Introducing Speak UP – developing better tools for citizen engagement

Speak Up is the 4th Interreg project I’ve developed. 12 partners across 6 countries will work to build better ways for citizens and governments to work together.

Speak Up (LinkedIn / website) is a North Sea Interreg project I developed in 2023 for Gemeente Groningen. Speak Up focuses on improving all aspects of citizen engagement – developing better ways for cities and local governments to communicate and work with citizens (Government to Citizen – G2C), and more effective approaches for citizens to engage with governments and government services (Citizen to Government – C2G).

Logo for Speak Up - an Interreg NSR project developing better citizen engagement

The goal of SpeakUp is to develop, test, and share more effective ways for citizens and governments to work together. These tools and approaches will enable us to to tackle some of society’s grand challenges – particularly the green transition, and to help develop local climate resilience.

Speak Up builds on lessons learned from the Like! project which I set up in 2015 . Learning on developing innovation cultures that enable honest discussions about working with/for citizens, about creating smarter local services that respond to what citizens want and need, and using data and information more effectively to target different communities and engage with them more effectively.

Speak Up is the third Interreg project I’ve developed for Gemeente Groningen – after Like! and BLING – and the fifth project I’ve helped them deliver. Let me know if I can help you develop a project idea, help you prepare a proposal or expression of interest, or help you deliver a funded project.


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