PB Research Series: Gary and Andres on PB Long Beach & Community Power
The evaluation report of the PB process in Long Beach California for the 2014-15 cycle has just been published. The report finds that, despite a long history of community fragmentation, Long Beach has benefited a great deal from participatory budgeting: it has helped to forge new relationships across the city, and has successfully incorporated people […]
Judith Bourque
When we started working with the small town of Dieppe, Canada to help them launch their first participatory budgeting (PB) process they asked us about the lowest voting age we had ever seen. When we provide technical assistance it’s up to our partners to lead writing the rules and setting priorities for engagement. Dieppe made sure that young people were […]
PB Research Series: Erin Markman on the People’s Budget of PBNYC
The Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center have been the lead evaluators of PBNYC since the very first cycle in 2011-2012. Last month they released their evaluation report for the city’s fourth cycle of PB, which was by far the largest PB process seen to date in North America. We caught up with […]
Max Drury
We’re super excited to share the story of Alissa Schwartz and her son Max Drury! Max, who occupies most of his time with photography, drumming and soccer, is one of the youngest PB participants advocating for real change in his community. In 2014, he was part of the PB process in New York City’s District […]
Growing Families with PB in Long Beach, CA: Kasia McDermott’s PB Story
We always wants to know what got our members interested in PB. Solaire Spellen, our West Coast Program Assistant, interviewed Long Beach District 9 Committee Co-Chair Kasia McDermott! Solaire: Tell us about yourself, Kasia. Kasia: My husband and I purchased our first home in Houghton Park (Long Beach, CA) in October 2013. We have three […]
Alissa Schwartz & Max Drury
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 young Brooklynite is one of many youths who are inspired by the opportunity to have real power over their community’s decision making processes. Having caught […]
Steven Serling
High-school Social Studies teacher Steven Serling knows what democratic engagement can do for young people. A advocate of learning-by-doing, Mr. Serling emphasizes the way in which youth participation in PB encourages young people to become engaged citizens, effective communicators, and thoughtful decision makers. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Serling has been nominated for a hometown hero award. […]
Research Series: PB in the life of Brian.
We recently caught up with Brian Wampler, a professor in Political Science at Boise State University. Brian is at the forefront of comparative research on PB and we’re pretty sure he can reel off statistics on PB in Brazil in his sleep. We learned about how Brian has approached his comparative work in Brazil and […]
PB Research Series: A Moment with Stephanie McNulty
Stephanie McNulty is a recently tenured Associate Professor of Government at Franklin and Marshall College, a member of the North American PB Research Board, and an all-round amazing person who does fascinating research on the gender dynamics of PB in Peru. We caught up with Stephanie as part of our PB researcher blog series to learn more […]
A Young Agent For Change: Stephen Lafume’s PB Story
It is not everyday that a 16-year-old gets to help decide how his city should spend $1 million dollars. Isabel Luciano, our East Coast Program Assistant, recently interviewed Stephen Lafume, who worked as a change leader on Boston’s Youth Lead the Change Council. Just a few weeks ago, thousands of young residents of Boston voted on […]
