The successful participation example below describes the project design and success factors. What should you pay attention to? When do citizens get started? When are they not moving forward? What is the ratio between physical and digital ‘meetings’?
Case: Student transport in the municipalities of Lingewaard and Overbetuwe
The case ‘Pupil transport Lingewaard/Overbetuwe’ shows that the government is very capable of actively involving citizens in policy- list to data making. In this specific case, it was about devising and formulating new policy for pupil transport in special education. The reason for the new policy? Among other things, rising costs in times of severe cutbacks. The idea was; we are going to tackle and solve this together with those involved. The most important stakeholders were parents, representatives of schools, municipalities, transport companies and social organisations. The starting points for the new policy to be formed were:enters an empty cafe
Providing customized services based on the capabilities of students and parents.
In both municipalities, between 600 and 700 children (in total) use the student transport. The participation project aimed to give substance and colour to the new policy together with those involved and thus increase the support base. All the more reason to get started openly and transparently. Not only in small halls, but also actively during short but intensive periods on a digital platform.
Phase 1 involved finding and involving as
many stakeholders in the project as possible. Classic and ‘modern’ communication tools were used. People do not just come to a meeting or digital platform. They need to know that it exists. That is why traditional communication tools were also used, such as press releases, letters for parents and flyers for the children themselves.
A small group of supporting stakeholders posted a number of example statements in advance for all themes. The old adage certainly applies to this type of platform: ‘no one goes into an empty café’. In the two weeks that the platform was open, more than 100 statements and almost 1,000 responses were left. A europe email total of 223 people went to work on the platform. After a simple registration, the participants could get started. During the two weeks that the platform was open in this phase, cost of poor whatsapp number data a lot of hard work was done on putting forward and discussing statements. This happened within six themes, appointed by the municipality: