Participatory Budgeting 101
The school-based initiative stems from the widely adopted municipal Participatory Budgeting (PB) - a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend a portion of the public budget. The process originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1989 and has since grown to more than 11,000 PB processes across the globe at the municipal, state, and national levels. PB gives ordinary people real power over real money, empowers community voices, sheds light on community needs, and provides a space for equitable, transparent public spending.
To learn more about participatory budgeting around the world, check out these organizations: