Many cities still approach participation on a project-by-project basis - each initiative starting from scratch, with lessons often lost when staff change or budgets end. This fragmentation makes it hard to build continuity, trust, and institutional learning. To move beyond this cycle, cities need to think of participation not as an isolated event, but as a long-term system - one that strengthens relationships, learning, and collaboration between citizens and government over time.

In our work with cities, we’ve identified three complementary approaches that can help bring citizen participation to the next level:

1. Participation Practice - embedding participation into the everyday work of the city through systems, standards, and professional learning.
2. City as Enabler - redefining the city’s role from controller to partner, sharing resources and power to unlock citizen initiative.
3. Transition Governance - building new, ongoing governance structures that support long-term collaboration and experimentation for systemic climate change.

Each of these approaches offers a different lens for rethinking participation - whether your goal is to improve internal capacity, empower communities, or create lasting governance ecosystems.

Three Approaches to Long-Term Engagement

Participation Practice

Professionalising and systematising participation is about rethinking how we do participation. It means embedding engagement into the city’s daily operations — setting standards, documenting lessons learned, and creating opportunities for continuous learning across departments.

© Photo by Joaquin Arnoa from Pixabay

Example: Participation.Brussels

Imagine you’re a civil servant in Brussels, tasked with engaging citizens on a new urban planning project. You’ve tried running workshops before, but each time feels like starting from scratch. That’s where Participation.Brussels steps in. Established in 2022 by the regional government of the Brussels‑Capital Region, this small team of five acts like a free-of-charge consultancy for civil servants on regional and municipal level, guiding them through participation challenges and providing practical advice.

Through Forum Participation, civil servants can join trainings that combine academic insights, field trips to other cities, and peer learning. The team also helps navigate public procurement related to participation methods, narrowing options and ensuring processes are both efficient and effective. Beyond individual advice, Participation.Brussels maintains an evolving online knowledge base, storing methods, tools, and lessons learned so the city doesn’t lose valuable experience when staff changes.

The impact is clear: civil servants feel reassured and empowered, having someone to reach out to for their challenges. By embedding this practice, Brussels is turning citizen engagement from a one-off exercise into a durable culture.

If you want to explore Participation Practice in your city, consider asking:

• How can we professionalise and systematise the way in which we do participation
• What standards and processes are important for supporting high-quality participation? In our city?
• How can participation practice serve as a collective memory and learning system to improve future engagement?​
• What does it mean to embed participation as ‘business as usual’ within our city?

City as Enabler

City as Enabler is about redefining the relationship between government and citizens. Instead of controlling, cities act as facilitators — creating the conditions for people and communities to take the lead. This shift empowers citizens as active agents of change, rather than passive recipients of services.

© climaienergia.com

Example: Valencia’s Local Energy Communities

In Valencia, citizen engagement takes a very tangible form: energy communities. Since 2019, the city has been on a mission to give residents ownership over local energy production. The Local Energy Office (Fundació València Clima i Energia) acts as a one-stop-shop, offering workshops, legal templates for creating energy associations, and mediation to help neighbors reach consensus.

Take the Requiem in Power project: municipal cemeteries were converted into solar generation sites, and 25% of the energy produced was dedicated to vulnerable households. Meanwhile, in the Castellar pilot energy community, the city covered initial fees for low-income residents, ensuring that everyone could participate as an equal partner.

Valencia’s approach is not just about technology or infrastructure; it’s about equity and empowerment. By sharing expertise, providing resources, and taking citizen ideas seriously, the city transforms residents from energy consumers into energy owners. The result? A growing network of energy communities, expanding across neighborhoods, with citizens actively shaping the city’s climate future.

If you want to explore City as Enabler in your city, consider asking:

• What does it mean for a city to be an enabler rather than a provider or controller?
• What does it mean for us as a city to take direction from citizen-led initiatives?​
• In what ways are we already enabling citizens and communities?
• In what ways can we as a city act on ideas from citizens and civil society?​ How can we share resources like open data, expertise, or spaces?

Transition Governance

Systemic climate challenges require more than projects or participation processes - they need new forms of governance that allow for ongoing collaboration, experimentation, and dialogue. Transition Governance is about creating these structures so that citizens, government, and institutions can navigate complex change together.

© Photo by Romain Girot on Unsplash ​

Example: Lyon Climate Hall

Lyon is taking citizen engagement to a systemic level with the upcoming Climate Hall, set to open in 2026. More than just a building, the Hall is designed as a platform for collaboration where citizens, organizations, and government work together on climate solutions.

The Hall is structured around three central pillars:

1. School of Resilience – a space for public policy innovation, combining research with civil society insights.
2. Third Place & Off-site Programs – city-wide hubs for awareness, experimentation, and testing new ideas.
3. Network Enhancement – building connections among climate actors, from NGOs and universities to local businesses and citizen groups.

Through these pillars, Lyon aims to foster ongoing dialogue, experimentation, and shared learning. Participatory tools like storytelling, evaluation, and citizen-led experimentation ensure that solutions are grounded in real community needs. Partners range from local energy agencies to cultural and educational institutions, creating a city-wide collaborative ecosystem. The Climate Hall demonstrates that for complex transitions like climate neutrality, traditional governance structures are not enough; ongoing, inclusive, and systemic engagement is essential.

If you want to explore Transition Governance in your city, consider asking:

• What new ways of working or decision-making do we need for the zero-carbon transition?
• How can ongoing conversations between citizens, communities, and government help keep the transition moving forward?
• How can we build and maintain trust in governance beyond election cycles?

Key Takeaways

Citizen engagement is strongest when it is:

• Professionalised: Systems, standards, and shared learning ensure participation is effective and sustainable.
• Led by the Community: When citizens take the lead and cities act as partners, engagement becomes transformative.
• Embedded in governance: Ongoing democratic dialogue builds legitimacy, trust, and collective capacity for change.

By combining these approaches, cities can move beyond one-off consultations to create resilient, inclusive, and sustainable pathways toward climate action. Participation is not just a ticking box exercise - it’s a cornerstone of the urban climate transition, transforming citizens from passive recipients into active partners in shaping their future.