Alan Thornton, project worker for Leeds Orchard Live, who are supported by Helping Britain Blossom describes how they used participatory grant-making to distribute £3000. Small scale funding perhaps, yet vital to promoting orchard groups in Leeds. "Leeds is a city with a growing ‘orchard-ing’ culture. And its growing through PB. On Saturday 14 January 2017,… Read More
Geographic
Participatory Budgeting in the UK and internationally
Video: Participatory Budgeting in Edinburgh
Participatory budgeting (PB) allows communities to be directly involved in decisions on the priorities and spending of public budgets. In Edinburgh, PB has been implemented since 2010. As an approach it can offer significant benefits in increasing community participation, improving the effectiveness of public spending and promoting greater community cohesion.
D-day for the Carrick group funding project is approaching
North Carrick groups can grab their share of an £80,000 funding pot. The £80,000 fund is awarded from the Scottish Government’s Community Choices Fund, which has been set up to support Participatory Budgeting (PB), a process which allows local people to make decisions on local spending priorities. If you live, work or volunteer in North… Read More
Participatory Budgeting: What are Parisians dreaming about?
The City of Paris has been running the largest scale Participatory Budgeting process in Europe. As part of an international study visit to Paris in December 2016 by representatives of Glasgow and Fife Community Planning Partnerships, enabled by What Works Scotland, a report by "Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme"(APUR) into the types of projects proposed in 2015… Read More
Tackling Islamophobia in Edinburgh: Building bridges not walls?
‘Shared Vision – Your Decision’ is an Edinburgh based initiative which enables local people to decide how public money is spent in eradicating Islamophobia and associated prejudice behaviour. Police Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and The Scottish Government have made a total of £40,000 available as part of their ongoing commitment to addressing Islamophobia across Edinburgh…. Read More
Oor Bit – Places and Spaces in Fife: The results are in!
THE results of Fife Council’s “Oor Bit” consultation are in. Over 1,400 people from the Cowdenbeath area have been voting on their favourite local projects as part of a bid to involve the community in deciding local spending priorities. And now 14 projects close to people’s hearts will be funded to the tune of £250,000…. Read More
10 principles for fiscal transparency: A GIFT to open government?
There are many reason to use Participatory Budgeting. Such as to inspire citizens to take greater responsibility within their community, or to strengthen the democratic mandate of elected officials. A significant additional reason is to promote open and transparent government, at all levels. As a piece of municipal ‘graffiti’ in Brazil, the home of Participatory… Read More
Participatory funding radical grassroots groups through the Edge Fund
The Edge Fund uses a highly participatory process, evolved over 6 cycles, to make small grants to radical groups that might otherwise struggle to find funding. Like the African Rainbow Family, Manchester (who received £3,000). A group which is run by its 60 LGBTIQ asylum seekers and refugees members, with lived experiences of persecution based… Read More
A Process of Growth: The Expansion of Participatory Budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2015 – 16
A new report by Public Agenda explains how over 101,000 residents of the USA and Canada have been involved in deciding on over $60m of public funds through PB. In "A Process of Growth:The Expansion of Participatory Budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2015 – 16″ they explain how this is happening. Some… Read More
Big Local Eastern Sheppey ‘You Decide’ Participatory Budgeting Event
On the 9th July 2016 the Big Local programme in East Sheppey ran a successful Participatory Budgeting event. The aims of the Eastern Sheppey Big Local You Decide event were more than simply to distribute Community Chest funding. By creating an event it was envisaged that Big Local would: Empower and build stronger communities Raise… Read More