April News: Seminars on PB Impacts, Call for Mentorship, Engaging Immigrants & Refugees

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We’re working to support you with new mentorship and training opportunities, resources, and advocacy! Read about our upcoming research seminars on the impacts of participatory budgeting (PB), mentorship and peer learning workshops, resources on engaging immigrants & refugees, and three ways to take action.

Register Now: Seminars on the Impacts of Participatory Budgeting

We’re launching a new series of online seminars to make the latest research more accessible for practitioners. In the first seminar, leading researchers will share key findings on the impacts of PB on indicators of governance and well-being, explaining how PB can increase tax revenues, shift public spending, reduce infant mortality, and more. Government practitioners and civil society advocates will help translate this research into practical recommendations and next steps for your work.

The first seminar will take place on May 11th from 9:00-10:30 EDT (New York time). Stay tuned for more details about the next seminar, on the impacts of PB on civil society and participation, in June!

Call for Mentorship: Expanded Support!

Through the Rising Stars mentorship program, we’re offering free coaching for government officials, staff, and advocates who are new to participatory democracy or who want to improve their work. We’re now expanding the program to cover a wider range of participatory democracy practices. Depending on your interest, we’ll match you with an experienced mentor working on participatory budgeting, citizens’ assemblies, legislative theater, participatory policy-making, or participatory planning. Selected applicants will receive free guidance over one semester, including up to 5 video calls with mentors. Deadline to apply: May 3rd.

Want to Engage Immigrants & Refugees? Here Are 5 Ideas.

Participatory budgeting (PB) and other participatory processes can be a highly effective, practical way to engage and empower immigrants, refugees, and internally displaced people. People Powered developed an online course to help advocates and practitioners learn from the experiences of inclusive PB experts in Ukraine, Taiwan, Colombia, Sweden, and the United States.

We’re excited to share 5 key insights from the course to help you identify and address barriers to inclusion and develop strategies to engage immigrants, refugees, and IDPs in your city...

Peer Learning Workshops

As one of the activities prioritized in our participatory planning process for 2021, we’re organizing learning workshops for our 100+ member organizations and board members. The workshops aim to build the power of participatory governance reformers by creating a space to share innovative practices, new ideas, and research findings. Together with member organizations and board members we recently organized two learning workshops, Building a PB Playbook and Participatory Democracy in Campaigns. If you want to be part of this learning community, apply to join as a member organization.

Aluna Serrano Barrera from Extituto de Política Abierta and Stephen Smith from WV Can’t Wait presented during the learning workshop Participatory Democracy in Campaigns.

Aluna Serrano Barrera from Extituto de Política Abierta and Stephen Smith from WV Can’t Wait presented during the learning workshop Participatory Democracy in Campaigns.

Supporting International Partners

We’re supporting our international partners and lifting up the work of our members and boards, to grow support for participatory democracy around the world:

  • World Bank: Program Manager Clara Bois presented on innovative models of participatory democracy at the Governance Forum.

  • NDI: Research & Policy Associate Nikhil Kumar shared key lessons for climate assemblies in the webinar Deliberative Democracy and Climate Justice Assemblies.

  • EmPaci: Research Board co-chairs Won No and Carolin Hagelskamp and board member Ellen Haustein presented on the Global PB Research Agenda and the EmPaci project at the 2021 Virtual Conference of the International Research Society on Public Management.

Research & Policy Associate Nikhil Kumar shared key lessons for climate assemblies during a webinar on deliberative democracy hosted by NDI.

Research & Policy Associate Nikhil Kumar shared key lessons for climate assemblies during a webinar on deliberative democracy hosted by NDI.

Featured Member: LAPPUS

The Laboratory of Social and Public Policies (LAPPUS) is a non-profit organization founded in 2005, based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Its main objective is to analyze and implement innovative public policies and to defend civil rights. Since 2005, LAPPUS has implemented projects and conducted research in partnership with government and civil society, with a special focus on social participation, active urban mobility, and the environment.

Through the Luigi Bobbio Center for Studies in Deliberative Democracy, LAPPUS welcomes applications for the Program in Participatory Democracy: Return to Public Policies Built with the Population. The program aims to promote research, thought, and debate around the experience of participatory democracy in Porto Alegre. At the end of the program, each participant will produce an article with recommendations to improve decision-making processes locally and in their countries of origin. Students, researchers, activists, PB practitioners, public servants, and decision-makers are invited to apply.

Featured Resource: Innovating Local Democracy

This video from People Powered member organization Involve follows the story of three participants in local citizens' assemblies in Cambridge, Dudley, and Test Valley, England. The assemblies provided space for residents to learn about, deliberate, and produce recommendations on issues like the future of their town centres, public transport, and air quality. By showing the process through participants' eyes and in their own words, the video highlights the transformative potential of citizens’ assemblies.

What You Can Do