Participatory Budgeting’s Birthplace Uses the Mechanism to Build Resilience

Participatory budgeting, whereby governments set aside a certain percentage of public funds to be distributed according to the will of the people, is all the rage these days. Chicago’s 49th ward set aside $1.3 million for an experiment in direct democracy in 2009, ... Read more

What Happened When the City of Boston Asked Teenagers for Help With the Budget

Many young people in Boston just voted for their first time, and the results are in. The city’s “Youth Lead the Change” project, with help from the Participatory Budgeting Project, was the first youth-led participatory budgeting process in a U.S. city. The project ... Read more

Diary of a young co-op startup: the importance of collaboration

I have had moments where I would give anything to have a "normal job", with someone to tell me what to do, when to do it and to praise me for it. I have found myself valuing what I did in my paid work higher than the time I spent on AltGen, because the rest of society valued that ... Read more