A National Network of Activists Pursuing "People's Budgets" Gains Prominence | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.

"The national Black Lives Matter protests led to a new wave of PB around the country-one that centers power analyses and racial justice in newly explicit ways. In several cities-such as Nashville, Seattle, and Raleigh-local governments have established PB processes, but community groups continue to advocate for more robust versions. In those cases, PB has helped communities to articulate alternative budgets contrary to the status quo-as part of an emerging and significant movement of people's budgets around the country."

"These people's budgets feel like a movement because active campaigns using this terminology have emerged, without central coordination, in over a dozen cities-and not just in large, coastal ones like Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. I read about people's budgets in Norman, Ypsilanti, Sacramento, Nashville, Raleigh, and Cleveland. The exact names of their campaigns vary a bit; some call themselves solidarity budgets, for instance."

Participatory budgeting lacks a single correct model and requires evaluation for whether specific processes mobilize communities or limit them. The Black Lives Matter protests prompted a new wave of PB that explicitly centers power analyses and racial justice. Local governments in several cities have created PB processes while community groups press for more robust, community-led versions. PB has enabled communities to craft alternative budgets that challenge the status quo and contribute to an emergent movement of people's budgets. These campaigns have appeared in over a dozen cities without central coordination, often led by grassroots coalitions that combine organizing and service groups and champion divest-invest, #carenotcuts, and defund-refund framings.

Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.