Making Liverpool Better, Together is the title for our 2022 seminar series and whilst focussing on how Liverpool can be better than it is on a number of different levels the main aim is reflecting on the 'Together' aspect which involves primarily gathering residents to listen to each other and deepen our understanding and experience of citizen empowerment around the world.
Therefore Engage is creating a city-wide discussion about how ordinary people, citizens, feel about the place where they live, exploring together what they think about how our democracy is functioning and whether people feel engaged or not with the decision-making process.
Citizen empowerment is a critical question today as greater numbers of people seem to be disillusioned with the prevailing political realities and that often means people become disconnected with how they are governed. Engage wants to bring a positive and encouraging influence to bear upon how Liverpool citizens are responding to our local and national realities.
The 3 seminars will follow a well-proven process of examining the citizen question firstly from an INTERNATIONAL perspective so we can learn from what others are doing in different parts of the world, then from a NATIONAL perspective so we become aware of what is taking place in other cities around the UK and finally this year we will explore our LOCAL Liverpool reality by facilitating a workshop where we hope to bring a wide variety of citizens and citizen organised groups together to see what if any steps need to be taken in our city if we are to Make Liverpool Better, Together.
Part 1
Thursday 13th October: Dr Camila Vergara
6–7.30pm at the Brett Building, University of Liverpool
Part 2
Thursday 27th October: Jon Alexander
6–7.30pm at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Part 3
Thursday 10th November: Workshop
6–7.30pm at the Quaker Meeting House
Two local authorities mentioned by Jon Alexander in the 2nd National Seminar were Kirklees Council, Huddersfield and Newham Borough Council, London. You can follow their local democracy work here: