Participatory Budgeting
Participatory budgeting is a democratic process where community members decide how part of a budget is spent — giving real people power over real money!
Each year, Save the Harbor centers community voices by reserving $25,000 of Better Beaches funds to be managed by participatory budgeting. Through a four-step process, the community decides which events to fund. We collect ideas for beach events from the community, then turn those into an online ballot; the community votes on the ballot, and we work with community groups to make the most popular ideas happen on the beaches in the coming year.
WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING IDEAS! As long as you are a resident of Boston, you are eligible to submit ideas for free beach events – please submit yours at the link below.
Idea Collection
Voting
Proposal Development
Funding
Submit your idea for an event until the end of February.
The ballot will be available for the public to vote on for the month of March.
If your organization is interested in hosting a winning event, reach out to Maya Smith at smith@savetheharbor.org!
We fund the 5 ideas with the most votes – each with a budget of $5,000 – and work with community groups to make them happen in summer 2023.
The 4 Steps of Participatory Budgeting
Winning Projects – 2022
Beats on the Beach Block Party
Diversity Matters Fest
Queer Beach Market
Teen Beach Bash
Harbor Healing Wellness Fest
Amplify Voices
Build Trust
Expand Programming
Young people and people with access barriers have direct authority over their beaches.
Our grantees are able to rely on us for suggestions straight from the community.
The input from PB shaped how we selected all of last year’s grantees and led to the most diverse year of programming to date.