FAQ

A community assembly is a local, inclusive gathering of community members who come together to listen, discuss, make decisions and take action on issues that matter to them.

Unlike traditional formal meetings or representative politics, community assemblies are:

✅ Open to everyone in the neighbourhood or local area, not just politicians or officials

✅ Facilitated so that all voices are heard and nobody dominates the conversation

✅ An action-oriented space for collective discussion, shared learning and joint decision-making, stemming from the principle that people directly affected by local issues should have a say in how they are addressed

At an assembly, participants share views, explore ideas together, and through respectful, facilitated dialogue, use local skills, knowledge, experience and resources to address issues and lead to better outcomes for everyone.

Community assemblies help create stronger, healthier and more democratic communities, where people are less divided and more resilient.

💡 Better decisions

By taking into account the different perspectives and lived experience of people affected, outcomes of decision-making are improved, and are more likely to lead to results which benefit people in the community, rather than external vested interests. 

💪 Strengthening community

Assemblies bring people together, helping build trust, understanding and shared purpose. People get to know each other, properly listen to each other, and work collaboratively rather than feeling divided or disconnected. Stronger communities benefit their members and make them more resilient to future challenges and shocks. 

👪 Meaningful participation in local decisions

Instead of people feeling done to, community assemblies enable participants to share their views and have a voice in shaping decisions which affect them. This helps make local democracy more inclusive, and produce outcomes which benefit community members. Governance for the people, by the people.

📋 Practical, community-led action

Assemblies are action-focused, they lead to grassroots projects, initiatives and action that reflects local priorities. For example, discussions at community assemblies in Exeter directly shaped the Cool Hub Project, a network supporting people to cope during heatwaves.

❤️ Improved health and wellbeing

Regular social interaction is linked to better health, wellbeing and reduced loneliness. Community assemblies provide opportunities for neighbours to connect, discuss common concerns, and work together to improve their local area, helping create a happier and healthier place to live.

Everyone who lives or works in Exeter is welcome at a community assembly; they are fun, informal, and inclusive.

Here's what a typical schedule looks like:

1. Short introduction to outline the theme.

2. Small-group, facilitated dialogue. Participants hear each other’s perspectives and experiences about the topic, guided by a trained facilitator.

3. Sharing with the room. Each small group feeds the key points from their conversation back to the rest of the group.

4. Decision-making. The whole group prioritises ideas or makes a decision about what they want to do next together, and how the group should move forward.

No. They are similar, but there are a few key differences.

Community assemblies are open to everyone in a local area, or everyone in a certain community. Citizens assemblies, on the other hand, bring together a sample of the population using a process called ‘sortition’ to randomly select a demographically representative group; a microcosm of the population (e.g. if the wider population has 51% women, 51% of citizens' assembly participants will be women).

Because of this sortition process, citizen's assemblies are more expensive to run than community assemblies, and therefore tend to be organised by governments or large organisations with enough money to fund them. This also means that citizens' assemblies usually work within terms set by the government or large organisation, whereas community assemblies are free to define their own terms of engagement.