Participatory budgeting is something that we are becoming more familiar with in Moray following two completed rounds of this method of distributing small amounts of funds. The idea is a simple one – ask local people to listen to proposals from groups seeking funding and then vote on who they think should be given the awards.
Last December saw the second round of this process in Moray, hosted by tsiMoray, called #YouChoose2. Moray Wellbeing Hub Champions were invited to be facilitators in the preliminary selection process using the core values of the Hub and skills learned through training. The feedback was very positive and led to a very successful voting day on 7th December last year.
A recent story on the Participatory Budgeting in Scotland website highlights the role that the Hub took in the process with some lovely praise for our work:
‘Interaction, engagement, decisions taken constructively’ (stakeholder event evaluation)
tsiMORAY invited Moray Wellbeing Hub to co-facilitate the stakeholder event, where project proposals were considered for eligibility and fit. The Hub kindly provided two facilitators, one for each group, assisted by two members of the tsiMORAY team who scribed, kept time and stepped in to facilitate where the Hub’s proposals were up for discussion to ensure the process was fair.
Stakeholders formed two groups of 7 to 8 participants, each making the decisions on which projects could progress to the public vote. Participants provided positive and constructive suggestions on strengths and areas to be strengthened. Champion facilitators kept the conversation on track.
You can read the whole PB Scotland story here:
More public involvement in decision making in Moray!
