Citizen Participation Advisory Board: 1st meeting in the new council term

With the start of the new council term, the City of Wuppertal's Citizen Participation Advisory Board was also newly formed. The committee met for the first time this week, marking the starting point for its work over the next five years.

The focus of the kick-off meeting was on the members getting to know each other and exchanging different perspectives from citizens, institutions, administration and politics. In addition, the respective roles and cooperation of the staff unit and the advisory board were discussed and a joint working framework was agreed. The Advisory Board's revised rules of procedure were also unanimously approved at the meeting.

The Advisory Board has also undergone structural changes with the new council period. Due to changes in the framework conditions, the committee was expanded from 29 to 34 members. In particular, the increased representation of people from the citizenry helps to further strengthen the diversity of social perspectives on the advisory board.

The Citizens' Participation Advisory Council monitors, reflects on and evaluates participation work in Wuppertal. It advises politicians and administrators and works to ensure that citizen participation takes place transparently, at an early stage and taking into account as many perspectives as possible. The central basis for this are the Wuppertal guidelines for good citizen participation, which were developed in a joint process between citizens, politicians and the administration and adopted by the Wuppertal City Council in 2017.

We would like to thank all members of the advisory board for their commitment and the successful start. The constituent meeting has set the organizational framework for the joint work. In the coming meetings, the Advisory Board will focus more on specific participation processes in the city