In our latest guest blog Alan Budge discusses his feelings about the climate emergency, sees some rays of hope, and offers some ways forward. I am worried. The climate crisis is, to my mind, very real, and very scary. In the final analysis (hopefully not too prophetic a term) it matters more than anything else;… Read More
Themes
The central themes dealt with by Participatory Budgeting
PB Youth Accelerator: Erasmus+ Pan-European Research Project
PB Youth Accelerator is the working title of a new initiative looking to collate evidence of participatory budgeting involving young people in the community and in schools. This two year research partnership consists of 5 partners from 3 countries. It is lead by Polish foundation Soclab, with collaborators from Field of Dialogue in Poland and… Read More
Youth Leading Change in Newry Mourne and Down
In 2018 Newry Mourne and Down District Council in Northern Ireland had their first experience with Participatory Budgeting and it went really well. They ran two processes under the banner of Communities Leading Change. One for adults, and one focussed especially on young people. Funding was sourced by a partnership including Newry, Mourne and Down… Read More
Our Money Our Planet: New report on using PB to tackle the Climate Crisis
There is overwhelming evidence that we are in a climate emergency. It is of maximum importance that we move on from debating the evidence towards taking immediate action. Given the reluctance of politicians to take decisive action so far this appears to remain a very challenging task. Many people feel a sense of powerlessness, and… Read More
Lisbon agrees 5m euro fund for Green PB
Lisbon City Council’s first-ever ‘green’ participatory budget, an initiative supported and managed by South Pole and EIT Climate-KIC’s City Finance Lab, has been allocated a €5 million budget to support climate change mitigation and adaptation projects selected by local citizens. The Mayor of Lisbon made the announcement in May 2019 during the ceremony for this… Read More
Speke Up – Participatory Budgeting in Merseyside 2019
Dr Andrew Fisher connects strength based engagement and participatory budgeting. Find out what happened at Speke Up – Tackling Serious and Organised Crime Through Strengths Based Engagement in Speke Merseyside, a project led by MutualGain. “There is evidence that suggests a strong correlation between low social capital and high levels of crime and disorder. High… Read More
Participatory Budgeting within Social Housing.
Housing Associations, Cooperatives, Tenant and Arm’s Length Management Organisations are uniquely well placed to initiate and lead participatory budgeting (PB), as they often already have well structured tenant engagement processes, and much of their income comes directly from rents. PB is an ideal way to take that engagement further, and respond to the interests, concerns… Read More
PB in Schools: Has its time come in the UK?
Schools play a central role in developing the life-skills and confidence of young people. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a proven deliberative process that can inspire, empower and engage young people in a cooperative, democratic and purposeful way. Bringing the two together has many positive benefits for schools, for society and for young people. In the… Read More
Stirling Council launches £700k mainstream Participatory Budget
On the 7th March 2019 Stirling Council announced the launch of its first large-scale participatory budgeting(PB) process, and its another example of the growing size of PB in Scotland. The fund will be split between 7 districts, with a total of £100,000 available in each. Alan Budge of PB Partners advised the council on its… Read More
Our Money, Our Planet. Participatory Budgeting and the Green New Deal
In a new blog featured on the Shared Future CIC’s website Alan Budge connects PB and climate change. We feature some highlights below. Participatory Budgeting(PB) enables people to make their community better, starting with issues that concern us all. The biggest concern we face as a society is climate change. In August 2018, Greta Thunberg,… Read More