET (11am CT, 10am MT, 9am PT). Register here.

​​Join us for a webinar on the ins and outs of this promising democratic innovation that's making waves. Citizens' Assemblies (CAs) are a democratic innovation that bring together a diverse group of residents, selected randomly through a civic lottery, to deliberate on public policy issues. This practice involves several phases: learning from experts, discussing and debating different options, and ultimately making recommendations.

By incorporating a representative sample of the population based on key demographics, Citizens' Assemblies offer an alternative and supplement to traditional representative democracy. They aim to counteract political polarization and elitism, providing a platform for informed, collective decision-making on important societal issues.

In this introductory webinar, we’ll explore the fundamentals of Citizens' Assemblies and their role in modern democracy. This webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of how CAs work, their history, and their impact on public policy.

Speakers will provide an overview of CAs, including their: 

• Potential to alleviate political polarization and enhance civic engagement; 
• Purpose to provide innovative solutions to complex policy issues; and
• Process for selecting participants, providing expert consultations, and facilitating productive discussions, and deliberations.

Attendees will also learn from real-world cases where Citizens' Assemblies have successfully influenced policy decisions and brought communities together.

Register now!

Speakers: 

• ​Matt Leighninger: Director, Center for Democracy Innovations, National Civic League
  • Matt leads the Center’s work in strengthening democratic infrastructure, organizing national engagement efforts, and measuring the quality of engagement and democracy. Matt has been one of the central figures in democracy innovation over the last twenty years. As a network-builder, convener, author, commentator, researcher, and practitioner, he has helped catalyze and connect the key developments in the recent evolution of democracy. Matt’s first book, The Next Form of Democracy, is a firsthand account of that wave of democratic innovation that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s. His second, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy, co-authored with Tina Nabatchi, is a guide and textbook that surveys the role and potential of engagement in K-12 education, health, land use planning, and the work of state and federal governments.

 

• Marjan H. Ehsassi: Executive Director, Federation for Innovation in Democracy - North America
  • Movement builder, strategic policy advisor, researcher and practitioner. She is a fierce believer in citizen-centric, inclusive, responsive and impactful government-led engagement that provide citizens with consequential voice in policy reform. Marjan is a Berggruen Institute Future of Democracy Fellow, an IDEA Senior Fellow, a Senior Associate at MASS LBP, and Strategic Program Director of the Democratic Action Fund. She is on the steering committee of Global Innovations and Democracy (GID) and serves on several boards including Healthy Democracy, the American Friends Service Committee, Apolitical Academy and the Local Policy Lab. She was one of four guarantors selected to the Collège des Garants of the French Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life (2022-2023) and on the Oversight Committee of G1000’s We Need To Talk Citizens’ Panel (2022-2023).

 

• Brandyn Keating: Founder and CEO, YOUnify
  • Brandyn has a 20 year history of scaling relationship-based community building for social change as a political professional, trainer, coach, facilitator and social entrepreneur. She has trained organizations and individuals across the US on having transformative values-based conversations across differences as well as on leadership, social change and organization-building. A civic engagement innovator, Brandyn has overseen over two dozen randomized controlled experiments conducted with social scientists, including first-of-their-kind studies on the most effective ways to reduce polarization and change voter behavior. Keating served in leadership roles on both of President Obama’s campaigns, national nonprofits, the SuperPAC NextGen Climate and on countless issue and electoral campaigns. She also served as Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, on the Public Safety Working Group of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s 2006 transition team and on the Drug Policy Task Force of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

 

• Jillian Youngblood: Executive Director, Civic Genius 
  • Jillian has nearly 20 years of experience in politics, government, and strategic communications with a focus on deliberative democracy and solutions-oriented public engagement. On Capitol Hill, she was a lead staffer for the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and worked on issues related to health care, urban planning, and appropriations. Previously, she managed New York City’s federal and state legislative portfolios on public health under the Bloomberg Administration, and was a consultant to numerous nonprofit and corporate clients across a range of public policy issues. Jillian is a frequent speaker and trainer on transformative civic engagement. She sits on the board of the Seattle City Club and is a 2024 fellow of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.