G1000 Amersfoort

This story has been submitted by Harm van Dijk, responding to our recent request for Stories of Impact.

The gathering was hosted by Harm van Dijk and a huge team of volunteers and took place in Amersfoort (The Netherlands) on March 22, 2014. It built on the big success of the Citizens' Summit G1000 (Brussels, Nov. 11, 2011).

Citizens, entrepreneurs, city council members and civil servants of Amersfoort came together to be in conversation about their city's future.

The purpose was to decide on an agenda for the upcoming four years for Amersfoort, building shared purpose and common ground - instead of bargaining within the winning coalition of the city council. A new format for direct democracy and genuine citizen participation was implemented, based on cross-sectoral dialogue.

630 participants shaped the new agenda, starting the day with three rounds of World Café, using the following questions:

Round One: What do you think are the most important issues for Amersfoort in the coming four years?"

Round Two: What should be done to deal with these issues properly?

Round Three: What can you / are you willing to do yourself to deal with these issues?

The impact (related to purpose) is seen in follow-up-teams working on the 10 issues decided as most important - and also in the spreading of the G1000 movement throughout the Netherlands. 5 G1000 events will be hosted in 5 cities in 2015, for 2016 10 G1000 gatherings are expected.

Harm van Dijk reported as the impact that this event had on him personally: "It gave me a whole new working environment as we as volunteers are now helping local initiators to organize their own G1000 and provide them with the proper means to make their G1000 a success."

A video with English subtitles can be found here: http://tiny.cc/g1000-amersfoort