Internal kick-off workshop “Common Ground”
To launch the Common Ground program, a two-day internal workshop for representatives of the selected Common Ground regions was held on June 14-15, 2022. The workshop allowed the participants to get to know the representatives of the other nominated border regions, to network and to exchange ideas. Additionally, the representatives were able to gain deeper insight into the different elements of the Common Ground program, learn about the next steps and participate in an initial advisory session provided by the program office, the nexus Institute.
Impressions from the kick-off workshop
To start off the workshop, each Common Ground region introduced itself and its proposed project with a hand-made poster.
Sylvia Hirsch from the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Nicolas Bach from the nexus Institute guided the representatives of the Common Ground regions through the two-day workshop.
Niels Barth and Jacqueline Sachse from the Robert Bosch Stiftung welcomed the representatives of the Common Ground regions and other guests to the festive kick-off event.
On the second day of the workshop, Linus Strothmann from "Es geht LOS" showed the representatives of the Common Ground regions how to involve hard-to-reach target groups with the help of an outreach lottery process.
In small group consultations with representatives from two to three Common Ground regions each around a roundtable...
... or in a circle of chairs, the regions discussed their ideas, concerns and wishes regarding their planned participation processes with the citizen participation experts from the nexus Institute.
Claudia Rolf, Program Director of the Democracy Team at the Robert Bosch Stiftung, also contributed her experience and expertise to the advisory sessions.
Launch Event Common Ground
During the festive launch event of the "Common Ground" program, the eight border regions selected in a multi-stage selections process were officially accepted into the program. Together with representatives from politics, administration and civil society, we discussed how democracy can be strengthened in Europe, what role citizen participation can play in this process and what opportunities and challenges for these processes arise in border regions. You can find more information about the evening program on our event page.