HOW WE GOT HERE

Quick History of Participatory Budgeting in Boston

2022

Designing the PB process and writing a municipal ordinance.

2021

Councilor Edwards files Charter Amendment. Voters come out in masses to vote in an overwhelming majority YES on question 1. Ballot initiative passes!

image of Councilor Lydia Edwards giving a press conference in front of Boston's City Hall, with a group of sixteen people standing in a semi-circle a few paces behind her; there is a person holding a recorder, crouched in the bottom, right of the photo, wearing a mask, and the dark wood podium Councilor Edwards is standing at has the official Boston City Council seal on the top portion

2021

Grassroots community organizers, researchers, and political leaders form a study group to research various ways of reforming Boston’s City Charter. The group begins drafting a report, “Rewrite the Rules: Democratizing City Charters in Boston and Beyond” on their findings and recommendations (forthcoming).

2020

#BlackLivesMatter uprisings create mass demand to #Defund, but also to reinvest through participatory budgeting.

photo of volunteers on a green lawn holding yes on 1 signs, with building in the background

2016

Ujima Project Project launched, practicing PB of a community investment fund.

2014 - Now

YLC continues as a program of the Dept. of Youth Engagement and Employment, with leadership from the Mayor’s Youth Council.

2013 - 2014

“Youth Lead the Change” was established, with technical assistance from Participatory Budgeting Project and Center for Economic Democracy, with a steering committee co-chairs by the City School and Boston Student Advisory Council.

2013

Mayor Menino, as one of his parting acts as outgoing mayor, allocated $1 million of Boston’s capital budget to a participatory budgeting process for youth.

2013

City Councilor Tito Jackson held the first public hearing on PB in the City Council.

2010

Right to the City Boston adopted PB as part of its policy platform.

2010

Boston Workers Alliance launched the “District Dollars” campaign to promote PB in Boston. Inspired by the yearly struggle to increase youth jobs funding, BWA members sought strategies that enable our communities to better control the budget.