Local Collective Narratives and Prototyping for Action

A new tool to co-create solutions to live in cleaner, greener and safer cities

The Local Collective Narratives & Prototyping for Action (LCN & PfA) workshops are a new tool developed particularly for cities and towns, but can also be used in other contexts, e.g. a university, as part of the European Climate Pact. The LCN & PfA workshops are based on Design Thinking, which is a problem-solving approach that helps develop solutions centred on citizen needs and contexts. During the pilot phase, three cities implemented these workshops successfully. We want to thank the cities Písek (Czechia), Setúbal (Portugal), and Łódź (Poland) for their readiness to pilot the workshops and their feedback, which we used to adjust and improve this toolbox. 

In a nutshell, LCN & PfA workshops are about citizens finding solutions to citizens’ problems. This can be accomplished in a one-day or a two-day workshop. You decide what is best for you. Each workshop hast two parts – the Local Collective Narrative (LCN) part and the Prototyping for Action (PfA) part – that complement each other and should be implemented one after the other. The LCN part comes before the PfA part. The workshops are designed for up to 25 participants. Ideally, but not necessarily, both parts will be conducted with the same group of participants. 

What happens during the LCN & PfA workshop

The LCN part is an opportunity for cities to create a space where up to 25 citizens can exchange openly about the impact of climate change in their lives. Each narrative is unique, and therefore everyone's motivations, barriers, and possibilities to taking climate action will be different. At the end of the LCN part, the most relevant challenges - from a citizen´s perspective - will be discussed, formulated, and selected by participants. We will arrive at least to five relevant challenges, framed as questions, that will be the starting point to generate solutions during the PfA part.

During the PfA part, participants will work in teams on generating solutions to citizens´ challenges collected during the LCN workshop. Citizens will go from understanding the challenge, to brainstorming, and then prototyping concrete local solutions to move from climate change towards climate action. These actions will need to be taken by both, local authorities and citizens. Even though the ideas prototyped during the PfA part were designed to work in the specific local contexts, they could also be adapted and replicated in other places. That´s why it is important to share the outcomes of the workshops with the European Climate Pact community, and beyond. These solutions also help to see the necessity for national and EU climate policies (e.g. energy transition) which makes the process relevant to wider policy making and policy communication. 

Download the toolbox to implement a one-day or two-day workshop

Below you will find a suite of documents and folders which make-up the toolbox needed to implement a ONE-DAY workshop and a TWO-DAY workshop, including:

1. Learnings and Outcomes from the Pilot: This document presents an overview of the activities and learnings from the European Climate Pact’s pilot project on co-creation of climate action with cities and citizens. It includes background information about the Pact, the role of cities in climate action generally, as well as detailed information about an innovative methodology for citizen engagement: a workshop on ‘Local Collective Narratives’ (LCN) and ‘Prototyping for Action’ (PfA). The pilot involved three cities: Písek (Czech Republic), Łódź (Poland), and Setúbal (Portugal). The aim of the document is to inspire and support other cities (but also regions and towns) to engage their citizens and networks in local climate and environmental action.
2. Folders each for a One Day and Two Day Workshop, including:
   • Presentation deck (Presentation that facilitators would use during the workshops)
   • Templates (to be printed and used during the workshops)
   • Certificate for participants (template to be adapted, signed and to be given to the participants at the end of the workshop)
3. Facilitator’s training PPT with key recommendations for facilitators
4. Outputs and deliverables (PPT to help organisers compile the main insights of the workshops in an organised way)
5. Guide for facilitators and organisers (detailed script for workshops´ facilitators and organisers for a one-day and a two-day format)
6. Social Media guidelines and printable pieces with the branding of the Climate Pact.