Building on the successful Community Talks held in Oni and Ambrolauri,  local residents joined Citizens’ Workshops, gaining during the three days practical knowledge to turn their community ideas into inclusive and citizen-led action.

During earlier Community Talks in Oni, citizens developed 15 initiatives for youth engagement, better access to education, tourism and economic development, as well as ecology and disaster prevention. In Ambrolauri, 20 possible initiatives were identified in the field of youth, education and healthcare. After priorities were identified in a survey, participants from both municipalities spent three days refining their proposals and developing practical skills needed to transform them into concrete community-led initiatives.

Interactive sessions on local democracy, community engagement, research methods, communication, project writing, and participatory budgeting helped community members to finetune action plans for the community initiatives. Particular attention was given to human rights at the local level, inclusivity, and effective engagement with local authorities.

Feedback was highly positive: according to the post-event survey, 75 per cent of participants were confident they would apply what they had learned when further developing their initiatives.

One participant commented: “Many thanks for the interestingly planned workshop and the selection of high-class consultants, who, in addition to knowledge, filled us with positive energy every day. I would like to see more active young people from Ambrolauri Municipality get involved in the future, as they should become the main driving force of local development.”

By combining theory with practice, the Citizens’ Workshop fostered a sense of ownership among participants and strengthened links between citizens and other relevant actors from public, private and civil sectors.

The initiative is implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2024-2027 with support from the International Partnerships Austria, in the framework of the project “Advancing Participatory and Human Rights-Based Local Democracy in Georgia”.