March News: Engaging Immigrants & Refugees, Jobs, New Board Members, Climate Assemblies

/

We’re working to support you with new training opportunities, resources, and advocacy, and our team is growing! Read about our upcoming online course on using participatory budgeting (PB) to engage immigrants & refugees, new PB board members, resources on climate assemblies, job openings, and three ways to take action.

New Online Course: How to Engage Immigrants & Refugees in Participatory Budgeting

Register now for the next People Powered University online course, “How to Engage Immigrants & Refugees in Participatory Budgeting” taking place on April 15.

It is vital to include immigrants, refugees, and internally displaced people (IDPs) in civic life and community decision-making to help them integrate into their host society. Participatory budgeting (PB) can be a highly effective and practical way to integrate these newcomers into your community.

In this practical training, you’ll learn how to make PB and other participatory processes more inclusive, engaging, and empowering for immigrants, refugees, and IDPs. Leading advocates, organizers, and researchers from Ukraine, Colombia, Taiwan, Sweden, and the United States will share best practices, review lessons learned, and help you plan the next steps for taking action.

New PB Board Members

We are delighted to welcome new members of our Global Participatory Budgeting (PB) Boards! 17 government leaders, civil society advocates, and researchers from 15 countries are joining our global program to grow PB. We received nearly 60 applications from exceptional PB leaders in 24 countries. The new members will work to improve PB practice and impacts, and advance research that addresses practitioners needs.

We’re Hiring! Share the Ads.

Our people powered organization is growing! We’re seeking a Finance and Operations Director, Director of Partnerships, and Communications Manager to help us build participatory democracy around the world. Location is remote and we welcome applications from candidates anywhere in the world. Learn more about the positions, apply, and share with good candidates that you know! Deadline: March 22, 2021.

Democratizing Philanthropy

To confront the crisis of democracy, foundations need to do more than award grants for democracy - they need to also practice democracy and shift power to communities. We’re supporting foundations in applying the lessons of participatory budgeting to participatory grantmaking. In February, our Executive Director Josh Lerner published an article in Nonprofit Quarterly, “To Support Democracy, Foundations Must Practice Democracy,” and in March he led a workshop for over 60 funders, as part of the global Participatory Grantmaking Community of Practice.

Josh Lerner published an article in Nonprofit Quarterly in February.

Josh Lerner published an article in Nonprofit Quarterly in February.

Supporting Open Government

People Powered is supporting the Open Government Partnership’s Local program, to help their 70+ members launch and grow innovative participatory democracy programs. We recently delivered a workshop for these local government and civil society leaders, with some of our amazing members and partners: City of Paris (France), Katy Rubin (United Kingdom), Democracia en Red (Argentina), Democratic Society (Belgium), Particitiz (Belgium), and Kota Kita (Indonesia).

open-government-partnership-logo-square-600x600-300x300.png

Organizers Won Climate Assemblies in Poland, the UK, and France. Here's How.

Climate assemblies (CAs) provide a space for community members to learn how climate change impacts their community or country, and then develop and propose concrete actions for the government to take. People Powered developed an online course to help advocates and practitioners learn from the experiences of local and national CAs in Poland, France, and the United Kingdom.

We’re excited to share the key insights from the course to help you advocate for, design, and start a climate assembly in your city or country.

64498236_337403396930866_1530877578682826752_o.jpg

Featured Resource: Participatory Budgeting in Schools - A Toolkit for Youth Democratic Action

This toolkit, developed based on PB experiences in Chicago schools, aims to make PB easier to implement with teachers and youth in schools across a wide variety of models and contexts. The toolkit addresses key questions for planning your PB process, provides a detailed PB session planner, and highlights case studies from Chicago schools. It was created by the Great Cities Institute, a People Powered member organization.

What You Can Do