Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process where community members directly decide how to spend public money. To support the development of a PB process in your community or institution, we offer a variety of trainings and tools that build community capacity for dialogue and decision making, develop practices to increase access and participation among diverse communities, and empowers community members to assess and address the impacts of inequity on community wellbeing.  Let us work with you to design and implement a PB process for your community, institution, or local government and build your community’s ability to create positive change.

People's Budget Workshops

Budgets represent the values and priorities of a government. In too many places, cuts to social services and public institutions have left people hurting. If government is supposed to serve people, why are decisions being made that don't reflect people’s interests and priorities? ? Let us work with you to better understand your local budget and use a human rights framework to create a People's Budget to empower dialogue and increase access to decision making.

Civic Skill-building Workshops

People need the skills to be active participants in government. Knowing who makes what decision when and how to become involved in decision making takes time, resources, and connections that are not available to many. We work with organizations, community members, candidates, and elected officials and their staff to understand their local institutions and structures and to develop skills and operations to improve communications, outreach, campaign and project planning, facilitation, meeting preparation, presentation development, networking and mobilization. Let us work with you to build your community capacity and ability to reach your goals.

Consulting for Institutions

Democratic process in most of our cities has gone unchanged for decades. Local governments, organizations, and institutions often struggle to obtain meaningful involvement in community based programs and planning processes. In addition, the digital age we live in means the ways that people connect and receive information is constantly changing. Our experienced staff can assist you in evaluating and updating your existing engagement programs and can provide trainings, materials, and tailored project plans to help you integrate new technology and build the community connections necessary for meaningful engagement, participation, and input. Let us help you bring civic engagement for the 21st century for your community.