Participatory budgets for young people

What are participatory budgets?

If you are a councilor or public employee and work in the area of citizen participation, you have surely heard of participatory budgets. Participatory budgeting is one of the many ways that exist to involve citizens in city affairs. In recent years, this type of project has proliferated in local and regional administrations around the world. They have become so fashionable that it seems that there is no other way to participate. But in reality, it is an extremely complex procedure that is not advisable to apply in municipalities where there is not yet a strong culture of participation.

Our client

The case of the Toledo City Council

In the Toledo case we could say that the city was halfway there. Toledo City Council had already been a client of Kuorum in 2017, when our consultants advised its government on the modernization of the participation regulation and accompanied it in the implementation of the district assemblies. Although there was still a lot of work ahead, a good foundation had been laid.

"We wanted to make it easier for citizens to participate in matters that affected them."

Data collection for the census

At Kuorum, one of the first things we advise our clients in the public sector is to create a participation census; an email database of citizens interested in citizen participation. The census will serve as a driving group to energize participation in the more complex processes. This work had already been done in Toledo. And thanks to this, we were able to give the green light to the Youth Council's proposal to launch participatory budgets to choose which youth leisure projects to invest in during 2018.

Accompaniment during the process

But there are different strategies for executing participatory budgets, which would be the most appropriate in this case? Our consultants analyzed the participation census and the technology being used for online participation. The participation objectives were ambitious, so a single driving group would not be enough. The solution was to train the authors of the projects to be put to the vote to campaign for their projects themselves.

Therefore, if you are thinking of opening your city council to online participation on an ongoing basis or if you have a specific need to measure the pulse of public opinion on a specific topic, contact us and we will advise you without obligation.

Voter experience

From any device

No incidents

Increased participation

"The results of the city's first participatory budgeting project were a success."