It’s May… the sun is shining and PB is blossoming again. Votes across the country, love from Harvard, and our #PBParty are inspiring us to keep moving. Your work in your communities as advocates, organizers, and leaders makes all this possible!
1. PB in the New York Times: “the ultimate inclusive party”
We agree and we think you should party with us!
This year, 51,000 New Yorkers across 24 council districts decided how to spend $32 million, in the largest PB process in North America. See the press release and vote results for more details. As the New York Times said, “participatory budgeting, which began in New York City in 2011 with four Council districts, [is an] instrument of relatively small but meaningful revolution…” The revolution will continue to grow in the next year, expanding to new pots of money.
Read “Participatory Budgeting Opens Up Voting to the Disenfranchised and Denied” at NYTimes.com
PB is going strong in the Midwest!
PB Chicago completed a third cycle with 3,343 residents voting on $5 million in public funds. Check out the winning projects and sign up for updates. Your community not doing PB yet? Over a dozen new aldermen are looking to bring PB to their communities! Find out if your ward will be doing PB this year!
2. It’s a party and you’re invited!
Join us on June 16th in NYC to celebrate PB and honor the Democracy Fund, the Community Development Project, and Silaka Cox of the Rockaway Youth Task Force – all leaders whose vision and commitment make our work possible.
If you’d like to join us in celebrating PBP’s successes of the past year, buy your tickets now – we have a strict capacity limit and tickets will sell out. Regardless of whether you can make it to NYC, please consider becoming a sponsor or placing an ad in our digital journal.
3. Job Opening: Project Manager at our NYC Office
We have an exciting job opening: East Coast Project Manager. Our current Project Manager Pam Jennings is moving on to pursue a career in local government – we wish her all the best!
Review the job ad and apply by June 7th!
We’re also thrilled to welcome to the PBP team Saran Kaba, Operations Manager.
Saran has been a fundraising and nonprofit management professional for organizations including Equality Now, amfAR, Ubuntu Education Fund and the Center for Reproductive Rights. We are excited to work with her as we continue to grow community power!
Saran steps into this role as Meg Wade leaves us to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. We are incredibly grateful to Meg for her work and passion for making PB better and PBP stronger. She will continue to work on PB as the newest member of our Advisory Board.
4. Upcoming events online and offline
Democratizing Schools with PB [FREE WEBINAR]
June 4, 11a PST
The webinar will include an in-depth look at the first school-based PB processes in the U.S., highlighting three high schools around the country that are leading the charge to lift up student and parent voice. We’ll be joined by representatives from Californians for Justice to discuss the PB process at Overfelt High School in San Jose, recently profiled in EdSource, and from Mikva Challenge and Embarc Chicago to discuss the PB process at Chicago’s Sullivan High School. Join us to learn about these case studies and explore how PB could work in your school or school district.
RSVP at https://attendee.gototraining.com/r/7051187126946235393
[Read more…]
Warm our Oakland office!
June 5, 6p PST
Join us as we kick off voting for our internal PB process – PB2! Decide how we should prioritize our work to make PB better, while celebrating our new Oakland office.
RSVP on Facebook
Join Maria Hadden, Midwest Project Manager, in Chicago on June 25
She will be speaking at two conferences:
5. Data for all, meet a researcher, and new tech tools
PB puts decision-making power into the hands of community members, and all decision-makers need access to good data. Participants increasingly use data about their cities and neighborhoods to research needs, develop projects, and make informed, equitable spending decisions.
[Read more…]
We talked to Thea Crum, Director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute (GCI) at University of Illinois-Chicago, member of the lead research team for PB Chicago, and board member for the North American PB Research Board about her work and the recently released evaluation report for PB Chicago Cycle 2.
Finally, a big thank you to the students from the Crowdsourced City class at MIT who have been working with their professor Sarah Williams to develop 2 new tools to make PB easier to implement!
The “Live Assembly,” developed by Luxi Lin and Hayrettin Gunc helps manage data at in-person assemblies and the “Idea Factory,” developed by Hannah Payne, Fayrouz Saad and Isadora Cruxen sorts and manages project ideas shared through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
6. Harvard’s Public Engagement in Government Award
Two of our programs were top 10 finalists for an award that celebrates innovation in governance. We know that PB is a powerful tool for improving relationships between government and residents but it is a tremendous honor to receive this affirmation.
When we discuss the challenges to democracy, solutions like PB are the way forward!
Thank you for working with us to make government work for communities.
With love and democracy,
Your friends from the Participatory Budgeting Project
We’re a non-profit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money.
Want to introduce your friends to PB? Start here by watching the 4-minute, award-winning video “Real Money, Real Power” to learn about how PB works to empower local residents!
Our work is only possible due to generous support of individuals, public funding, and our foundation partners:
