About us

Community assemblies are a powerful way for people to shape decisions that affect their lives. 

They bring a community together to discuss the things that matter to them. Assembly members can share their own stories, hear from experts and those with lived experience, and work through difficult trade-offs to agree on actions that they can take, or ask others to take.

Assemblies have helped communities overcome polarization and act together for change

Assemblis is a platform that makes the community assembly movement visible — and helps it grow. It supports people everywhere to plan assemblies, connect with others, share solutions, and contribute to a growing movement for collective change.

Assemblies often happen in isolation. Their work, insights, and outcomes can be hard to find or build on. Assemblis gives everyone a place to share what they have done, so others can learn from their experience.

If you have already run an assembly, Assemblis is a place to document and share it. If you are thinking about organising one, it is a place to find practical guidance and real examples from people who have done it. 

Assemblis has been shaped by assembly organizers themselves. Our pilot partners tested early versions of the platform in communities around the world, and their experience - and yours - continue to inform what we build.

Our early pilot partners included:

Brazil: Agência de Iniciativas Cidadãs, or Citizens’ Initiatives Agency (AIC), and the Democracy and Justice Research Group - MARGEM at Federal University of Minas Gerais. AIC’s stated aim is to promote the development of individuals and communities, and has conducted over forty projects using a variety of participatory methodologies. AIC also manages a network of over 500 organizations and social movements. Pairing this with MARGEM’s respected work in democratic theory research, evaluations of participatory, and generation of learning materials, the collaboration focused on the development of engaging materials to be used within assemblies, most notably the card pack of Food Stories from Around the World which has proven to be a clear favourite among assembly members.

India: The Centre for Environment Education specializes in designing and implementing participatory processes related to climate resilience and policy across India. In addition to their work on climate deliberations, CEE has a specific focus on youth. This includes deliberative processes and educational experience for young people.

Morocco: The  School of Collective Intelligence at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University's work in participatory democracy falls under their “Collective Decision Making” research theme. The School’s researchers are specifically focused on understanding ways of improving the quality and efficacy of decision-making with a lens on their practical applications, such as politics and governance. 

Philippines: The Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology Center for Local Governance Studies has conducted research on, evaluated, designed, and implemented participatory processes in the Philippines. Their work has largely focused on helping local governments enhance their community engagement, though they also helped run a national youth workshop on deliberative democracy. 

UK: Community Organisers is a national charity in the UK that trains, supports, and empowers individuals in community organising. They inspire people across the country to engage in collective action, addressing various local issues such as housing projects, public transport improvements, healthcare advocacy, economic challenges, and community campaigns. By mobilising communities, they aim to create positive and lasting changes in neighbourhoods through grassroots activism and collaborative efforts.

Each brings deep roots in community engagement and participatory practice. Several have also been involved in the Global Citizens’ Assembly — the flagship initiative to bring deliberative democracy to a global scale, connecting local community assemblies to decisions on climate and other urgent challenges.

The Global Citizens’ Assembly brings together representative groups of citizens to deliberate on global challenges and influence decision-making at the highest levels. Assemblis complements this by enabling wider, open participation — allowing communities everywhere to host their own assemblies and feed insights into the broader ecosystem of citizen engagement.

Together, the Global Citizens’ Assembly and Assemblis strengthen democratic participation, collective intelligence and shared responsibility.

Assemblis is built by a small team at Iswe Foundation, working closely with a wider network of partners, collaborators, and practitioners active in the deliberative democracy field. Their knowledge and experience shape everything we build.

You can find out more about the people behind Assemblis on the Iswe website.

We also believe that the best way to get to know us is through our work. The team writes about what we are learning as we go — and you will find us active in the Assemblis community itself.

Assemblis is supported by grants and philanthropic funding. We have no commercial investors. We exist to support the community assembly movement.

Iswe’s work, including the development of Assemblis, has been funded by

• Wellcome Trust
• European Climate Foundation
• Porticus
• Climate Emergency Collaboration Group
• Quadrature Climate Foundation 
• Global Challenges Foundation