What Works Scotland (WWS) has produced a new paper presenting findings and reflections from ongoing research in the WWS Participatory Budgeting programme, and signposting future directions for inquiry and practice. Key Points from the research are: Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation that is becoming central to community empowerment and public service reform in… Read More
Scotland
What’s happening in Participatory Budgeting across Scotland
£50,000 available to tackle poor mental health in North Ayrshire
People from across North Ayrshire are being offered the chance to stake their claim for up to £1,250 for worthy projects which will improve the lives of others. A total of £50,000 is up for grabs in the participatory budgeting event which aims to give financial backing to projects and programmes which make a positive… Read More
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
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
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
Young People undertake Participatory Budgeting in North Ayrshire
North Ayrshire Council website has announced it will launch one of Scotland’s largest ever online participatory budgeting exercises exclusively for young people. From Wednesday 2nd November, around 21,000 Young people in North Ayrshire will be able to use Young Scot’s online voting platform to allocate £60,762 to youth projects in their local area. The funding… Read More
Engage, Think, Do!… the conference report page
We’ve created this page to pull together a set of post conference blogs, presentations and resources. We had a great time at Engage, Think, Do! and want to share the love. Presentations: A highlight of the many powerpoint presentations given on the day (all PDF format): International Learning workshop presentation by Reema Patel, RSA Participatory… Read More
The Winner Takes It All? Opportunities for Mainstreaming Citizen Participation
The Winner Takes It All is a guest blog by Dr Andrew Fisher, who led the workshop on policing at Engage, Think, Do! international PB fringe conference in Edinburgh in October 2016. Last weeks International PB conference set the sights very high for next year. A fabulous venue, a great backdrop in Edinburgh and wonderful… Read More