The people have chosen (their projects), in participatory budgeting exercise

A CHARITY that seeks to help people experiencing homelessness – including by providing ‘starter packs’ of crockery, bedding and pans, etc when moving into a new home – has been named among the successful projects to receive funding, as chosen by the people of Edinburgh.

Fresh Start is to receive £20,000 from a ‘participatory budgeting’ fund, where the destination of £140,000 has been decided by local people.

Say organisers, The City of Edinburgh Council, there were 2,510 voters who (in a multiple choice ballot) cast 10,025 votes between them.

Fresh Start was one of eight successful projects (from 56 applicants – here), the others being:

• Lauriston Farm Community Outdoor Kitchen;
• Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective;
• Cargo Bike Movement food sharing project;
• SHRUB Cooperative Wee Spoke Hub;
• Rhyze Mushrooms: Micro mushroom farms for three community cafes;
• Edinburgh Remakery: tech donation boxes for schools; and
• Porty Community Energy: cosy homes and cargo bikes.

Says The City of Edinburgh Council, here: “Due to the high number of proposals submitted, £40,000 worth of extra funding was exceptionally made available in addition to the original £100,000, to allow as many projects to go ahead as possible. Given the high quality of the remaining projects that applied for funding, work will be undertaken to signpost groups to other opportunities to progress their ideas where possible.

“The initiative was designed to support the delivery of the Council’s climate change targets together with providing learning to inform the wider approach to participatory budgeting (PB). Participatory budgeting is a way for citizens to have a direct say on how money is spent. In Edinburgh, Participatory Budgeting has been used as an approach to distribute funding since 2010.”

Picture credit: Place Design Scotland

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