Participatory Budgeting

Saturday, June 7th, 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM
Room 433
Undefined

In January 2014, the City of Boston launched a groundbreaking participatory budgeting (PB) process to engage Boston youth in directly deciding how to spend $1 million of the city’s capital budget. Through participatory budgeting, young Bostonians are identifying projects to improve their communities, vetting those projects, considering trade-offs, and voting on how to spend the $1 million. Participatory budgeting originated in Brazil in 1989 and has been successful in U.S. cities including New York, Vallejo (CA), and Chicago. There are now more than 1,500 participatory budgets around the world and that number is growing rapidly.  This session will offer an introduction to participatory budgeting as well as an opportunity for youth organizers involved in the process to share their stories.