Together, we - Mara Brinkmann and Jonathan Seim - are the Citizen Participation Team. We develop, coordinate and support the procedures for political citizen participation. Together, we work to ensure that everyone in Wuppertal is well informed and has a say in shaping and deciding on municipal projects. To this end, we support the administration in the planning and implementation of participation processes and carry out our own projects. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us: buergerbeteiligung@stadt.wuppertal.de.
Mara has been part of the Citizen Participation and Civic Engagement team since February 2025. As a freelance process facilitator and mediator BM®, she has previously designed citizen dialogues and participation processes for various municipalities and accompanied processes in political bodies and civil society organizations.
In her work, she is driven by the goal of strengthening cooperation in our society. It is therefore particularly important to Mara to create exchange formats in which different interests are heard, different opinions are given space and understanding and trust are created. As a consultant for civic participation, she wants to encourage as many people in Wuppertal as possible to enter into dialog with each other and thus broaden their own view and change their perspective.
Jonathan has been part of the Citizen Participation and Civic Engagement team since January 2024. In the past, he has conducted research at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) on how citizen participation can contribute to the success of democracy. On the other hand, he has gained some experience with the implementation of online participation processes at the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (DIID).
Jonathan is now responsible for our research project "KoodiKo" ("Cooperative digital municipality through innovative communication and interaction strategies"). This is dedicated to the development of new technologies and formats for our participation offerings. In the context of KoodiKo and his other projects in the team, he is concerned with participation that finds ways to include all people and effectively contribute to strengthening democracy.