PBP News: Young leaders, PB conference updates and job(s), and an economy for the 99%
Summer’s heat can’t slow down Participatory Budgeting! This month our team is growing, young people are finding real power in their communities, and we’re finding new ways to make PB work better.
Get these updates in your inbox:
1. Young people leading change
8th grader lands $225K for NYC school
Yup, you read that correctly!
Maximillian Viking Drury, a 13-year-old from Brooklyn, successfully persuaded voters to fund a PB initiative that will put $225,000 toward improving his sister’s school! The Brooklynite is one of many young people who are inspired by the opportunity to have real power over their community’s decision making processes.
Having caught the “facilitation bug” at an initial PB meeting years ago alongside his mother, consultant and facilitator Alissa Schwartz, Max became a budget delegate this year, with some very persuasive communications skills to boot!
Read more about of Max and Alissa’s story on our blog.
Boston’s young advocates
It is not every day that a 16-year-old gets to help decide how his city should spend $1 million dollars. Now Stephen works for the city to help get more young people engaged.
Read his story in his words on our blog.
2. We’re hiring
We’re looking for awesome people to join our team and we need your help to find them. Please share these postings with people in your network and send us your recommendations.
- We are seeking a part-time Event Coordinator to work with staff, partners, and volunteers to plan and implement PBP’s 4th International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in North America.
The conference will bring together about 300 practitioners, researchers, organizers, and community leaders interested in learning more about participatory budgeting (PB) and making democracy work better in Boston in May 2016.
- We’re hiring paid interns in Brooklyn and Oakland!
- Technology Internship (Oakland)
- Program Internships (Oakland and Brooklyn)
- Communications Internship (Brooklyn)
Welcome Greensboro!
We are very excited to welcome two new faces to our team. Ranata Reeder (Community Engagement Coordinator) and Erica Lindenberg (Project Assistant) will work with us to launch PB in Greensboro, North Carolina. Read their full bios on our staff page.
3. Tech for PB with the NYC Big Apps competition
The NYC Big Apps Competition, which challenges innovators to come up with new ways to address four key issues identified by Mayor Bill de Blasio: affordable housing, zero waste, connected cities, and civic engagement.
If Democracy has become the political version of kale; almost everyone says it’s good, but few want to eat it. Could new technology make participatory democracy more palatable–more like kale chips?
4. Making participation political: activists learn about PB in Madison, Wisconsin
Young, Gifted and Black – a local activist group – has been changing the political landscape in Madison by giving voice to the oppression, disempowerment and violence experienced by the Black community. And the graduate student teaching association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been brainstorming ways to reimagine the state’s budget such that it more justly serves all the people of Wisconsin.
We provided a PB training for these two groups to support their thinking about new ways to bring lessons from PB into their work.
5. An economy for the 99%: participatory budgeting on GRITtv
Can budgets be brought under public control? Watch our Executive Director Josh Lerner talk to Laura Flanders about PB’s history and growth in the North America and ways to make democracy fun!
More PB in the news:
- Astoria allocating more to PB for round 2: $1.5M Up for Vote as Participatory Budgeting Returns to Astoria (DNAInfo.com)
- Long Beach seeing massive improvement with help of PB and Rex Richardson: North Long Beach On Road To Renaissance (Gazettes)
- Cambridge increasing funding for second round of PB and engaging all residents despite age, race or ethnicity: Cambridge wants your votes on how to spend $600,000 (Boston.com)
With love and democracy,
Participatory Budgeting Project
We’re a non-profit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money.
Get these updates in your inbox:
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:
