participatory budgeting

The city of Boston will direct funding from its budget toward efforts to expand access to fresh food, implement rat prevention measures, and offer rental assistance for Boston youth, among six total priorities selected through residents voting in the city’s inaugural participatory budgeting cycle.

Voting for the inaugural participatory budgeting process, in which Boston residents have the chance to vote to fund initiatives through 14 different proposals generated from community input, opened last week.

Following the lead of neighbors Somerville and Cambridge, Boston is taking on a new initiative that allows the public to decide how the city spends a portion of its 2025 budget.

Are you a Boston resident with ideas to improve your community? What would you do with $2 million dollars to help our most vulnerable neighbors?

Organizations in Boston are advocating for city councilors to allot more money for community projects and needs in the city’s next budget.

Ordinary Boston residents will likely have new ability to shape a portion of the city’s roughly $4 billion operating budget starting this year, via a process known as participatory budgeting