Welcome to PB Scotland - The latest events, news & ideas on Participatory Budgeting in Scotland.

PB in 2025: Where are we now?

A Summary of a PB Scotland Network engagement exercise

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Budgeting Together: Lessons from Brazil for Scotland’s Participatory Future

Paul Nelis form the PB Scotland team reflects on the changing nature of PB in Scotland and how it has strong parallels with the original PB model developed in Brazil in the 1980s.

Featured

Budgeting Together: Lessons from Brazil for Scotland’s Participatory Future

Paul Nelis form the PB Scotland team reflects on the changing nature of PB in Scotland and how it has strong parallels with the original PB model developed in Brazil in the 1980s.

PB : Reaching the parts that other grants can’t reach in Inverness

Participatory budgeting was used to full effect most recently when national and local organisations came together in Inverness for the ‘Your Place, Your Point’ - Participatory Budgeting process.

Participatory budgeting: New challenges, same principles

Evaluating our PB practice: A resource to support PB learning and evaluation

This resource aims to support PB practitioners to develop and improve evaluation practices. It’s web-based, easy to use and will support practice at all stages.

Another Green PB Seal for Scotland: City of Edinburgh Council

The City of Edinburgh Council have now been awarded a Green PB Seal for their Green Participatory Budgeting Programme – “The Edinburgh Community Climate Fund” - which was launched in 2023.

Case study: PB addressing cost of living and climate in Perth and Kinross

PKC have used their recent PB to cover a number of topics, looking at cost of living and the climate recently as a small grants PB.

PB in Schools: Doing Democracy in Craigentinney Primary School

In this article, PB Scotland’s Paul Nelis explores the work of the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary school where PB has been used by pupils to set their priorities.

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News and resources

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Online event: Big Decisions, Local Voices: Participatory Budgeting at Scale

Monday, 16 February 26, 10am to 12.00pm - online. PB Scotland invites you to an online Participatory Budgeting event focused on PB at scale. Join us as we explore how large-scale PB processes can drive significant community-led investment and empower residents to shape priorities that matter most.

Falrkik Community Choices: Public Voting Now Open

Public voting is now open for this year’s Community Choices, with 57 projects from community and third sector groups across Falkirk District.

Participative Democracy Certificate Training - YouthLink Scotland

The Participative Democracy Certificate (PDC) is a youth award developed by YouthLink Scotland aimed at young people involved in decision making processes.

Need help to launch or improve a participatory programme? The Rising Stars Mentorship Program is open for new applications

The Rising Stars Mentorship Program connects democracy practitioners with expert guidance to launch and improve participatory programs.

From the Resource Hub: Evaluating participatory budgeting

We’ve brought together some of the key evaluation resources that are feature on our PB Resources Hub, as well as some examples of real PB processes.

8 Steps to Delivering a Successful Small Grants PB Process

In this article, we’re going to set out the basic steps of how to run a successful small grants PB process – and share links to some useful resources and tips.

Guide to Evaluating the Wellbeing impacts of Participatory Budgeting

This new guide and toolkit reflects on recent experiences of Participatory Budgeting (PB) within the Gwent area of Wales, from early 2020 to January 2023.

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