Case studies

Our case studies highlight real-world community engagement initiatives from CitizenLab’s network to provide you with good practices and lessons learned from other local governments and organizations that have used our digital community engagement platform to power their participation projects.

Community Assembly

How the London Borough of Newham used community assemblies to identify local priorities

With around 300,000 residents, Newham is one of the biggest and most diverse boroughs in London, so it should be no surprise that it’s not new to community engagement.

How community engagement helped reimagine public spaces in Philadelphia

From urgent calls for racial justice in public spaces to the recovery of small businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s obvious that urban main streets face unique economic and social challenges.

Centralized Participation

Stirling’s centralized community engagement promotes safe and impactful participation

With a population of around 94,000, the Stirling Council area sits right in the heart of Scotland. When the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic sent shockwaves to communities around the world, Stirling Council found itself with a conundrum: how could they get valuable community input without in-person meetings?

City of Lancaster, PA combines offline and online for equitable community engagement

This inclusive approach increased participation, including within traditionally under-heard communities, and gave the City the confidence to use their online engagement platform Engage Lancaster to tackle challenging local problems.

Participatory budget

Community Panels and Neighborhood Budgets: Ghent goes all in for participation

2020 brought the second edition of the city's participatory budgeting project. The city gathered an extensive team of participation experts and “neighborhood directors” to make co-creation even easier.

Collective urban planning in the London Borough of Newham

The London Borough of Newham has launched its consultation platform to include residents, businesses and shoppers in urban planning decisions.

Participatory budget

24,450 citizens take part in Peñalolén’s participatory budget

In each neighbourhood, citizens could voice their opinions and vote on what they think deserves the municipality’s investment. Over 24,450 inhabitants participated in this project via the online platform.

CQC engages health professionals

The Care Quality Commission consulted health professionals in the UK to gather insights insights into the needs and issues in health and social care

citizen proposals

Linz implements bottom-up participation

Linz (Austria) implemented citizen proposals to widen the scope of public engagement, allowing citizens to participate on any topic, from anywhere, at any time.

Youth engagement

INJUV consults millenials in Chile

Chile's National Youth Institute used its participation platform to connect with millenials and give them a voice in the elaboration of community programs. In a couple of months, over 28,250 young people signed on to share their ideas.

Rueil coordinates solidarity efforts during lockdown

The French city of Rueil-Malmaison used its community engagement platform to coordinate solidarity efforts during lockdown. The results: over 30000 masks were made and 6000 food baskets were delivered to citizens in need.

Leuven gives citizens a voice for its strategic plan

With the slogan “Leuven, maak het mee” (a play on words that implies both “experience the city” and “co-create the city”), the capital of Flemish Brabant aims to consult its inhabitants.

Applying artificial intelligence to citizen participation on the Youth4Climate platform

Youth4Climate used CitizenLab's automated analysis feature to turn thousands of citizen contributions into concise and actionable insights.

Combining online and offline approaches to participation in Mol and Temse

The Flemish cities of Mol and Temse combined digital platforms and offline events to reach all ranges of citizens.

All eyes on the climate in Grand Paris Sud

Grand Paris Sud consulted citizens on three key aspects of their upcoming annual strategy: mobility, culture and environment.

Collecting citizen input for the city's annual plan in Kortrijk

Clarity, communication and political buy-in made the city's communication platform a success for all those involved.

Marche-en-Famenne reaches 25% of citizens with its participation platform

25% of the city's inhabitants consulted the participation platform, and 1 in of 5 inhabitants weighed in on the renewal of the city's main square via the online consultation.

Lommel uses Citizenlab to involve citizens in urban planning decisions

Lommel turned to its citizens to imagine the future of one of the city's neighborhoods.

Crowdsourcing innovative ideas to improve mobility in Brussels

In addition to its formal consultation of the municipalities and formal stakeholders, Brussels reached out to mobilise public and private transport users.

Liège boosts citizen engagement

Liège is one of the biggest cities in Wallonia and certainly the most vibrant. The city chose CitizenLab to crowdsource its "City Plan" containing policy priorities for upcoming years.