Participatory Budgeting Lab: Democratizing Public Budgets through PB

If you had a direct say in how your government or school spent a portion of its budget, what would you spend it on? Participatory budgeting (PB) is a proven mechanism practiced around the world that we introduced to Oregon in 2022 through our Youth Voice, Youth Vote PB process. The movement is growing in Oregon for sharing power in government decision making, are you ready to answer the call?

Join the Participatory Budgeting Lab and build your expertise in PB with a hands-on training that will guide you through identifying important community issues and designing solutions to address them. After the training, participants will team up with PB practitioners to learn about different PB applications and gain valuable insight on how to make it happen in your community! The event will close out with a lunch panel where attendees will break bread and hear stories from community members who experienced PB first-hand!

Want to learn more about how to bring PB to Portland in 2026? After lunch, join the orientation to the Your 2 Cents Portland Campaign and learn how to get involved.

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and therefore bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." - Paulo Freire

Info: Participate in a PB simulation. Attendees will identify issues in their communities, submit ideas on how to address them, and work in groups to develop project proposals, complete with price tags, and then vote on their favorite projects.

Info: Participants will rotate through 3 small group discussions and strategy building sessions facilitated by PB practitioners. The three subjects will be: 1) Municipal PB 2) PB in schools and 3) PB advancing equitable outcomes

Info: Eat lunch and hear stories from community members and leaders who have experienced PB first-hand.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Participatory Budgeting Oregon