Citizens In Power is four!
From local decisions to national change - celebrating four years
by Saad Eddine Said and David Jubb
In November 2022, we sent off our application to Companies House to create a not-for-profit organisation called Citizens In Power. We launched our work in May 2023 and ever since, we’ve been committed to one simple idea: citizen-led decision-making.
Bringing together people from all walks of life via a civic lottery, people who might never normally meet, to hear from each other and experts, explore different perspectives, work through disagreements and make decisions together. With real power over what happens next.
Four years on that work has developed across local communities, cultural institutions, regional partnerships and national policy. Our work is in the creative and cultural sectors but our ambition is bigger: to help renew democracy by showing what happens when citizens have real power. We see ourselves as part of a wider national movement that is seeking this positive change.
In terms of our work over the last four years…
In West Cumbria, our partnership with Everyone Here helped establish the Jury for Joy. A citizens' jury which every year decides how to invest £100k in a programme of creative and cultural activities.
In London, a citizens' panel set up by Creative Barking and Dagenham has determined the purposes, principles and foundations of a local community asset, Galleon Arts Centre, and created a permanent citizen-led governance model.
In the West of England, Citizens for Culture brought together 51 very different people from Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to create 13 priorities for a regional plan for the Mayoral Strategic Authority with an ongoing Citizens’ Panel to oversee implementation.
We’ve kick-started the Citizens In Power Network with more than 100 Members, Associates and Experts. Together, we're building the relationships, skills and practical knowledge that can help more organisations and authorities share decision-making power with citizens. Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have invested in the network as a catalyst for change in the cultural sector contributing to a wider national movement.
Since the beginning, we’ve been sharing this work with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the M10 group of Mayoral Authorities, Arts Council England and the Governance Now conference. We’ve worked with Arts and Business in Belfast, charitable Foundations in Lisbon and the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm. We’ve run workshops in Enfield, Rochdale, Oxford, Barrow and Chesterfield, in schools, town councils, funder conferences and contributing to academic research. This month, around our birthday, our work will be shared at the Federation for Innovation in Democracy in Vienna. (You can check out our full list of presentation partners below.)
What began four years ago as a series of practical experiments is now reflected in national policy. In March 2026, the Government said “We want to reach a point where all local funding decisions and all local activity is shaped by citizens” and it referenced Citizens for Culture as a model for the future which the Culture Secretary has called “a shining example of how we can put communities at the heart of cultural decisions that impact them”. In July, the Cabinet Office released Rewiring the State which included a proposal that local people should have greater control over cultural investment including Arts Council England funding.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride over a short period of time. But a change in policy is not the same as a change in practice. The real test will be whether citizens' decisions are sought, acted upon, whether institutions are accountable for what happens next, and whether citizen power both grows and lasts.
When we’ve been asked what gets us most excited about this work, the answer is easy. In every citizen-led decision-making process, there are always moments when two people who wouldn’t normally give each other the time of day, discover how much they've enjoyed working together.
Despite their disagreements and different perspectives, they find they have more in common than they imagined. These moments offer a different outcome to much of the division in public life. They show how diverse groups of people can gather, respect each others’ differences and work out and way forwards together.
Our next challenge is to collaborate with all our partners to turn those moments into lasting change. To make citizen-led decision-making not something extraordinary that happens occasionally but an ordinary part of how communities, institutions and government work together.
We’d love to hear from you if you would like to join the network or have a chat. You can reach us at david@citizensinpower.com and saad@citizensinpower.com Or feel free to wish us a happy birthday online and share this article :)
Our four-year journey has been shaped by the many pathfinders and pioneers we've met, learned from and worked alongside…
Citizens In Power workshop and presentation partners: Association of Charitable Foundations, London / Citizens' Jury, Birmingham Museums Trust / Blueprint, Arts and Business NI, Belfast / Climate Outreach, London / Clore Leadership, Governance Now, London / Common Wealth, Cardiff, online / Creative People and Places Conference, Barrow / Cultural Governance Alliance, London / Culture Commons, online / Culture Co-Op, Rochdale / East Midlands Combined Authority, Chesterfield / Engage, Groundswell, Plymouth / Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, London / Falmouth Town Council, Youth Council, Falmouth / Federation for Innovation In Democracy, Fide Forum Vienna, session led by Sarah Allan, online / Greater London Authority, City of Culture programme, London / Gulbenkian Foundation, Arts and Civic Change, London and Isto é PARTIS & Art for Change, Lisbon / Local Motion, Enfield / M10, Mayoral Strategic Authorities, online / Marmalade Festival, Oxford / National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange, Leadership In Changing Times, online / Nobel Center Talks, Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm / Royal Opera and Ballet, Engender, online / South West and London areas, Arts Council England, online / Speakers for Schools, Coylton Grammar School Academy, Coylford / Take A Part, Social Making, Bristol / Think-In and Corporate Away Day, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, London / University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and the University of Bristol, Fairer Creative Economies, Bristol / West of England Mayoral Strategic Authority, online / What Next? Network Online
Citizens In Power Network members: Birmingham Museums Trust, Citizens' Jury: Charlotte Holmes; Rob Lewis; Sara Wajid MBE; Zak Mensah / Citizens for Culture, West of England: Emma Harvey (Trinity Community Arts); LaToyah McAllister-Jones; Sarah James (West of England Mayoral Combined Authority) / Creative Barking and Dagenham, London: Sarah Wickens / Creative People and Places, North Somerset / Everyone Here, Jury for Joy, West Cumbria: Amy Clark, Kieran Sheehan and Unique Spencer / Metal Culture, Liverpool, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea: Laura Hensser; Molly Nicholson; Siobhán Forshaw; Susie Thornberry / Moseley Road Baths CIO, Birmingham: Amit Dattani; Lucy Reid (Chair) and Trustees / New Art Exchange, Voice Assembly, Nottingham: Adam Roe; Saad Eddine Said / We The Curious, Bristol: Nicole Briggs / Wrexham City of Culture: Sam Hunt.
Citizens In Power Network associates: All Change / Art27 Scotland / Articulate Cultural Trust / B&G Partners LLP / Barnsley Civic / Belgrade Theatre / Bristol Urban Forum / Campaign for the Arts / Chris Pointon, Cambridgeshire Climate Emergency / Clean Break / Creative Lives / creativeShiftcic / Cultural Associates Oxford / Culture Co-op: Greg Bond (Director) / Deveron Projects / Doorstep Arts / Dr Charlie Ingram, Coventry University / Dr Roz Stewart-Hall / EastSide Arts, East Belfast / Eden Court Highlands / Fun Palaces, Amie Taylor / Gael Dundas, Imperial War Museums / Guildhall School of Music and Drama / Ian Sergeant, BMT Independent Curator / iCCi at The University of Kent / In Place of War / Ismail Khokon, CVAN EM Steering Group Member / James Blakey, Factory International / James McQuaid / Julia Turpin / Karen Pilkington, The Village Hub, Plymouth / Kirsty Lothian / Louisa Hrabowy / Lucrezia Gigante, Glasgow University / Make/Shift / Marie-France Kittler / Moor Imagination Collective / Natalie Querol / Nikki Williams, The Wildlife Trusts / No Jobs in the Arts CIC / Old Fire Station / OUTSIDE / People United: Clare Callan, Jo McLean, Mandy Quy-Verlander / Rising Arts Agency: Sid Boyer / RivelinCo / Sam Dawson, Norwich Theatre / Sarah Bradbury, Participation Consultant / Simon Coates, Participation Consultant / Sophie Forge (ActionFunder) / Spindl: Simon Sherbersky / Stuart Mullins / Tamasha / The National Gallery, NG Citizens: Simon Magill, Tracy Jones, Saffron Bowdler / The Winch: Alice Robson / Theatre Royal Plymouth: Becky Ormrod, Lee Hart, Malaika Kegode / Together Gloucester: Louisa Davies, Sarah Rawlings, Vashti Waite / Victoria Shaskan
Citizens In Power Network experts: Katy Rubin, Legislative Theatre / Lucy Reid, DemocracyNext / Pete Bryant, Shared Future / Rich Rippin, Sortition Foundation / Rowan Harris, Shared Future / Ruba Asfahani, DemocracyNext / Sarah Allan, Involve and Shared Future Associate / Yvonne Murphy, Talking Shop
Citizens In Power Network funders: Esmée Fairbairn Foundation / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation