The Deepening Democracy Project – Logan Story

The Deepening Democracy Project – Logan emerged from a Logan Together initiative to sponsor invited social change leaders from within Logan to attend ChangeFest 2019. Community leaders who were supported to attend decided they wanted ongoing connection with each other, and community activism based on their personal experiences and what they had learned together. On this basis, a working group was formed at the beginning of 2020.

Discussions and shared stories amongst the working group members and those recorded on community day events at the inaugural ChangeFest in 2018 and in ChangeFest 2019 revealed a clear theme that citizens want their voices to be heard on decisions that impact upon them. People felt frustrated that policies and services were being designed without community input that led to services that did not meet community needs or popular services withdrawn. People articulated that they wanted to be a serious part of  policy and program decision making and to be involved in the co-design of policies, programs and services from their inception. In short, that no policy, program or service design should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the group(s) affected by that policy or program.

“Nothing about us without us”

Why the focus on democracy?

Democracy gives a name to the idea of giving people “voice”. In its most basic form, democracy is a system of governance by “the people”. Strengthening people’s voice through deepening democracy means that people and communities directly participate in policy and program decision making. This structural change, putting community voice at the centre of decision making, means that the pressures and challenges that people face in their lives will lead to action, making institutions more accountable and responsive to these challenges. Without this shift, people’s movements may continue to work on and even win individual campaigns. However, outside of one-off wins, without permanent participative mechanisms in place, ongoing and systematic issues are likely to continue to be overlooked.

How do we find our power?

The goal of Deepening Democracy is to build community networks and support community members to become better at being active in social change and to build leadership capability so that people can mobilise to have influence over the policy decisions that impact their lives by:

• Learning through organizing / popular education and support
• Building alliances to build movements
• Creating change through doing / active campaigning

Active members / working group (in alphabetical order)

• Karen Dawson-Sinclair
• Roger Marshall
• Kylie Pett
• Angela Tui Samoa
• Yolanda van Gellecum

Resource members

• Christine Grosse
• Sue Jankovic

Informed members

We also have a number of members who want to stay informed of the working group’s activities.

Contact

To contact The Deepening Democracy Project – Logan you can email us at ddp.logan@gmail.com