In its second session, the Tolosa Citizens’ Assembly continues with the information phase

Last weekend took place the second session of the Tolosa Citizens’ Assembly.  In the meeting held on Saturday 5th November, the second of the deliberative process, Assembly members have continued to deepen their knowledge of the question posed by the Town Council of Tolosa. The starting point proposed by the public institution is: What can Tolosa Town Council do through public-community collaboration to achieve a Tolosa that improves the health and emotional wellbeing of all?

At the beginning of the session, Assembly members reviewed all the information and reflections from the first deliberation session on the 22nd of October. They started mapping connections between all that data and the deliberation question. Following the steps that a deliberation process requires, participants continued with the information phase.

Through experts and practitioners presentations, the members of the Tolosa Citizens’ Assembly had the opportunity to delve deeper into the areas of emotional well-being and public-community collaboration. The objective of these presentations is to  ensure that both the deliberation and the recommendations  are based on existing knowledge.

The first presentation, ‘Loneliness, communities and local politics’, was by Fernando Fantova, who presented the theme of loneliness. Second was Martin Zuniga (ISS Group) who introduced a general framework around ageing with his presentation ‘Getting closer to the reality of ageing’. To close the morning’s informative sessions, Amaia Uriarte described the reality of working with children and young people.

The last session before the lunch break, Citizens’ Assembly members deepened their understanding of deliberative processes in 3 areas: teamwork, critical thinking and biases. These three elements are key to developing deliberative skills and ensuring a rich deliberation process.

After lunch, the interventions continued with presentations by three experts. Pepa Bojo addressed the importance of gender and equality in health. Next, Jone Miner, head of the Urban Planning Department of Tolosa City Council, explained the interconnectedness and challenges between urban planning and health. Finally, Adriana Martínez (APTES) spoke about the work carried out in the Auzotu project and the possibilities offered by community technologies.

You can watch the videos of the presentations and the material used by the speakers here.

In the next session, on the 19th of November, there will be a round table with four local experts and practitioners who will explain the context of Tolosa to the members of the Citizens’ Assembly. Afterwards, they will dive deep in the deliberative phase. Considering all the received information, they will begin the reflection and deliberation.