Get Involved: Glasgow PB Practitioners

We would like to invite you to a meeting to help shape an event which will bring community based participatory budgeting (PB) practitioners in Glasgow together to share learning and potentially develop a network linking people together.

We are keen to support the roll out of PB in Glasgow and across Scotland and the vital role of citizens supporting community led approaches to how local PB processes work in practice. 

We are looking at mid to late April for the event and would like to invite you to a planning meeting at New Gorbals Housing Association on Monday 2nd March at 2pm. 

We would ask that you are part of a community-led organisation involved in PB in Glasgow and, to keep things manageable, that only 1 or 2 people from each organisation sign-up to the planning meeting. Alternatively, feel free to share your ideas and suggestions for an event by email, ideally before 28th Feb.

This event is being jointly organised between Glasgow Disability Alliance, Gorbals Ideas Fund and YoMo Young Movers and you! It will be supported by PB Scotland.

We hope that you can be involved, and we will be back in touch soon to confirm details.

Sign up here

PB 2020: £60k in grants will be awarded to help prevent drugs deaths

Projects and community organisations which could help to aid recovery from substance addiction and prevent drug-related deaths across North Ayrshire are being offered the chance to bid for grants between £8k and £10k as part of a new scheme organised by North Ayrshire Alcohol and Drugs Partnership, with communities having the final say on who will receive the funding.

North Ayrshire has experienced an unprecedented rise in drugs deaths, in line with the trend across Scotland, with 38 confirmed drug related deaths recorded in 2018. The number of deaths is expected to be higher still for 2019.

‘The Substance of Our Communities’ is the latest in a series of participatory budgeting events, allowing members of the public to decide which of the bids they think most deserve the funding.

A decision day event is planned for Saturday, April 18 at Ardrossan Civic Hall, where anyone who lives, work or volunteers in North Ayrshire can go along, hear all about the projects then vote for their favourites.

Online voting will also be available, with details to be announced soon.

A series of drop-in sessions will be held at the following locations where you can pick up an application form and receive further information and guidance on how to apply for funding:

• Tuesday, January 28: Fullarton Connexions, Church Street, Irvine (5pm to 6.30pm)

• Wednesday, January 29: Turning Point Scotland, Glebe Street, Stevenston (1pm to 3pm)

• Friday, February 7: The Living Room, Aitken Street, Largs (1pm to 3pm)

• Monday, February 10: Kilwinning Sports Club, Pennyburn Road, Kilwinning (1pm to 3pm)

• Monday, February 17: Volunteer Rooms, Irvine (1pm to 3pm)

• Friday, February 21: Bridgend Community Centre, Bridgend, Kilbirnie (5pm to 7pm)

Councillor Louise McPhater, Cabinet Member for Communities, said: “We hope that this exercise will bring communities together and start conversations on what else can be done to help prevent drug-related deaths.

“Each and every death caused by drugs is a tragedy, with the impact felt deeply by the families who have lost a loved one.

“It is crucial that people fighting addictions feel accepted and supported in society while on their journey to wellness. There are many charities, projects and community organisations out there doing fantastic work, and this funding could go a long way to helping them to reach more people and provide hope.

“We all have a part to play in preventing drug deaths, and it’s time to come together as communities to help fight this.”

Application forms for the participatory budgeting event are available by email from ADP@north-ayrshire.gov.uk, or click here to find out if your project meets the application criteria and to apply online.

The deadline for applications is at midnight on Sunday, March 22.

Additional dates: Planning and Delivering Participatory Budgeting

Thanks for your interest in this training. Two new dates have been added to this course due to high demand.

To ensure as many people as possible can attend, please only register for one day of the training.

Edinburgh

Tuesday 18th February 2020. Tea & coffee from 9.30 for a 10am start – 4pm. Lunch will be provided.

Melting Pot, Rose Street - Edinburgh

This session is now fully booked

OR

Stirling

Monday 9th March 2020. Tea & coffee from 9.30 for a 10am start – 4pm. Lunch will be provided.

Albert Halls - Stirling

Register your interest

About the course

As participatory budgeting (PB) grows across Scotland there is a need for skilled facilitators from the voluntary, community and public sectors to support local PB processes.

To help make this happen, we’re providing a one day training course for people who are new to PB and those who have some experience to share and want to learn more.

The training will be highly participative, with plenty of opportunities to discuss PB and how it works in the real world. The course will cover essential elements in planning and delivering a PB process, along with:

• Forming a planning group - capacity building with the group.

• Select a theme and criteria for the PB fund.

• Thinking about equalities – having all voices represented from the community

• Marketing – posters/simple application form/word of mouth.

• Holding a ‘decision’ event or an online process.  Different ways of doing PB in the community.

• Voting options

• Feedback the results to the community.

• Evaluation – learning the lessons and Plan to repeat it.

For more information, please contact info@pbscotland.scot.

New report evaluates Glasgow's participatory budgeting activity

A new report from Glasgow Centre for Population Health evaluates the participatory budgeting activity taking place in Glasgow.

In four areas of the city community organisations with deep roots have been commissioned to support people to establish citizens panels charged with testing how PB should best work in their community. In addition, Glasgow Disability Alliance were asked to support disabled people from across the city to get involved in development and delivery of the PB process.

The report, published in October, notes that “Glasgow City Council has a strong and clear vision for inclusive, accessible and inequalities-focused PB” and that it should develop a city-wide PB strategy “underpinned by an equalities framework and co-produced with equalities agencies, anchor organisations and with communities.”

The report’s main findings are:

• The dedication of the partners involved and the authenticity and quality of the PB processes developed within the pilot areas was evident.

• Glasgow City Council has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting inclusive and accessible PB.

• The pilot areas were unanimous in stating that the level of funding allocated to support the development of citizens’ panels and the implementation of the PB processes should have been higher. Relatedly, the timescales in which the pilot areas were expected to deliver the PB processes were consistently described as ‘too tight’

• There are strengths to approaching PB at a Council ward level, but the pilot areas have also highlighted some challenges. 

• Learning from the PB pilots suggests that care must be taken to ensure that the inequalities focus within defined communities is clear at the outset. 

• The citizens’ panel approach proved to be a strong PB model in which the processes were tailored to the local community context and where community interests and priorities are represented throughout the process before voting takes place.

• The PB pilot leads have developed supportive, authentic and trusted relationships with the citizens’ panel members – this has been an important factor in the success of the pilots.

• Amid the largely technical narratives that surround the imminent mainstreaming of PB, the approaches developed in the pilots represent a timely reminder that effective PB is about communities and people’s lives and is built upon relationships.

The report further recommends:

• Continuation and expansion of ward-based citizens’ PB panels

• Increasing PB capacity building and process timescales

• The establishment of a Glasgow PB learning network and external evaluation support.

You can read the report here and there’s background on GCPH’s work around PB here.