Participatory Budgeting as a Best Practice

Participatory budgeting (PB) was created as a process that emphasizes the needs of low-income communities to promote social justice and equity. PB promotes transparency in public budgets and incorporates the voices of marginalized populations often excluded or silenced in traditional government processes. It gives everyday people control over a portion of a city budget and empowers residents to hold elected officials responsible for their actions (Piper, 2014). PB was created as a democratic process to encourage residents to participate in civic duties by making collective decisions about what is best for their communities. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the Movement for Black Lives, and the World Bank have all endorsed PB as a best practice for democracy (Secondo & Lerner, 2011). Around the world, PB has emerged as a tool for empowering marginalized communities and advancing social justice concerns through civic participation.

PB has continued to expand across the U.S. and Canada with more than 300 active PB processes worldwide. In 2017, roughly $299 million in public funding was allocated through PB in 29 cities. As of 2017, more than 400,000 people have participated in PB processes across North America, with more than 1,630 community-generated winning projects (Participatory Budgeting Project, 2017). Many of the PB processes within the United States take place in large urban cities, but it is gaining some influence in smaller towns as well (Hagelskamp et al., 2018).

The amount of money allocated in a PB process varies based on the population and budget of the municipal, city, or school doing PB and is often based on dollars allocated to PB per resident. As shown in the graphic below, in 2015–2016 PB processes in North America: 
 

• The average dollars spent per resident was $9.85

• The minimum dollars spent per resident was $1.18

• The maximum dollars spent per resident was $69.85

Origins of Cole Has a Soul

This Machine Has A Soul! (TMHAS) was a community-based project implemented to provide a new framework for understanding how a public budget works by combining participatory budgeting with art and performance. THMHAS developed the first participatory budgeting project in Denver by introducing two processes: one in the Cole neighborhood, and one on the Auraria campus. Both PB processes were organized by non-profit organizations, who became community partners for this evaluation project: Warm Cookies of the Revolution, Project VOYCE, and Project Belay.

Project Belay coordinated the PB process in the Cole neighborhood, deemed Cole Has a Soul (CHAS) by steering committee members. Although most PB processes are funded through tax dollars, CHAS allocated $30,000 in campus-improvement projects due to a grant from several area foundations: ArtPlace America; Arts in Society with the support of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation; Hemera Foundation, and Colorado Creative Industries; and Colorado Art Tank with the support of Denver Arts and Venues and Denver Foundation’s Arts Affinity Group. As of 2017, the population of the Cole neighborhood was approximately 4,775, meaning CHAS allocated $6.28 per resident.

The Cole Neighborhood

Cole was established in 1874, making it one of the oldest neighborhoods in Denver. Named after a Denver Public Schools superintendent, Cole was an almost exclusively White residential area. Cole thrived as an industrial neighborhood, but suffered economically when businesses began relocating due to economic instability. The community saw increased poverty and crime in the 1980s and 1990s. Cole has become a racially, culturally, and economically diverse community currently undergoing gentrification. Despite the ongoing changes, Cole has continued to persist and advocate for civic and social engagement to increase the number of resident leaders implementing change within the Cole neighborhood.

The neighborhood is located in the northeast outskirts of Denver. According to census data (as of 2017), the neighborhood is 47% Latinx and 16% African American; one third of residents speak a language other than English at home; 12.5% of adults in Cole are not fluent in English; and 22% of residents are foreign-born. The neighborhood has a significant proportion of young people, with 27% of neighborhood residents under the age of 18, and 44% of children living in poverty.

Pollution and gentrification have taken a toll on the community in recent years. As one resident made clear, “My neighborhood has been gentrified, and … we’ve lost the flavor of [the neighborhood]. I didn’t have a say in any of these changes. Although they [local government] had meetings, I felt like the damage had already been done.” Another resident of the area remarked about the environmental degradation, “Nothing really lives too long over here. Man, not even the bugs live long here. …There’s nothing over here. … It’s really sad because it’s bordered by a toxic triangle, you know.” That “toxic triangle” included a metal fabricator, a recycling plant, and a petroleum refinery that was, in the resident's words, “spewing out” cyanide.

Considering the significance of Cole neighborhood to Denver, residents wanted an opportunity to help improve their community by focusing on the issues they considered most important. Through PB, Cole residents allocated $30,000 to improve the neighborhood as they saw fit.

References

Hagelskamp, C., Schleifer, D., Rinehart, C., & Silliman, R. (2018). Participatory budgeting: Could it diminish health disparities in the United States? Journal of Urban Health, 95(5), 766–771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-018-0249-3

Participatory Budgeting Project. (2017). Transforming our democracy 2017 annual report. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-7RYZNOgNI0WtJBt00z8LM-Y1zLUNvHD/view

Piper, L. (2014). How participatory institutions deepen democracy through broadening representation: The case of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Theoria, 61(139), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2014.6113903

Secondo, D. & Lerner, J. (2011). Our money, our decision: Participatory budgeting takes root in New York City. Social Policy. 22–25. https://www.abeoudshoorn.com/publications/pbnyc.pdf