What do a Citizens’ Assembly on stray animals in the city of Ozurgeti, Georgia and a gamified digital participation platform for youth in Berlin have in common? Both are standout examples of how mentees from the Rising Stars Mentorship Program, supported by Nets4Dem, are harnessing the power of participatory democracy in Europe and transforming ambitious ideas into real community impact.
By connecting civil society organizations and advocates with experts in participatory democracy, the Rising Stars program administered by People Powered and Coglobal provides targeted and tailored support to emerging leaders working on democratic innovation across Europe. These partnerships offer technical advice, create space for reflection, support during roadblocks, and the encouragement needed to keep going in the face of complex challenges. The experiences from Ozurgeti and Berlin show how mentorship can be a catalyst for thoughtful, inclusive, and effective local governance solutions.
Citizens Assemble in Ozurgeti
Nana Tavdumadze, Head of Staff of Ozurgeti Municipality Assembly, applied to the Rising Stars program hoping to deepen her understanding of participatory tools. At the time, she wasn’t planning to implement a Citizens’ Assembly. But through her mentorship with Leonid Donos, an expert in deliberative democracy and CEO of the Association of Participatory Community Development in Ukraine, she discovered new approaches that would reshape civic engagement in her municipality.
Working with Leonid, Nana developed what she describes as a “design to delivery” model: a clear roadmap for implementing democratic innovations from planning through execution. Nana credits her mentor’s “extensive and diverse experience” with helping her succeed in implementing the city’s first Citizens’ Assembly to tackle a pressing local issue: the growing population of homeless animals.
Stray dogs posed serious health and safety concerns for both humans and animals, and, according to public surveys, were a top community issue. The Assembly brought together randomly selected residents, many of whom had never participated in local government decision-making before, to deliberate on solutions. The process sparked both empathy and empowerment. By the end, the Assembly emerged as a unified group with a shared purpose, producing recommendations that informed the 2025 municipal budget and catalyzed the creation of a Public Fund for Animal Welfare.
While national legislation still lags behind, and full implementation remains a work in progress, the Assembly demonstrated how deliberative participation can align policy with the real concerns of residents and give citizens a direct voice in shaping their communities.
A Digital Experiment in Berlin
Meanwhile in Berlin, another Rising Stars mentee, Aline Fraikin, was tackling a very different challenge: how to get teenagers involved in urban planning decisions and excited about local democracy. They needed a solution that could draw youth into the planning process and make it feasible for their municipal colleagues to make youth participation a consistent feature of their work. But the city’s official digital participation platform seemed uninspiring to young adults, with an average user age over 50. With support from a federal innovation grant under the “Digital Municipality” Program, a small team, including a university professor, a digital development agency, an organization to assess the ethical, legal and social implications of the project, and a sociological research institute, set out to build something better.
Their vision was bold: a gamified digital platform that would let young adults participate in city planning by posting short videos, sharing ideas, and upvoting or commenting on proposals. But the ambitious nature of the project meant many logistical, technical, and bureaucratic challenges.
That’s when Aline turned to Rising Stars and found in her mentor, Leading Researcher for Demos Helsinki, Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé, a partner who provided both empathetic personal support and knowledgeable technical guidance. Kaisa brought a wealth of experience in participatory design. While not all ideas could be transferred directly to Berlin’s context, the mentorship helped Aline think creatively about the participatory design process, helping her to plan workshops and consultations with youth to co-design the digital platform and maintain momentum when encountering challenges.
Aline’s team gathered feedback from over 80 teenagers through surveys and workshops, learning how to make the platform safer and more appealing, including specific design decisions to reduce potential for cyber bullying on the platform. The platform is currently being designed for classroom use, with teachers acting as guides during school project weeks. The long-term vision is to use AI to help summarize youth input gathered through the platform and present concise summaries to city planners, which they can then incorporate into the urban planning and development process.
Mentorship as a Bridge to Change
Though the projects in Ozurgeti and Berlin differ greatly, they are united by a common thread: the power of mentorship to empower practitioners to deepen democratic participation. In both cases, Rising Stars mentors provide knowledge, expert support, and strategic guidance, helping mentees successfully implement creative and impactful democratic innovations.
These stories also highlight the evolving forms that participatory democracy can take, from in-person assemblies that build empathy and consensus, to digital tools that meet people (especially youth) where they are. When done thoughtfully, these approaches can bring marginalized voices into the room and help governments respond more effectively to real community needs.
In a time when trust in institutions is under pressure, and authoritarian threats to democracy are on the rise, mentees from Rising Stars remind us that democratic innovation doesn’t always have to start from scratch. Sometimes, it just needs a little guidance and a belief that participation, in all its forms, truly matters.
