District 23 Participatory Budgeting Internship Program 2014 Participatory Budgeting is a new form of Participatory Democracy that was first developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 and has since spread to over 1,500 cities worldwide. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives. New York Citys Participatory Budgeting program is the largest in the country and is now in its third year. In NYC $1 million is allocated to each participating council district and the people of each district come together in the fall in what are called Neighborhood Assemblies to brainstorm project ideas. Over the following months community volunteer budget delegates meet to craft the ideas into concrete proposals and decide by meeting with various city agencies which are actually feasible and will have the widest public benefit. We are now 5 weeks away from voting week which is March 29th-April 6th. There are 9 districts participating this year and 21 already signed up for next year. Anybody who lives in the district and is at least 16 years old can vote! Its truly democratic! Last year in the 23rd District over 1,100 residents voted to fund to fund six projects including a technology upgrade for Martin Van Buren High School, a Cunningham Park music stage, and emergency equipment for the Glen Oaks Volunteer Ambulance Corps. This year we are committed to bringing even more people into the process. Over the next 6 weeks well be phone banking, canvassing, emailing, Facebooking, tweeting, attending community events and just generally doing everything we can to make sure EVERY 23rd resident knows about PB and is a part of it. Whatever your interests or skills if youre excited about the process then theres a way for you to get involved. Well train you and give you everything you need to make the calls (including a script) and provide info on the rest of our outreach activities over the next 6 weeks. If youre interested in interning please contact District 23 Participatory Budgeting Organizer Michael Berger at mberger.d23pbnyc@gmail or 267.971.5301. For more information see: pbnyc.org, cvhaction.org, participatorybudgeting.org
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 01:30:00 +0000
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