All people have fundamental rights to education, healthcare, housing, work with dignity, and the other foundations of a decent life. Human rights principles establish that it is the government’s role to protect those rights and to promote social and economic progress – but that vision is far from the reality we see all around us. 

What would it take to build an inclusive, multi-racial democracy that protects human rights and supports a society where all people can thrive? Co-governance or collaborative governance is a strategy that is being built from the ground up in hundreds of local communities in the U.S. and around the globe to help move us toward that vision. 

Co-governance is an approach in which community groups and government bodies come together in genuine partnership, sharing decision-making power to co-create policies and practical solutions. The goal: to build on the power of both community and government to make for more effective, impactful, and sustainable results. 

From schools where all students can thrive to safer workplaces, solutions that are led by those most impacted are effective and resilient— and offer a bottom-up model by which we can transform our democracy. 

In our work at Partners for Dignity & Rights over the past two decades, we’ve collaborated with worker- and community-led groups who are using these co-governance approaches across a range of issues. 

We collaborate with movement partners and grassroots organizations to:

• Create a multi-racial democracy where government serves the needs and protects the rights of all people;
• Convene peer-to-peer learning spaces, holding space for frontline organizers to share lessons learned, hone their strategies to win more power, and make policy change lasting and sustainable;
• Provide movements with actionable analysis and tools to strengthen their work;
• Redefine what’s possible by changing the narrative on community-driven governance.

For more on how communities are building effective, impactful, and sustainable co-governance solutions: 

Learn more at the links below: