Process Design
There are multiple ways to implement a Participatory Budgeting (PB) initiative, each with a different emphasis and intended outcome. You can maximize participation overall, or focus on youth or other disengaged populations. Your PB can encourage civic engagement and education, or focus on building trust and communication with your community. PB can do one or all of these things, but not by default. We help you design and implement with specific goals in mind so your PB can have maximum impact where you want to see it.
PB initiatives often suffer from a less than ideal citizen experience and low participation rates, or they are too labor intensive for public officials to maintain. Our experience and attention will help you achieve your specific goals, with an intelligent design that won’t exhaust your staff.
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Start with a plan
We help you plan your PB initiative around the priorities that matter to you. We design an initiative with defined guidelines for ideas, submission instructions, a communications and engagement plan, and a timeline leading to your vote-week deployment. We also incorporate and share best practices from the PB initiatives happening across the globe.
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Learn how to run
Many PB initiatives are implemented over a six month or more timeframe. Unexpected issues will always pop up. We will be there every step to make sure the process stays on track, take the pressure off your shoulders, and execute through to a successful outcome. We’ll be there to support you with teach you how to handle any issue that comes your way.
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Grow to soon lead
Each and every PB initiative is a chance to learn. We offer to study your PB through stakeholder interviews and analysis to make recommendations that will help you achieve your goals of a continuously improving process. As you grow your participation and engagement with PB, you will soon move from learning to leading.
Technology
Technology use and integration into your PB initiative are some of the most important decisions you will have to make. An efficient and effective PB platform will save you hundreds of staff hours and significantly increase participation, accessibility, transparency and engagement. We help you understand which digital components will make your PB initiative a recognized success.
City PB
A PB Platform Built by Civic Trust
Our first product is a platform we built with you in mind. Yes, even before you visited this site. We worked hard to create a platform that encourages public officials, interested local leaders, and already engaged citizens to get excited about starting or enhancing their PB initiative.
Below are examples of our platform deployed in Atlanta, GA in 2019:
(click below to enlarge)
Our platform offers many benefits for an overall successful PB initiative:
Community engagement - citizens can easily share ideas and projects encouraging their families, friends and neighbors to participate
Transparency - the public are informed from start to finish on the process and directly involved in decision making on allocation of public funds
Accessibility - barriers to engagement are overcome as the majority of the population consistently spends time in digital environments, which are available 24/7 from anywhere and very often multi-lingual
Reduced hours to spent elsewhere - local officials save time, energy and focus as friction is removed from the PB process
Key Features:
Allows your community to collect ideas anytime, anywhere by easily uploading photos and details and adding project locations to an interactive map
Interactive ballots can be tailored with additional information for voters to make more informed choices, but with inclusivity in mind, our platform offers authentication of both digital and paper ballots
Technical support is key for you to be able to address and mitigate any issues that arise and we’ll remain responsive throughout every stage of the PB process
Strategic Communications
Increased participation in the democratic experience is at the heart of the PB process. A strong communications campaign is critical for you to see this desirable result. We help you communicate in the right ways at the right times with your constituents because we believe that the more people participate, the more likely you will see the many benefits of PB such as valuable ideas, validated results, and stronger civic engagement.
Our strategic communications support offers the chance to realize more significant benefits with your PB:
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INCREASE voter turnout
Size matters with PB as your voter turnout is fundamental to validate results. With effective communications, your PB will boast more ideas, projects, awareness, votes, and ultimately more benefits to the community.
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Boost awareness
As your communications efforts build, your constituents will become more aware of the exciting opportunities and benefits PB offers. PB will no longer be a mysterious process, but will become known, understood, and will gain support.
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EXPAND collaboration
Public officials often face challenges that keep them from reaching beyond the usual suspects to engage with new audiences. By executing a strategic communications plan, you will see participation grow into partnership.