What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds Shari Davis
My name is Shari Davis,
and let’s be honest,
I’m a recovering government employee.
And I say that with a huge shout-out
to the folks that work in government
and on systems change.
It’s hard.
It can be isolating.
And the work can feel impossible.
But government is the people that show up.
Really, it’s the people that can show up
and are committed to the promise
that public service offers:
service to people,
democracy
and fixing the problems
that community members face.
Seventeen years ago,
I walked through city hall
for the first time as a staff member.
And that walk revealed something to me.
I was a unicorn.
There weren’t many people
who looked like me
that worked in the building.
And yet, there were folks committed
to addressing hundreds of years
of systemic inequity
that left some behind and many ignored.
Where there was promise,
there was a huge problem.
You see, democracy,
as it was originally designed,
had a fatal flaw.
It only laid pipeline
for rich white men to progress.
And now, if you’re a smart rich white man,
you understand why I say that’s a problem.
Massive talent has been left
off the field.
Our moral imaginations have grown anemic.
Our highest offices
are plagued by corruption.
We’re on the brink
of a sort of apathetic apocalypse,
and it’s not OK.
We’ve got to open the doors
to city halls and schools
so wide that people
can’t help but walk in.
We’ve got to throw out
the old top-down processes
that got us into this mess,
and start over,
with new faces around the table,
new voices in the mix,
and we have to welcome new perspectives
every step of the way.
Not because it’s the right thing to do –
although it is –
but because that’s the only way
for us to all succeed together.
And here’s the best news of all.
I know how to do it.
The answer – well, an answer,
is participatory budgeting.
That’s right.
Participatory budgeting,
or “PB” for short.
PB is a process that brings
community and government together
to ideate, develop concrete proposals
and vote on projects
that solve real problems in community.
Now I realize that people
don’t get up and dance
when I start talking about public budgets.
But participatory budgeting
is actually about collective,
radical imagination.
Everyone has a role to play in PB,
and it works,
because it allows community members
to craft real solutions
to real problems
and provides the infrastructure
for the promise of government.
And honestly,
it’s how I saw a democracy
actually work for the first time.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts,
and mayor Menino asked me
to launch the country’s first
youth-focused PB effort
with one million dollars of city funds.
Now, we didn’t start
with line items and limits
or spreadsheets and formulas.
We started with people.
We wanted to make sure
that everyone was listened to.
So we brought in young people
from historically and traditionally
marginalized neighborhoods,
members of the queer community
and youth that were formerly incarcerated,
and together, often with pizza
and a sugar-free beverage,
we talked about how to make Boston better.
And we designed a process that we called
“Youth Lead the Change.”
We imagined a Boston
where young people
could access the information
that they need to thrive.
Where they could feel safe
in their communities,
and where they can transform public spaces
into real hubs of life
for all people.
And that’s exactly what they did.
In the first year,
young people allocated 90,000 dollars
to increase technology access
for Boston public high school students,
by delivering laptops
right to Boston public high schools,
so that students could thrive
inside and outside of the classroom.
They allocated 60,000 dollars
to creating art walls
that literally and figuratively
brightened up public spaces.
But they addressed
a more important problem.
Young people were being criminalized
and pulled into the justice system
for putting their art on walls.
So this gave them a safe space
to practice their craft.
They allocated 400,000 dollars
to renovating parks,
to make them more accessible
for all people of all bodies.
Now, admittedly,
this didn’t go as smoothly
as we had planned.
Right before we broke ground on the park,
we actually found out that it was on top
of an archaeological site
and had to halt construction.
I thought I broke PB.
But because the city
was so committed to the project,
that’s not what happened.
They invited community in to do a dig,
protected the site,
found artifacts,
extended Boston’s history
and then moved forward
with the renovation.
If that isn’t a reflection
of radical imagination in government,
I don’t know what is.
What sounds simple
is actually transformational
for the people and communities involved.
I’m seeing community members
shape transportation access,
improve their schools
and even transform government buildings,
so that there is space
inside of them for them.
Before we had PB,
I would see people who look like me
and come from where I come from
walk in to government buildings
for this new initiative
or that new working group,
and then I’d watch them
walk right back out.
Sometimes I wouldn’t see them again.
It’s because their expertise
was being unvalued.
They weren’t truly
being engaged in the process.
Put PB is different.
When we started doing PB,
I met amazing young leaders
across the city.
One in particular, a rock star,
Malachi Hernandez,
15 years old,
came into a community meeting –
shy, curious, a little quiet.
Stuck around
and became one of the young people
hoping to lead the project.
Now fast-forward a couple of years.
Malachi was the first in his family
to attend college.
A couple of weeks ago,
he was the first
in his family to graduate.
Malachi has appeared
in the Obama White House several times
as part of the My Brother’s
Keeper initiative.
President Obama even quotes
Malachi in interviews.
It’s true, you can look it up.
Malachi got engaged, stayed engaged,
and is out here changing the way
we think about community leadership
and potential.
Or my friend Maria Hadden,
who was involved
in the first PB process in Chicago.
Then went on to become a founding
participatory budgeting
project board member,
eventually a staff member,
and then unseated a 28-year incumbent,
becoming the first queer Black alderperson
in Chicago’s history.
That’s real engagement.
That’s being taken seriously.
That’s building out and building on
community leadership.
That’s system change.
And it’s not just in the US either.
After starting 30 years ago in Brazil,
PB has spread to over 7,000 cities
across the globe.
In Paris, France,
the mayor puts up
five percent of her budget,
over 100 million euros,
for community members to decide on
and shape their city.
Globally, PB has been shown
to improve public health,
reduce corruption
and increase trust in government.
Now we know the challenges
that we face in today’s society.
How can we expect people
to feel motivated,
to show up to the polls
when they can’t trust that government
is run by and for the people.
I argue that we haven’t
actually experienced
true participatory democracy
in these United States
of America just yet.
But democracy is a living,
breathing thing.
And it’s still our birthright.
It’s time to renew trust,
and that’s not going to come easy.
We have to build new ways of thinking,
of talking, of working,
of dreaming, of planning
in its place.
What would America look like
if everyone had a seat at the table?
If we took the time to reimagine
what’s possible,
and then ask, “How do we get there?”
My favorite author,
Octavia Butler, says it best.
In “Parable of the Sower,”
basically my Bible, she says,
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.”
It’s time for these 50 states to change.
What got us here sure as hell
won’t get us there.
We’ve got to kick the walls of power down
and plant gardens of genuine
democracy in their place.
That’s how we change systems.
By opening doors so wide
that people can’t help but walk in.
So what’s stopping you
from bringing participatory budgeting
to your community?