Democracy Rising: Expanding Participatory Budgeting in the South
In a time when people’s trust in democracy is being deeply challenged, we are excited to be able to increase our work to support new participatory processes across the South. Southern communities are among the hardest hit with legislation aiming to limit democratic involvement, such as the restrictions on voter participation in North Carolina that […]
Best of 2016
2016 was a year of tremendous growth and learning here at PBP, and as it comes to a close we can honestly say we’re not just aiming to transform democracy – we’re actually doing it. Join us for a look at our three biggest wins this year: ➊ We expanded PB to a record number […]
U lyk 2 text 4 PB
At PBP we provide technical support and expertise in advocacy, outreach, organization, and implementation for partners working on PB processes. In our Participation Lab we regularly pilot and test tools and procedures to help partners succeed. In the next few months we’ll be sharing tools for using Outreach, Information Management, Digital Voting, and more. This […]
Social Justice with Participatory Budgeting
Social justice was a goal and a value of the original experiments with participatory budgeting in Brazil. The early pioneers in participatory budgeting saw it as a tool to redirect money towards sections of society that were often left out of public spending. Giovanni Allegretti, researcher at the Center for Social studies of Coimbra University […]
What 43 elected officials think about participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting is one of the fastest growing democratic innovations in North America today. It brings elected officials and civil servants together with their communities to take public dollars and put them toward projects that residents chose. Since this is not the business-as-usual way that governments budget their money, what do elected officials actually think […]
PB with Tax Increment Finance Funds
Tax Increment Financing is a public financing method that uses taxpayers’ money for community-improvement projects. The process is typically conducted without any taxpayer involvement. In order to make the process more community-driven and transparent, we have created a free, downloadable PB TIF Toolkit which can serve as a guide for using Participatory Budgeting to allocate TIF funds. This […]
[FREE WEBINAR] PB in Schools Guide
This webinar introduces A Guide to Participatory Budgeting in Schools, a free resource for educators to conduct participatory budgeting (PB) in schools. PB meaningfully engages students and other stakeholders in deciding how to spend a portion of a school budget. Students think about community needs and issues and then are empowered to design and implement solutions. […]
PB in Hinton, AB: Small Town, Big Ideas
With a population just under 10,000, participatory budgeting has made its way in the town of Hinton, Alberta. Its recent cycle engaged residents to manage $100,000 of the public budget to fund town infrastructure and programs that benefit the community. The office of Mayor Mackin from the Town of Hinton shares lessons learned from adapting […]
Making PB more Inclusive: Lessons from Long Beach
University student at California State University in Long Beach, Jessica Bracho has participated as a budget facilitator for PB Long Beach. Studying Sociology, she worked closely with PB researcher Professor Gary Hytrek who sparked her interest in community development. Jessica shares the valuable lessons learned in making PB inclusive and a great experience for all […]
Beyond Capital Projects: PB funds Basketball & Soccer Program
PB funded an After School Soccer and Basketball program in Vallejo following an amazing collaboration among the Vallejo City Unified District (VCUSD), the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD). The After-School Sports Program was a PB proposal implemented by the VCUSD where $50,000 was allocated to provide soccer and basketball programs […]
