Small scale grant giving - participatory budgeting in Leith
Leith’s three community councils run a process of PB for providing support for local community initiatives. Local groups can propose projects for this funding. In the 2019 process projects had to come under one of two themes designed to address inequalities: ‘Food’, and ‘Supporting Vulnerable People’.
Residents vote for their favourite projects at an offline marketplace event, which over 1,200 people attended. Projects were also shared through an online gallery beforehand. In previous years an online vote has also been used.
Every voter has two votes per theme but, to tackle under-representation, voters were also allowed to cast a third vote to any project within a theme that has taken steps to include or positively affect BAME communities.
A public event was run after the process to allow people to give feedback about the process and ideas for future processes.