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2012 PB Conference Updates We look forward to seeing you soon at the first International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in the US and Canada. Due to popular demand, the deadline for proposals has been extended to January 31st. Please see the call for proposals for submission guidelines, and feel free to ask us about your session ideas. The conference dates have also been set - March 30-31, 2012. The conference organizers are already planning an exciting lineup of sessions and activities. Here’s a taste of what to expect: - Site Visits to Observe PB Voting in NYC - Presentations on PB processes in New York, Chicago, Toronto Community Housing, Guelph, Montreal, Porto Alegre, the UK, and elsewhere - Sessions on e-Participatory Budgeting & Digital Media, Community Organizing, Arts & Culture, Public Housing, and Youth Engagement - Focused discussions for elected officials, practitioners, and community organizations Stay tuned to the new conference website for updates!...
by jlerner at January 5, 2012 11:01 AM -05:00 GMT

Los Angeles PB Event - Jan 12th The PB Project is speaking at a public event next week in Los Angeles - see the announcement below! --- Participatory Budgeting: From Budget Cuts to the People's Budget An introductory event Thursday, January 12th 7pm @ Haines Hall 279 on UCLA’s Campus Are you interested in real world solutions to the budget crises we face? Do you want to learn about a new approach to democracy being implemented NOW in over 1000 cities world wide including places like New York City and Chicago? Would you like to discuss how participatory budgeting can be applied to the city of LA, UCLA and the UC graduate TA union (UAW 2865)? Then please join us Thursday, January 12th, 7pm at UCLA, Haines Hall 279, for a panel discussion on the Participatory Budgeting (PB) movement. We will be joined by New York City Council Member Brad Lander, Pam Jennings from The Participatory Budgeting Project, and community representatives from NYC's 39th District. The discussants are part of a larger group of four NYC districts who are using participatory budgeting to allocate nearly 6 million dollars in capital discretionary funds. We will learn more about participatory budgeting, the challenges of implementing it in NYC, and discuss ways participatory budgeting can be used in LA and within the UC system. Refreshments will be provided. Hope you can join us! Please use this google map to find Haines Hall. Once you enter Haines Hall go up the main stairs to the 2nd floor and room 279 will be at the north end of the building on your left....
by jlerner at January 4, 2012 12:19 PM -05:00 GMT

New Orleans event The Participatory Budgeting Project is traveling to New Orleans next week, and we'll be speaking at a public forum on Wednesday December 14th. 6pm at Grace Episcopal Church – 3700 Canal Street. The event is sponsored by the Committee for a Better New Orleans and the New Orleans Coalition on Open Governance. For more information visit their event announcement....
by jlerner at December 8, 2011 08:57 PM -05:00 GMT

PBP in Baltimore, New Haven, New Orleans & Porto Alegre The PB Project is hitting the road! In the next month we'll be speaking at the following events: November 23-26: Porto Alegre, Brazil 10th World Congress of Metropolis November 25: Baltimore 4:00pm, at The Baltimore Free School (1323 N. Calvert, corner of Calvert and Mt. Royal) Event hosted by Occupy Baltimore organizers. More info. December 6: New Haven 7:00pm at the Hall of Records - City of New Haven (200 Orange Street) More info. December 13-15: New Orleans Visit organized by The Committee for a Better New Orleans and the Open Society Foundation....
by jlerner at November 22, 2011 05:49 PM -05:00 GMT

International PB Conference: March 2012, NYC Please share with your networks: International Conference: Participatory Budgeting in the US and Canada March 30-31, 2012, New York City CALL FOR PROPOSALS--EXTENDED DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2012 Conference Website: http://pbconference.wordpress.com/ In a time of widespread budget crises and plummeting trust in government, politicians and community members are searching for more democratic and accountable ways to manage public money. Participatory Budgeting (PB) offers an alternative. PB is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. The process was first developed in Brazil in 1989, and there are now over 1,000 participatory budgets around the world. Most are for city budgets, but counties, states, towns, housing authorities, schools, and other institutions have also used PB to open up public spending to public participation. PB is now common in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa - and in some cases even required by law. Yet it has only recently appeared on the radar in the US and Canada, with a few Canadian processes starting in 2001 and some initial US experiments starting in 2009. This first regional conference on PB will take place in New York City to allow participants to observe and celebrate the closing of the city’s first PB cycle. The conference will provide a space for participants and organizers of the initial PB processes in the US and Canada to share and reflect on their experiences so far, alongside interested activists, practitioners, and scholars. Dates March 30-31, 2012 Note: The conference will coincide with the final vote for the New York City Participatory Budgeting process. The dates of the vote have not been finalized yet, but we expect them to be one of these two weekends. We will confirm the dates as soon as possible. Locations New York City: Pratt Institute...
by jlerner at November 16, 2011 02:27 PM -05:00 GMT

Occupy Baltimore calls for participatory budgeting Organizers with Occupy Baltimore called for participatory budgeting at a public hearing they organized with the Baltimore Development Corporation. Read more....
by jlerner at November 9, 2011 11:42 AM -05:00 GMT

New Project: Environmental Justice PB in Louisiana The PB Project is partnering with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to launch a new PB process for environmental justice funds in Louisiana, with support from the Fund for Democratic Communities. Faced with widespread industrial pollution, Louisiana communities are struggling to protect their environment, public health, and local economies. Oil refineries in the state experience an average of 10 chemical accidents per week, releasing up to 80 different chemicals into surrounding communities. Grassroots groups are struggling to document these environmental injustices, educate residents, and advocate for change. Through a PB process, the Bucket Brigade will invite these groups to directly allocate $100,000 for local projects and to shape hundreds of thousands of dollars of general organizational spending. We hope that the initiative will help local groups develop the budgeting and fundraising skills needed to sustain campaigns and engage community members, while enabling the Bucket Brigade to better support grassroots action. At the same time, it will model a new use for PB, showing how organizations and coalitions at the state or regional level can engage members in deciding collective budgets. More info coming soon!...
by jlerner at October 23, 2011 02:06 PM -05:00 GMT

Full Steam Ahead in NYC PBNYC is well into its Neighborhood Assemblies stage! Across the four participating City Council Districts, community members are coming out en masse to learn about PB and share project ideas. Roughly half of the Neighborhood Assembly participants so far have volunteered to serve as budget delegates and work over the next several months to turn the ideas collected into a final ballot. The PB Project has been busy supporting the more than 25 assemblies city-wide in October and November. Starting in a few weeks, hundreds of budget delegates will begin meeting - and organizers will start planning the final vote and expansion for next year. For updates and more info, check out the PBNYC website and Facebook page....
by jlerner at October 23, 2011 01:38 PM -05:00 GMT

PB at Occupy Wall Street As the Occupy movement is inspiring people around the world, it is turning to PB for inspiration. The PB Project has been invited to help facilitate teach-ins this Sunday (October 23rd) at 6pm at Occupy Wall Street and at 2pm at Occupy Providence. Occupiers in Boston, Greensboro, and other cities are also reaching out, to see how PB can fit into the movement's diverse tactics and demands. OWS and PB assemblies are both drawing out hundreds of people to build a new form of democracy, in New York and elsewhere. Mainstream media and organizers on the ground are starting to draw connections. Occupiers could use PB to manage the funds they have raised (over $300,000 at OWS!), modelling a more democratic economy. PB is also one of the more winnable demands occupiers could make, since it's already happening in over 1,000 cities around the world. Existing PB processes could likewise benefit from new support, if occupiers can push for more public control over more money....
by jlerner at October 23, 2011 10:26 AM -05:00 GMT

Project Censored: PB One of Top Censored Stories For the second year in a row, participatory budgeting has won the bittersweet honor of being named to Project Censored's list of the top 25 censored stories of the past year. Hopefully that streak will end this year, as PB is attracting more coverage from media such as the New York Times and ABC....
by jlerner at October 5, 2011 12:38 PM -05:00 GMT

Neighborhood Assemblies in NYC and Chicago Neighborhood Assemblies start today for PB in New York! They will continue throughout October, and anyone is welcome to participate. See http://pbnyc.org for the full schedule. PB49 (PB in Chicago's 49th Ward) also announced its fall slate of assemblies, starting in a few weeks....
by jlerner at October 3, 2011 04:34 PM -05:00 GMT

Times piece: UK Government basing claim about benefit reforms on poor analysis? David McCollum and I had a piece on the Times Science Blog this week, criticising the evidence behind much-publicised claims that moving the UK's benefits system to a Universal Credit will seriously reduce the number of workless households in Britain....
by jon_mendel at September 25, 2011 06:38 PM +00:00 GMT

Launch of PB in New York City! Participatory budgeting has arrived in New York City. The PB Project is proud to serve as the lead technical assistance partner for a new $6 million PB process that is starting next month in four City Council districts. City Council Members Brad Lander, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Eric Ulrich, and Jumaane Williams are each setting aside at least $1 million in capital discretionary funds for residents to allocate. Over the past several months, the PBP has worked closely with the Council Members, lead community partner Community Voices Heard, and a City-Wide Steering Committee of 40 organizations, to design and plan the process. District Committees in each of the four districts are now planning the opening round of neighborhood assemblies, which will last throughout October. Volunteer budget delegates, selected at the assemblies, will then meet for 3-4 months to develop final budget proposals. In March 2012, residents in each district will vote on the proposals, and the top vote getters will be included in the city budget for 2013. We expect this pilot process to expand to additional districts and budget pots once the first cycle is complete. For more information, see today's NY Times article and the PBNYC website, and stay tuned for more updates here. The full press release is copied below: Councilmembers and Community Allies Announce Groundbreaking, Democratic Budgeting Initiative In Four City Council Districts Across New York City, Residents Will Propose and Vote on Capital Projects to be Funded by Members' Budget NEW YORK, NY, September 14, 2011: Today, Council Member Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan), Council Member Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) and Council Member Jumaane D. Williams (D-Brooklyn), unveiled a new process for budgeting, in which voters in their districts will directly decide how to spend millions of their own tax dollars, a first in New...
by jlerner at September 14, 2011 03:06 PM -05:00 GMT

New Additions to the PBP Team We extend a warm welcome to the two newest PBP members: Donata Secondo and Pam Jennings. Donata and Pam interned with us over the summer, and we're thrilled that they're staying on board as Associates. Both will be working on PBNYC and other upcoming projects. For more info on the PBP team, visit the Who we are page....
by jlerner at September 14, 2011 09:11 AM -05:00 GMT

PBP at BMW Guggenheim Lab The Participatory Budgeting Project will be speaking at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in NYC this Thursday, September 15th, 2:30-4:30pm. We'll be previewing the new PB process in NYC, together with other people and organizations that are involved. Read more....
by jlerner at September 14, 2011 09:09 AM -05:00 GMT