Civic labs for everyone: Welcome to CollectiveUP Labs vzw

Imagine a place in your neighbourhood that is as normal as the library or the town hall, where anyone can walk in and help shape a decision that affects their life. Not a one-off consultation. Not a survey that disappears into a report. A standing civic lab, with open doors, trained facilitators and a promise: your voice is part of the decision.

Today we are proud to launch CollectiveUP Labs vzw, the non-profit arm of CollectiveUP, built to make that picture ordinary.
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Why we are doing this

For years we have worked on participation projects across Europe: with schools, cities, rural communities and civil society. We have seen what works, and we have seen the pattern that keeps repeating. A city runs a citizens' panel, a report is written, the project ends, and the know-how evaporates. The people hardest to reach are reached last, or not at all. Every new round starts from zero.

Participation is the key to great co-creation, but only if it is a practice that lasts. Labs is our answer to that problem.
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What CollectiveUP Labs vzw will do

Run civic and expert labs. We will open labs in themes where decisions are hard and affect many lives. We are starting with the blue economy, mobility, and technology and how we govern it, and we will add themes as they emerge.

Bring lived experience and expertise to the same table. Mixed citizen-and-expert panels pair people who live with a problem with those who know its technical side, so that recommendations are both real and workable.

Share what works, openly. The protocols we develop will be open, free and reusable. If a school in one region can use a method another created, everybody gains.

Publish knowledge that triggers action. Not reports for a shelf, but evidence and recommendations aimed at named decision-makers.

Train facilitators. A lab is only as good as the person guiding the room. We want to train and accredit facilitators beyond our own team, so that labs can run without us in the room.

Put excluded voices first. We will measure who is in the room, not just assume. The goal is that disadvantaged voices are structurally present in decisions that affect them.
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Where does PathAble fit?

PathAble, our DUT Partnership project starting in December 2026, is part of CollectiveUP Labs. It is one of the first projects through which the Labs approach will be tested and refined, and we will tell its story here as it unfolds. Stay tuned for the kick-off news.
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The bigger idea

Our long-term hope is simple to say and hard to do: that deciding together, with consent rather than majority force, becomes normal at every level of society, from the neighbourhood to the boardroom. Civic labs, in our view, should become a standard institution that people expect to exist.

We do not claim to be there yet. This is a starting line, and we want to run it in public, learn from others, and share what we find, including what does not work.
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How you can take part

• Cities, regions and public bodies: if you have a decision where people's voices matter, talk to us about hosting a lab.
• Schools, NGOs and community groups: tell us who is rarely heard in your area.
• Facilitators and researchers: we would love to hear from you as we shape protocols.
• Funders and philanthropic partners: the Labs exist to serve the public interest, and we welcome conversation.

Write to com@collectiveup.be and say what you would like to see in a lab near you.
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Thank you

Labs stands on the shoulders of many people and organisations. Thank you:

• The partners and funders of PathAble and of the DUT Partnership [names, handles and funders to collect], for trusting us with the first Labs project.
• The schools, cities, NGOs and community groups we have co-created with in recent years, including the partners of our projects CONIFER, Skills+ 3.0, FutureEd and INTouch.
• Our CollectiveUP colleagues, for turning a draft Theory of Change into a living plan.
• The facilitators, researchers and citizens who have shared methods, time and honest feedback with us. You are the reason this exists.

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#CollectiveUPLabs #CivicLabs #Participation #Democracy #CoCreation #PathAble

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