involve

20/08/2026

⚡ A new overhead power line is coming between Tandragee and Armagh City, and we want your local knowledge to help decide the route.

No experience or knowledge is needed.

📬 Watch your post: a letter from SONI is arriving late August, inviting randomly selected residents to join a Citizen Panel shaping the plans.

🤝 Already active in your community through a group, business or organisation? Put your name forward for our Community Forum and feed in your feedback directly. Sign up ASAP to attend the first session in September.

👉 Register your interest: https://www.involve.org.uk/news-opinion/project-updates/how-can-local-people-help-shape-improvements-electricity-network

19/08/2026

19/08/2026

Free youth clubs. Safer streets. More women in leadership. Lifelong education to challenge harmful behaviours before they take root.

💡 These are the ideas Maidstone residents put forward to help address Violence Against Women and Girls, developed through a pioneering citizen deliberation project, believed to be the first of its kind in England on this issue.

We partnered with Maidstone Borough Council to bring this to life, drawing on insights from our 2025 VAWG public dialogue in Belfast, where residents used the same approach to explore preventing violence in outdoor spaces.

🗣️ 37 residents, broadly reflective of the borough's population, spent weeks exploring the issue together. Discussions started in smaller groups of shared identity and experience, before coming together as one; building the trust needed for honest, open conversation.

The result: eight recommendations, shaped directly by the people who will live with the outcome. Maidstone Borough Council has committed £250,000 to turn them into reality.

This is what happens when everyone, residents, council, services, gets a genuine seat at the table. Ideas rooted in real experience, and the means to make them real.

Read more and the report 👇
https://www.involve.org.uk/our-work/our-projects/what-can-we-all-do-community-stop-violence-against-women-and-girls-it-starts

14/08/2026

🔍 We're hiring: Digital Communications Officer

🤔 Do you believe our democracy needs an upgrade? Like us, do you want to help people right across the UK have a greater say in the decisions that affect their lives? Then join our team and help make our vision of a more vibrant democracy a reality.

ℹ️ As our Digital Communications Officer, you'll create compelling content across social, web and email, work closely with project teams and partners, and help build the public and political support that puts people at the heart of decision-making.

📍 Flexible location, some UK travel
⏳ Closes mid-day, Monday 7 September 2026

If you're creative, platform-savvy, and want to put your skills to work for stronger democracy, we'd love to hear from you.

✍️ Read more and apply: https://www.involve.org.uk/news-opinion/jobs/were-hiring-digital-communication-officer

13/08/2026

Thirteen strangers. One shared lough. 🌊

Carlingford Lough crosses a border, but the questions facing it don't recognise lines on a map: collapsing oyster beds, declining seagrass, siloed data, and communities on both shores who feel shut out of decisions about the place they call home.

So we did something different. Through democratic lottery, 13 people from communities on both sides of the border came together as the Carlingford Lough Citizens' Jury — the first cross-border process of its kind ever held on the island of Ireland.

Swipe through to see how it happened 👇 and read the full report on our website. https://www.involve.org.uk/our-work/our-projects/how-can-citizens-help-balance-nature-and-economy-carlingford-lough

The Citizens' Jury on the Future of Carlingford Lough was convened by The Wheel and NICVA (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action) as part of their Shifting Tides project, generously funded by Creative Ireland.

Illustrations by Eimear McNally.

06/08/2026

The devolution agenda is moving fast, with powers shifting from Whitehall to mayors and combined authorities at an encouraging scale.

Decisions are moving closer to people. But how those decisions get made, and who gets to shape them, is what will define success.

This challenge runs deep in South Yorkshire where deindustrialisation has left more than economic scars – it's fractured trust between people and the institutions meant to serve them.

We're excited to be working with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to change that – developing a region-wide engagement strategy that puts community voice at the heart of how devolved powers are used.

Great community engagement already happens across South Yorkshire, but it's fragmented. This strategy will connect that good practice, with the hope that what works here can offer a blueprint for community-led decision making in other places across the country.

Read more 👇

🔗 https://www.involve.org.uk/our-work/our-projects/how-can-we-place-people-heart-decision-making-south-yorkshire

30/07/2026

👀 Join us for a special August edition of Democracy Drinks at the Scottish Parliament. Democracy Drinks is a regular gathering to make connections, share ideas, and find inspiration over your drink of choice in a relaxed and friendly setting. All welcome!

​For the August meeting we are being hosted in the Queensberry House Lounge at the Scottish Parliament: a chance to get away from the Festival crowds and experience Scotland's Parliament building. As it's a secure building, you will need to register by the Wednesday before so that we can give Parliament security a list of names.

We tend to be a mix of regulars and new folks drawn together by a shared interest in democratic innovation, participation, policy and research.

🗓️ Thursday 6 August, 17:30 - 20:00
All welcome, free to attend.

🎟️ 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:

Join us for a special August edition of Democracy Drinks at the Scottish Parliament. Democracy Drinks is a regular gathering to make connections, share ideas,…

22/07/2026

❓ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦?

Councils already have plenty of tools to understand what needs to change for older residents. What's missing is how to genuinely involve them in deciding it, not just consult them.

Our new engagement toolkit with the Centre for Ageing Better closes that gap, with practical guidance and ready-to-use templates for engagement that actually reaches people, and lasts.

👉 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫 with the Centre for Ageing Better on 𝘞𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 29𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺 at 1pm. You can find out more about the toolkit, as well as hearing stories from places already doing the work, and older people who have seen the benefit of these approaches being adopted locally.

🎟️ If you’d like to attend, sign up, here 👇
https://ageing-better.org.uk/webinar-introducing-our-age-friendly-engagement-toolkit

🔎 Find out more about the work here 👇
https://www.involve.org.uk/our-work/our-projects/how-can-we-ensure-engagement-age-friendly

What if engagement worked for people at every stage of life?Imagine older people not just consulted, but genuinely shaping the places and decisions around where they live.

21/07/2026

On his first full day in office, the Prime Minister has the opportunity to lead from the get‑go on his power‑sharing agenda.

Our CEO, Sue Tibballs, has set out a three‑point plan for how Andy Burnham and his government can turn that ambition into a real restoration of faith in our politics and democracy.

🔗

In Andy Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister today, themes of power‑sharing and collaboration have been front and centre. He has talked about people being fed up with politics, power being too centralised, and taking “power out of here [Downing Street] and to every postcode in the land”....

20/07/2026

Andy Burnham's first speech as PM today put power-sharing centre stage - promising to take power out of Downing Street and 'into every postcode in the land'.

This is music to our ears. Our CEO Sue Tibballs, OBE says there's a huge amount to build on, but this work now needs to be ramped up to meet the scale of what Burnham is describing.

Here's her 3-point plan for how the new Prime Minister can grasp this moment and lead from the get go 👇

🔗 https://www.involve.org.uk/news-opinion/opinion/three-point-plan-our-new-pm-deliver-his-power-sharing-agenda