2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

18th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 08/09/2024 - 15/10/2024

Process phases

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Annemasse: Citizen debate on Annemasse's neighbourhoods (Assises des quartiers)

Official proposal

17/05/2024 16:21

Accepted

Following the urban violence that took place in Annemasse at the end of June 2023, the Mayor announced that he would be organising a conference of local residents by the end of 2023. A consultation process carried out during the summer resulted in the selection of a service provider (the NALISSE consultancy firm) to assist the City with the implementation of the Assises des quartiers.

The ‘Assises des quartiers’ are a collaborative and co-constructed process involving all the players who live and/or work in the Perrier and Romagny neighbourhoods: residents, city services, institutions, associations, etc. In order to unite these players around a new dynamic for action, and to respond to the needs and difficulties identified among young people, the decision was made to focus this approach on young people. The aim was to produce an analysis of the needs of young people that could be shared with all the players in the neighbourhoods, as well as the beginnings of an action plan.

The approach was based on 3 distinct phases, held at the end of 2023:

A preparatory phase, in October: construction of the participatory mechanism, initial meetings with local players to gather their visions and needs and invite them to play an active part in the process;
A consultation phase in November: meetings between staff / elected representatives and local residents to exchange views (on the basis of a questionnaire on life in the neighbourhoods and youth policy) and participate (in particular by creating a sensitive podcast about the process);
A co-construction phase, in December: a day of workshops for the general public in the heart of the targeted neighbourhoods, specific workshops held in the city's schools to gather the views of young people attending school, the drafting of the ‘Appel des quartiers’ (Neighbourhood Appeal) with volunteer residents, and a plenary presentation of the broad guidelines.

Throughout the Neighbourhood Assises, the main aim was to get as close as possible to local residents and to diversify the ways in which they could be involved - the key word in the approach is ‘outreach’: we have counted a total of 1,220 contributions, all helping to define expectations and needs. Following on from the Assises, from the end of December 2023 the departments worked to translate the needs into an action plan. The action plan comprises 114 concrete actions, which will be implemented between 2024 and 2026.