'A great enrichment'

In 2025, the Moers Citizens’ Jury “Shaping Participation Together” drew up recommendations for improving public participation in the town. Since then, an association has been founded out of the mini-public, which aims to address the issue from a civic perspective. We asked the chairman, Steven Range, a few questions about this.

Question: Mr Range, you were randomly selected to join the Citizens’ Jury “Shaping Participation Together”. What did you think when you found the invitation in your letterbox?

Steven Range: To be honest, I was really pleased to receive the invitation. I’ve always been very interested in politics. Up until then, however, my involvement had mainly consisted of keeping myself thoroughly informed and discussing political issues with others. That’s why it was immediately clear to me that I wanted to take part in the Citizens’ Jury. I was particularly looking forward to the exchange with a wide variety of people.

Question: The Citizens’ Jury spent four days addressing issues of citizen participation in Moers. How did you find the assembly? What did you like, and what didn’t you like?

Range: I experienced a great deal over those four days. I was particularly impressed by how quickly people can work constructively on shared issues. I was able to learn a lot from others whilst actively contributing my own ideas. The feeling of working something out together was the best part of this experience for me.

If I had to name one point of criticism, it would be that, in my view, the subsequent process of drafting our report could have been better organised.

Question: The Citizens’ Jury gave rise to the association “Wir für Moers – Wir für uns” (We for Moers – We for Ourselves). You were elected as its chair. How did that come about and what are the association’s plans?

Range: A key insight from the Citizens’ Jury for us was that citizen participation does not have to be driven solely by politics and the administration, but can also be shaped by us, the citizens, ourselves. We therefore wanted to continue driving this issue forward after the Citizens’ Jury and actively promote it in Moers.

I took on the chairmanship because I want to strengthen our democracy. Our association aims to contribute to this by providing information on opportunities for participation, taking part ourselves, and in future also running our own participatory formats and political education programmes in Moers. For further information, please feel free to visit our website.

Question: Do you have any advice for people who, like you, are invited to a Citizens’ Assembly?

Range: My advice would be quite clear: definitely go along and approach it with an open mind. You need neither prior knowledge nor any special political expertise. It is precisely your own everyday perspective that is valuable.

A Citizens’ Jury thrives on people with different experiences coming together and working out solutions together. For me personally, taking part was a great enrichment because I was able to discover many new perspectives.