Participatory budgeting program funds up to 18 projects
A library showcasing Tamil culture, an art project enlisting kids to decorate trashcans, and a rock art workshop are among the community-based projects a city councillor's office will be funding in Karhiio this year.
"I've been involved in community-building work my entire adult life," Coun. Keren Tang told Taproot. "I've learned that if you can put a question or decision out to the broader community and involve as many people as possible… typically, it generates a much stronger result than when only a few people make that decision."
Tang's office allotted $20,000 to be distributed through the second annual Community-Based Budgeting Project. Of the 18 proposals received, nine will receive the full amount requested, which ranges from $500 to $2,000:
- CansForKids YEG, where students will learn about environmentalism while painting trash cans;
- Elder & Youth Lunch & Learnings, a series of intergenerational and cross-cultural culinary events;
- Guide to Ward Karhiio Booklet, a publication to help newcomers navigate the ward, created by youth non-profit Step Up YEG;
- Re-wilding Ward Karhiio, an initiative to plant a wildflower meadow;
- Shoot hoops & have a hotdog, a weekly basketball-and-barbecue event meant to engage youth and deter mischief at Sakaw Community Gardens;
- Seeds of Change, a program to teach youth about sustainability through planting;
- Small Arts of Kindness, a workshop to paint rocks to be placed in Mill Woods Park;
- Tamil Little Library, a library stocked with books by Tamil authors to foster inclusivity;
- Thirukkural Art Mural: a mural featuring bilingual quotes from Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.
The rest of the proposals will have an opportunity to share $4,500 in remaining funds, Tang said.
"You either scale down or you adapt, or you work with another team, or you modify your proposal," she said. "We put that proposed approach out to the project leads, and everyone says it's a sensible way to move forward."
Transparency, civic engagement, collaboration, inclusion, and equity are among the values of the Community-Based Budgeting Project, says a report on the inaugural iteration. That first year funded such projects as Greater Mill Woods Dining Week and a BetaCity YEG project mapping bike paths in wards Karhiio and Nakota Isga.
Traditional granting structures tend to be more opaque and less likely to provide application support than this kind of participatory budgeting, which is part of what drew Tang.
"We can talk about being an anti-racist city. We can talk about all these values and things that we're doing when it comes to social justice and equity, but nothing will change if we don't start talking about changing our overall power structure," she said.
