As 2024 wraps up, our facilitation team is sharing their standout moments. From mysteriously missing catering and questionable gong skills to a surprise bush trek under the stars, 2024 had its fair share of laughs, twists, and unforgettable memories.
The City of Melbourne views affordable housing as crucial infrastructure for maintaining a liveable, inclusive, and prosperous city. With a projected shortfall of 23,200 affordable homes by 2036, immediate action is needed to address this long-standing issue. While there is broad community support for affordable housing, acceptance often wanes at the neighbourhood level. To tackle this, a People’s Panel of 39 diverse community members was established to represent local perspectives.
A support facilitator studying psychology, our first team member based in NSW and a brand new participant recruitment coordinator... meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Polo, Polly and Gus! Learn more about this trio of terrific team members and gain some insights into who they REALLY are through their answers to our fast five questions!
How should we plan for the new energy future while providing affordable services that meet changing customer and community needs? Two representative ‘Voice of the Customer’ panels in Queensland answered this question. Randomly selected, everyday customers deliberated and agreed on recommendations that electricity distributors Ergon Energy Network and Energex used to prepare Regulatory Proposals for the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). Delve into a tale of two deliberative customer panels, and gain ideas and insights you can draw on for your next project.
We believe in supporting emerging and underserved people and communities to have deeper conversations that lead to stronger democracies. ML Giving is the new name of the not-for-profit part of MosaicLab - a banner for the work we do that gives back. We’re focussing on furthering community inclusion and action beyond just getting input and instead moving into enabling local decision-making. Explore the principles ML Giving will operate under, and the kind of projects and conversations we’re supporting.
New data confirming that civic engagement, trust in local councils and belief in democratic processes are enhanced through deliberative engagement has been captured in a MosaicLab report. This new research, which collated data across 10 deliberative projects and involved hundreds of participants, adds weight to the argument that democracy done differently leads to positive impacts and powerful change.
MosaicLab has had the privilege of working with many Victorian councils over recent months and supporting them to design and deliver deliberative engagement processes. An interesting and exciting element of this experience has been the high level of influence some councils offered to their community around the development of their community visions.
In this article we look at three different approaches. One council that set the level of influence at ‘empower’ from the outset, and two others that accepted their community’s vision statement in full.
In November 2020 when the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee held an inquiry into ‘Nationhood, national identity and democracy’ our Managing Director, Nicole Hunter, was there to give evidence about how deliberative processes could improve democracy and restore faith in the democratic process.
Our Managing Director, Nicole Hunter, appeared before the Australian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy on the 13th of November. The Inquiry is concerned with exploring issues around the worldwide trend in public dissatisfaction with democratic politics, the erosion of trust in democratic institutions, and the challenges and opportunities they present.
The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) has appointed the newDemocracy Foundation to undertake a pioneer project centred around doing democracy differently. It’s an announcement that has us excited. Today we’re shining a spotlight on this project, which has potential to inspire democratic change and the adaption of deliberative engagement principles across the globe.
newDemocracy’s Executive Director Iain Walker provided us with some insights into what we can expect from what is shaping up to be an innovative and impactful project.
As 2017 draws to a close, we've rounded up some interesting people who work in the world of public participation, community engagement and deliberative democracy. Our interviewees, who hail from as far as the UK and New Zealand, have shared their reflections on the year that was 2017, and their hopes and predictions for what might be in 2018.
From a researcher to facilitator and digital engagement expert to local government employee - these interviews offer a diverse collection of perspectives and ideas.
Thank you to the six individuals who have taken the time to share their candid, insightful and inspiring thoughts. Here's to a 2018 that shines bright for the engagement and deliberative democracy space.
MosaicLab's co-founder Nicole Hunter recently took part on a panel of esteemed guests discussing potential futures for democracy across Australia and the World. The panel formed part of the University of Canberra Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA) Smart Governance Conversation on Desirable Futures series.
The evening saw a very interesting conversation take place around democracy in Australia and beyond and ideas for doing it differently in the future. If you weren't lucky enough to make it on the evening, today we're sharing the official video of the panel discussion.
