A Youth Workbook on Participatory Budgeting: My First PB Project

Aims of the tool

The tool aims to make Participatory Budgeting accessible and practical for young people and educators. It guides learners from understanding the basic principles and stages of PB to developing their own first PB project idea through step-by-step exercises. It also supports youth workers and trainers in integrating Participatory Budgeting into non-formal education activities and encourages young people to become more confident and active participants in local democratic decision-making.

Description of the tool

“A Youth Workbook on Participatory Budgeting: My FIRST PB Project” is a practical learning resource developed within the BUDGETIFY project to make Participatory Budgeting (PB) understandable, engaging and applicable for young people.

BUDGETIFY – Boosting Youth Democratic Governance through Participatory Budgeting (www.inednet.com/budgetify) is an international capacity-building project implemented by the Information and Education Development Network (INEDNET) Armenia and its international partners MENQ e.V. Germany, European Dialogue Slovakia, KEKS Sweden, DevYou Hungary, Aequelitas Portugal, RNCLTM Moldova with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, H. Hovnanian Family Foundation and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

After working with the workbook, learners are expected to:
- understand the concept, purpose and basic principles of Participatory Budgeting;
- understand the main stages of a PB process, from identifying community needs and developing proposals to selection, voting and implementation;
- recognise the relationship between public resources, local democracy and citizen participation;
- identify community needs, challenges and priorities that could be addressed through a PB project;
- develop and structure their own first Participatory - Budgeting project idea step by step;
- think about the objectives, target groups, activities, - resources and expected results of their project;
- strengthen practical skills in idea development,
- teamwork, discussion, decision-making and presentation;
- develop greater confidence in engaging with local democratic and participatory processes;
- understand how young people can take an active role in decisions concerning their communities;
- become better prepared to participate in existing PB processes or advocate for more youth-friendly participatory opportunities.

Ultimately, the workbook aims to turn Participatory Budgeting from an abstract democratic concept into a practical experience: learners do not simply learn about PB—they practise the thinking and steps needed to develop their own first PB project.