|
This March, PBP’s springing into action! t’s time to go out and make some change, PB style! 1. Frolic & fun at our annual benefit!
Save the date for our annual #PBParty on June 16th in NYC! Even if you can’t be in there in person, you can still join in the festivities! These include voting in our PB2 process (where YOU decide the projects we should pursue), celebrating amazing honorees, and much MUCH more! Join us in NYC and Chicago on April 2 to learn more about PB2 2. PB Conference leaps to spring 2016!
PBP isn’t hatching its own PB conference this year…that conference will take root in Spring 2016. Instead, we are planting our ideas by convening at Arizona State University (ASU)’s “By the People” Conference! ASU’s Conference aims to bring together practitioners, researchers, officials, and ordinary citizens to discuss participatory democracy! We’ll be sprouting a participatory budgeting track at the conference. Got some budding insights about your participatory democracy research that you want to share? Submit your ideas to ASU’s Call for Proposals to present and spread your ideas at the conference! Important Dates:
3. Time to vote in Long Beach, Cambridge and NYC: new voting technology blooms everywhere
The seeds planted at idea collection assemblies will be on the ballot this spring in NYC, Boston, Cambridge, and Long Beach… and voting innovations are flowering. Remind your friends in Long Beach, Cambridge, and NYC to sign up to vote! Many cities are using data and technology to enhance the PB voting process with our support. New York City Council is piloting a new open-source voter check-in tool as a user-friendly way to check-in voters. Cambridge, MA and Chicago are engaging voters in digital voting with The Stanford Ballot and SMS authentication. Saint-Basile-le-Grand in Quebec, Canada has an online voting ballot designed by Open North’s Citizen Budget team with support from our partners the Montreal Urban Ecology Center. In-person voting in Long Beach, CA will be supplemented with vote-by-mail ballots. Data and technology isn’t the only way that PB voting is becoming more innovative. We are also doing voting in all English classes at the local high school in Long Beach…reaching around 3,000 students! The voting age there is 14 years and up and there will also be a committee of 25 youth delegates at the school, helping facilitate the voting! 4. PB springing up on the airwaves: Josh on Al Jazeera America!
Late last month, PBP Executive Director Josh Lerner made an appearance on Real Money with Ali Velshi. The segment delved into the PB process in District 38 in Brooklyn, New York, led by NYC Council Member Carlos Menchaca. “We can’t afford to govern without the people,” Josh told Al Jazeera America. “Participatory budgeting leads to more effective spending that goes towards the top needs.” Watch more to see how people are the seeds of a healthy democracy! 5. Budding Youth Voices: A New Campaign for PB in Schools With the amount of time students spend in school, why do they have so little say in their schools’ priorities? Lila Barrett, PBP’s Development & Operations Assistant, shares the benefits of nurturing youth voice and planting youth development in school decision making. We are working with young people to get them more power in their education. Please share this with educators, students and school administrators in your life!
|
Well… let’s hop to it!Here are some ways we can take this relationship to the next level. Spread the word!We need PB to spread like dandelions! Follow us on Twitter & Facebook and share our posts with your friends! Spring into action!Winter is over! It’s time to start acting…We need volunteers with experience in outreach, facilitation, fundraising, communications, and/or design! Sow the seeds of PB in your community!Start a PB process in your city, school or neighborhood! But First, Help us GROW!You know how important PB is for transforming democracy. So support our work! Our commitment to democracy means that everyone who donates will get to vote on how the donations are used. Help PB Flourish!Introduce us to your parents, your family, and your community! Share our beautifully-made, award-winning “Real Money, Real Power” to learn about how PB works to empower local residents! So…What do you say? Do you want to learn more about us? Have questions about PB? Want to get involved? Let us know what you think! |
Thanks so much for all your continued support!
Until next time,
Participatory Budgeting Project
p.s. PBP’s garden of work is only possible due to generous nourishment and support of individuals, public funding, and our amazing foundation partners
