Jez Hall from PB Partners lead a workshop on Participatory Budgeting at our Conference, this workshop built on the work of EVOC to:
- raise awareness of Participatory Budgeting with the third sector
- continually evaluate PB projects being run across Edinburgh from a third sector viewpoint in order that learning from projects can be shared with city partners
EVOC has prepared a draft PB position paper which was circulated at this workshop framing the discussion on PB. Views and thoughts on PB were sought from the sector. Jez Hall from PB partners ran the workshop which focused on the Scottish Government’s aspirations for PB in Scotland, whilst acknowledging the issues currently being experienced by the third sector. Michael Traille also attended the PB workshop and is a community activist who is training to be a PB champion and is involved in the Leith Links PB. Michael was interested to hear the third sector viewpoint as generally, he works with community activists who are extremely positive about PB.
To end the workshop participants were asked to come up with good challenging questions to ask those organising PB events if they were to believe that PB could help to solve a set of problems in Edinburgh.
These were the responses.
What are your intended outcomes?
What are your expectations of the PB process?
How do we ensure that all those that should be included are included?
How could we contribute as a sector?
What change is possible from doing this PB?
Where is the learning process?
What limits are being set on this PB process?
These questions have further informed EVOC’s position on PB and a final position paper will be circulated in the coming months.
Leave a Reply