Across the USA communities, energised by #blacklivesmatter, have been organising to demand that upwardly spiralling police funding should be tempered and replaced by a system of prevention and community cohesion – the things that matter to citizens. Find out how they have been turning to Participatory Budgeting to do just that.
In Los Angeles 50 organizations distributed a survey about the city budget resulting in 24,426 responses. The Los Angeles ‘People’s Budget’ prioritises young people, food and housing services, the built environment and re-imagines community safety as prevention, mental health and wellness.
Kendrick Sampson, one of the LA activists involved in calls for a People’s Budget, after describing how police shot him several times with non-lethal rounds as he was leaving a #blacklivesmatter protest on May 30, said:
“We need healing and we need to invest in healing.”
As Bloomberg’s CityLab reports, the People’s Budget movement is catching a new public mood across the USA for more citizen control over public budgets to tackle the virus of systemic racism. In an article on the Shared Future website Jez Hall explored the background to why #BlackLivesMatter activists have been turning to PB. And wonders if the same might happen in the UK.
Read more at Build Back Better? Participation in public budgets tackles two pandemics