Participatory Budgeting

Sat, 08/27/2016 - 4:26pm

When: September 29, 2016 at the Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room

The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area, A2Ethics, and the CivCity Initiative hosted an informative session on participatory budgeting, one of the fastest growing democratic innovations occurring in the U.S. and Canada today. It is a new way for residents to have direct involvement in government by deciding how designated parts of a city budget will be spent.

There are 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada with participatory budgeting initiatives, however, the movement has both proponents and critics. This program introduces and discusses the concept through an objective forum.

Jeana Franconi and Michelle Monsegur, directors of the Participatory Budgeting Initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts conduct this session. They describe the Cambridge Participatory Budgeting project; outline how it works; what it funds; their experiences; and what has worked and what has not. The Cambridge project includes youth and noncitizens in the process and also has a very strong evaluation component. For more information on Participatory Budgeting from A2 Ethics, visit their website.