DIYWThis project led by the Ideal-Oficina Jove de la Garrotxa is part of a series of actions and activities that aim to encourage the participation of young people and their empowerment. The youth club of La Garrotxa encourages all young people aged 12 to 29 to submit proposals in order to invest 10,000 euros from the Olot City Council Youth Budget in the activities chosen, proposed and managed by the young people themselves. From 2018, projects have been allocated to two age groups. 5,000 euros is allocated to all projects submitted by young people aged 12 to 16, and another 5,000 euros is allocated to proposals submitted by young people aged 17 to 29. Each proposal can cost a maximum of 1200 Euro. After voting, young people who have submitted the chosen proposals are responsible for managing and organising the project with the support and facilitation of the youth workers.
How does it work?
- Step 1: Presenting and communicating participatory budgets.
- Step 2: Preparing, validating and presenting the proposals by the young people.
- Step 3: Holding an assembly where the proposals are explained, possible collaborations between projects are seen and the project‘s ideas are revised.
- Step 4: Project querying: ensuring the project complies with the regulations and final validation.
- Step 5: Voting on Proposals.
- Step 6: Joint implementation (between the administration and young people) of the project.
- Black board, white board or big sheet of paper
- Pens
- Post-its in different colours
- A device on which to watch the video (TV/laptop/projector) with internet connection
Main objective:
- Participants learn how to develop a Participatory Budget step by step.
Detailed objectives:
- Participants learn about the participatory budget process.
- Participants discuss how to make PB more inclusive.
- Participants learn how to organise a participatory budget.
1. Introduction (10 min.)
Tell participants that today you will talk about Participatory Budgets (PB). Ask questions:
- Have you ever heard about Participatory Budgets? How would you define a Participatory Budget?
- Have you ever participated in PB? If so, in what way?
Explain that a Participatory Budget is a process in which a smaller community (e.g. a locality, a school, an organisation) decides what to spend a certain proportion of common funds on. Underline that PB is not only about voting - there are multiple steps and people involved in the whole process.
2. Video (20 min.)
Give each participant 2 post-it notes (2 different colours) and a pen. Tell them that in a minute you will watch together a video about the Participatory Budget (PB) in Garrotxa - a region in Catalonia (Spain). Their task is to watch the video carefully and write on the post-it notes answers to the following questions:
- What do you think is most interesting about this process?
- What is your main question about this PB or PB in general?
After watching the video, gather all post-it notes and put them on the flipchart, sorting similar notes together. Answer all the questions regarding PB in Garrotxa and PB (see: descriptions in the toolkit) and if you lack knowledge in some part - admit it and invite students to research this after the workshops.
3. Introduction to the simulation (15 min.)
Divide participants into smaller groups (3-5 people in each group). Tell them that during these workshops they will play the role of organisers of a PB. Each group represents a different organising team. They will go through most of the steps that organisers of a real PB have to go through.
- Give each team a printed copy of Appendix 1.
- Discuss with the group the four main rules of a Participatory Budget and make sure everybody understands them.
- Give each group a printed copy of a made up scenario (Appendix 2) and ask them to read it carefully.
Say, that they will go through each step of organising the PB during this workshop and that for each step you will give them a task.
4. Regulations (45 min.)
Tell the groups that their first task is to create a first draft of rules. Give each group flipchart paper and pens. The rules should answer the following questions:
- Who is the organiser of the PB and where does the money come from?
- Who is in the initiative group?
- Who can submit the ideas? How do the organisers verify if a person is eligible to do this?
- How much money will be spent? How much can one project cost?
- What should be included in a project proposal?
- How can a person submit a proposal?
- How much time do people have to submit the proposals? Who approves or rejects the projects? How much time do people get to correct their projects?
- How will the projects be chosen? Who can participate in voting?
After 30 minutes (or after everyone has finished) discuss the regulations together. Give participants a chance to explain their decision and to discuss why groups have made similar or different decisions. Summarise: This is a crucial task done during the organising of a PB, and in real life establishing the rules can last a few weeks.
5. Promotion (60 min.)
Tell the groups that now they have to inform the people of Faketown that a PB is happening in their community. In order to do that, each group has to record a short video or radio announcement* (up to 3 minutes), where they explain:
a) What is PB
b) What are rules in this PB
c) Where the community can learn more about it
Give groups 35 minutes to record the video and after that, each group can present their video to the whole group. Discuss together, what should be included in the videos and what groups would do if they had a bigger budget and more time.
- If you do not have equipment needed for this activity, you can ask the groups to create posters instead of videos.
6. Gathering ideas, promoting projects and voting (30 min.)
Tell the groups that they have been asked by the city council to make this process accessible to every citizen of Faketown. The groups that they should especially think about include: teenagers/elders/immigrants/people without internet access /people with disabilities.
Give them 3 main questions:
- How do you help those groups submit their ideas?
- How do you inform those groups about voting possibilities for these projects?
- How do you provide those groups equal access to voting?
After 15 minutes, ask each group to read their ideas out loud. Underline that we cannot talk about democracy until we give everybody an equal chance to contribute.
7. Summary (30 min.)
Congratulate all the groups for their great work. Say that in real life organisers have a lot more time to think about these steps and to create the process of a PB, but hopefully this gave them a glimpse into how PB works from the inside.
Divide participants into pairs (try to have people from different groups in each pair). In pairs, ask participants to discuss the following questions:
- What was the most interesting part of today’s workshop?
- What is the best part of organising a PB? What is the hardest?
- What is the most important thing I have learned today?
After 10 minutes of working in pairs, ask participants to share some of their thoughts about the workshop and about PB in general.
Say that even in a young age they can organise a PB - e.g. in their schools, youth groups and communities. They can always become an initiative group and promote these ideas amongst their friends and families.