Commitment and communication

Building strong relationships is the foundation for the success of your 'Co-Creating Our City' project. Relationships with your co-researchers must be reliable, respectful, and participatory. This means that young people and city leaders are taken seriously not only as participants but also as active partners and co-researchers.

The Citizen Science approach of the project is ambitious and requires a considerable commitment of time from the co-researchers. This commitment and the time you expect co-researchers to set aside for their involvement in the project should be clearly communicated at the beginning. Participation in the project means attending all workshops and actively engaging in research activities between workshops. How involved individual co-researchers are can change over the course of the project and depends on the size of your group of co-researchers and the scope and research design of your project.

There should be clear agreements among group members about participation:

• What is the minimum level of commitment/time required?
• Who has which capacities and skills to contribute?
• Which milestones do we want to achieve and when?

These questions should be discussed with the group of co-researchers and revisited regularly over the course of the project. At the same time, it is important to show flexibility and take the personal circumstances of the participants into account. Documenting workshops well, e.g. using written notes, digital boards, or video recordings, enables participants to review any content they may have missed. If necessary, workshop facilitators can offer to go through the content by telephone or in an online meeting.

In addition, it can be helpful to provide young people with comprehensive support in their everyday lives, for example, by advising them on educational pathways, providing resources, or recognizing their strengths and skills. However, such support should always be voluntary and needs-based to preserve young people's self-determination and avoid overwhelming them.

Continuous communication is important to ensure that participants remain aware of what is happening over the course of the project. A platform that participants use in their everyday lives works best. Many young people use phone message apps in preference to email. In consultation with Charlotte participants, the group selected GroupMe, an app that ensures no numbers are shared among minors. Düsseldorf participants selected WhatsApp. Both groups used Google Drive as an easy and free platform to document and share content. Your group should decide what platform works best for its needs.