On the 26th October 2015 the PB Network held our national Participatory Budgeting(PB) conference. Over 70 people gathered for a stimulating day of workshops, debates and presentations. The conference was held at Studio Innovate rooms in the heart of Birmigham city centre, as well as a range of breakout spaces. Providing us with a modern… Read More
England
What's happening in Participatory Budgeting across England
Well London uses Participatory Budgeting to improve health and wellbeing
Running over a number of years the Well London health and wellbeing initiative has been using participatory budgeting styled events to select projects for support, using money from the National Lottery and other local funding sources. Across a wide number of areas hundreds of people have been engaged in projects that bring wellbeing. As reported… Read More
Up2Us Oldham Big Local… £14,000 up for grabs
People from Clarksfield, Greenacres and Littlemoor were invited to Big Local Oldham’s Up2us event on Saturday 27th June 2-5 at Elim Fountain of Hope Church, Greenacres Road. This was an exciting opportunity for local people to find out about activities in the area and decide how funding will be spent in their own neighbourhood. At… Read More
Democracy has become the political version of kale, almost everyone says its good, but few want to eat it
In a new blog entitled ‘let them eat kale’ by Peter Bryant, PB Partners associate and head of community engagement at Our Life, he argues that DevoManc is an excellent opportunity to practise devolved democracy. In a memorable quote by Josh Lerner, director of the North American PB Project: "democracy has become the political version… Read More
Which parties support a more participatory democracy in the 2015 election?
Politicians like to say they are listening to citizens and around the world participatory budgeting(PB) is shown to be an effective and meaningful way to do just that. As we approach the 2015 election Jez Hall of the PB Partners has done a quick trawl of the parties websites and manifestos. Below is what he… Read More
Health in your hands: using participatory budgeting to tackle lung disease in Leicester
In March 2013, Leicester City clinical commissioning group made money available to fund local ideas to prevent or treat lung disease. The CCG invested £80,000 into the project, the first of its kind for a CCG. They wanted to prevent or treat COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, commonly known as lung disease; an incurable… Read More
Rochdale Residents celebrate with another £47,000 of Our Choice funding
This spring Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) once again rolled out their award-winning “Our Choice” project, which gives residents control of how money is spent improving their neighbourhoods. £47,000 of funding to thirteen neighbourhoods was up for grabs and only local people could decide how it was spent. Since 2013 more than £120,000 has been distributed… Read More
Dereham goes interactive: the first text-voting PB programme in the UK?
‘InterACTIVE funding’ was part of a recent £50,000 Participatory Budgeting (PB) scheme across Breckland, Norfolk, delivered by local organisations in partnership with the Breckland Pride Board. Cllr Lynda Turner, Breckland Council Executive Member for Community and Environmental Services said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for clubs and organisations that just need a little funding to… Read More
Due North Health Equity report recommends more participatory budgeting
Due North: The report of the Inquiry on Health Equity for the North, published last year, makes a number of important recommendations for reducing health inequalities base don expert witnesses and background research. The Inquiry was commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) and led by an independent panel of leading academics, policy makers and practitioners…. Read More
Levenshulme Market Fund: An innovation in grass-roots Participatory Budgeting
Levenshulme Market is a social enterprise based in Manchester, that has established a successful community market. It recently held what is probably the first social enterprise led and funded grassroots participatory grant making programme. Using funds generated from within the local community through hiring their market stalls to small businesses throughout the previous year. Money… Read More