Podcasts about participatory budgeting project

At this week's Round Table, Emmanuel and Hannah spoke with Isabel Luciano and Serena Prince, whose dedication to empowering communities and advocating for inclusive decision-making processes is truly inspiring. Isabel Luciano, Director of Training and Curriculum Design, brings a wealth of experience from her tenure as Program Director of the People's Fellowship at the Participatory Budgeting Project. Having worked alongside community members across North America, Isabel has spearheaded initiatives to democratize decision-making by inviting residents to allocate public funds. Her passion for resourcing young people to design their own community engagement and participatory budgeting processes has led to the cultivation of spaces where decisions are made differently, fostering open access to our democracy. Serena Prince, a Senior and Posse Scholar at Connecticut College, embodies the spirit of youth-led engagement and social change. Inspired by her participation in the Coro Participatory Budgeting youth fellowship, Serena has dedicated herself to exploring the intersections of race, class, education policy, and urban politics. Her commitment to upholding community strength and supporting marginalized populations has been evident through her volunteer work, internships, and mentorship programs. In this enlightening episode, we delve into the intricacies of participatory democracy, sharing insights gleaned from our guests' experiences and research. We also further explore the transformative potential of participatory budgeting and other forms of citizen engagement, highlighting the importance of transparent decision-making processes and the role of technology in facilitating inclusive debates. Furthermore, Isabel and Serena discuss their shared interests in intersectionality, voting rights, housing, and civic engagement, providing nuanced perspectives on the pressing issues facing our society today. Their commitment to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and empowering youth underscores the transformative power of grassroots activism and civic participation.  Join the movement for inclusive decision-making in your community by volunteering with local organizations. Let's work together to support youth-led initiatives and ensure everyone's voice is heard in policy discussions. Together, we can make a difference! Thank you for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nextgenpolitics/message

We're excited to reshare this conversation with Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director at Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money, primarily in the US and Canada. Our conversation with Shari starts with her journey into the work that she does with Participatory Budgeting Project and its beginnings in the culture of community responsibility found in martial arts. We discuss what participatory budgeting is and how it works toward making decision-making for budgeting more democratic and equitable by involving communities in the process of design, proposal development, and ideation.For full show notes, visit: https://www.lifteconomy.com/blog/shari-davis/The spring cohort of the Next Economy MBA is officially open! Save 20% when you register before 1/29 with our early-bird sale ➡️ https://lifteconomy.com/mba

Anyone who has ever been to a public hearing or community meeting would agree that participatory democracy can be boring. Hours of repetitive presentations, alternatingly alarmist or complacent, for or against, accompanied by constant heckling, often with no clear outcome or decision. Is this the best democracy can offer? In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner offers a novel solution for the sad state of our deliberative democracy: the power of good game design. What if public meetings featured competition and collaboration (such as team challenges), clear rules (presented and modeled in multiple ways), measurable progress (such as scores and levels), and engaging sounds and visuals? These game mechanics would make meetings more effective and more enjoyable—even fun. Lerner reports that institutions as diverse as the United Nations, the U.S. Army, and grassroots community groups are already using games and game-like processes to encourage participation. Drawing on more than a decade of practical experience and extensive research, he explains how games have been integrated into a variety of public programs in North and South America. He offers rich stories of game techniques in action, in children's councils, social service programs, and participatory budgeting and planning. With these real-world examples in mind, Lerner describes five kinds of games and twenty-six game mechanics that are especially relevant for democracy. He finds that when governments and organizations use games and design their programs to be more like games, public participation becomes more attractive, effective, and transparent. Game design can make democracy fun—and make it work. Josh Lerner is Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization in New York City that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Shari Davis encourages young people and minorities to participate in the budgeting process for government and schools. Here's what we talk about in this episode: Activism, Alternative, Communication, Community, Economy, Education, Future, Gen Z, Inclusion

ESTREAM Today Trae sits with Fundisha Tibebe, the Community Engagement Manager for Participatory Budgeting Project. She shares some insight with the process and how her role is integral in connecting with the community who will lead this funding to come into our communities. There are some opportunities and applications out right now for folks to tap into. Learn more by visiting www.PBseattle org. Tune in for an informational inspiring episode y'all!

TODAY'S GUEST   Shari Davis is a TED speaker, a participatory budgeting facilitator, and as she defines it, a recovering local government employee. She joined the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) after nearly 15 years of service and leadership in local government. As director of youth engagement and employment for the City of Boston, she launched Youth Lead the Change, the first youth participatory budgeting process in the US, which won the US Conference of Mayor's City Livability Award.   We spoke at the end of February, and I was very excited to talk to Shari because of her work on participatory budgeting, which seems to be one of the most promising new ways for everyday citizens, from all walks of life, to supervise and have a say in how public funds are being spent. Participatory budgeting has the potential for having an enormous impact on corruption, on efficient use of funds, on creating better, more efficient and more impactful programs, and also a huge effect on how people feel about their government. And all of this is already happening around the world, so I was very excited to hear about this from someone who's really leading this movement.   It was really fun to chat with Shari. She clearly has a lot of practice at connecting with, and including many different kinds of people. And so she puts you right at ease and she uses humor effectively. But it was the topic of the conversation that was really amazing to hear about.   ( * Please note: this episode was originally recorded under they/she pronouns. )   EPISODE SUMMARY   In this conversation we talk about: How her early involvement in martial arts as a kid really shaped her attitudes towards practice, responsibility, and community. How she initially got involved in the city government in Boston, eventually leading the youth department and bringing together resources and services for the youth of the city into one place. How she was asked to lead Youth Lead the Change. How the city earmarked $1M to be spent however the youth decided it should be spent, using the power of participation to make better decisions, and how that whole process unfolded. The US democracy's fatal flaw and how a lot of decisions happen in non-transparent, closed-door ways, ways that deepen inequality and division. How to run and lead a successful inclusive participatory budgeting project, whether you're a local government, a school, a non-profit or a national government, and why that makes such a huge difference.   What stayed with me is this idea that by bringing people together and putting them in the right kind of process, and then paying attention and designing the process itself, how much better decisions are. Talking to Shari was really energizing and hopeful, and this is one of our goals with every conversation we bring you including several conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, and activists who are working to change our world for the better. So if you're interested in these types of hopeful conversations, follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.    And now let's jump right in with Shari Davis.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS   [4:48] Life During Covid [9:26] Early Childhood Guiding Forces [16:22] A Journey From Martial Arts to Government [22:29] Democracy's Fatal Flaw [26:51] Youth Lead the Change [34:56] Participatory Budgeting Project [43:04] Inclusive Design [45:16] Traveling Into the Future [49:54] Where Hope Lives [53:02] A Short Sermon on Change   EPISODE LINKS Shari's Links

The 2020 election was…unique. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states took steps to make voting safer and more accessible. After that, we saw a backlash and some states erected barriers to voting access. The 2022 midterm election then offered an opportunity to assess our voting landscape. In this episode, we discuss what we learned from the 2020 presidential election, the 2022 midterms, and how we can work together to make the promise of democracy real for us all.Host and Guests:Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.Trevor Potter is the founder and President of Campaign Legal Center. He leads CLC in its efforts to advance democracy through law. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert's super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics.  Trevor has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. He has also taught campaign finance law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Oxford University, and he has appeared widely in national broadcast and print media. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises. Aseem Mulji is Legal Counsel for Redistricting at Campaign Legal Center. He litigates voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance cases, and supports advocacy efforts to improve democracy at the federal, state and local levels. Aseem previously worked at the Participatory Budgeting Project, where he supported efforts to expand participatory democracy in the U.S. At CLC, Aseem has served as counsel in voting rights and redistricting cases such as TN NAACP v. Lee (M.D. Tenn.), VoteAmerica v. Schwab (D. Kans.), and Soto Palmer v. Hobbs (W.D. Wash.). He supports CLC's actions against the Federal Election Commission for failures to enforce campaign finance laws. He also works to advance various democracy reforms, including state-level voting rights acts, ranked-choice voting, public financing and measures to ensure ballot access for justice-involved voters.  Derek Perkinson is the New York State Field Director and Crisis Director for the National Action Network (NAN).  He oversees NAN's advocacy and organizing efforts throughout the state of New York, the thirteen New York City chapters and coordinates national crisis concerns. Derek was recently a part of the coalition which helped bring about the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York. He has moderated  and served as a panelist on numerous occasions to speak up against discriminatory practices. Before joining NAN, Derek worked at the Black Institute – a think tank and nonprofit advocacy organization – where he served as the Chief Community Organizer in their New York City office. He has years of experience organizing communities of color to advocate and engage in political campaigns, criminal justice reform, economic justice, census, and voting rights, civic engagement, and immigration policy.Gilda Daniels is a Voting Rights Consultant for Campaign Legal Center. She provides her expertise and support on CLC's Voting Rights cases. Gilda has served as a deputy chief in the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. She has more than a decade of voting rights experience, bringing cases that involved various provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights statutes. Before beginning her voting rights career, Gilda was a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, representing death row inmates and bringing prison condition cases.Links:New York Joins Other States in Enacting State-Level Voting Rights Act (Campaign Legal Center)Virtual Event Video — Barriers to the Ballot Box: A Conversation with Author Gilda Daniels (Campaign Legal Center)Ranked Choice Voting (Campaign Legal Center)About CLC:Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American's right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

On this week's Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal Fincher is joined by transformative justice advocate, community organizer, writer, and sociologist Evelyn Chow. We start off the show with a reminder that Crystal will be hosting a candidate forum for the Seattle Municipal Court Judge Positions 3 and 7 races, featuring Position 3 candidates Adam Eisenberg and Pooja Vaddadi, and Position 7 candidates Nyjat Rose-Akins and Damon Shadid. The forum will be streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube on Wednesday, October 12th at 7:00pm. See our blog for more details: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/blog/municipal-judge-forum-october-12-2022  Also, starting this week, applications for the Institute for a Democratic Future (IDF)'s 2023 program are now live! You can find more information at IDF's website at https://democraticfuture.org/.  In national news, President Biden has announced his administration is pardoning people who have received federal simple possession charges for marajuana. In the announcement, Biden asked state governors to do the same for state charges, and requested the secretary of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Attorney General to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. This is a big step that will help many people, and will hopefully be emulated by the states, but it has its limits - pardoning doesn't equate to ending prison sentences and doesn't include expungement, which has logistical and financial hurdles for people to climb.  In county news, while we've heard stories from other parts of the country facing issues with clean water access, King County is facing its own water crisis. For the past week, the King County Jail in Downtown Seattle has been without clean water. People in the jail have been forced to use water bottles, and the schedule at which they can refill them is unclear. This is another terrible example of how our jails do not provide rehabilitation, and instead subject people to inhumane and dehumanizing treatment. This story also follows many other instances of horribly under-resourced and under-staffed King County jails leading to outrageous conditions for people staying in the jails. We have to do better. This is inexcusable. This week saw some very informative reporting following up on Harrell's proposed budget putting $1M into the controversial ShotSpotter program. Amy Sundberg from Notes from the Emerald City and Melissa Santos from Axios both put out stories, linked below, covering the program's history - which shows it's not only ineffective in its purpose of catching gunfire as it happens, it's also incredibly wasteful of police resources. ShotSpotter has no positive impact on gun crime or public safety, and none of its alternative surveillance programs are any more effective. It's budget season! Evelyn gives us an in-depth explanation of the City of Seattle's participatory budgeting process, and encourages folks to get involved and make their voices heard! If you want to speak your mind about the city's budget, you can send written emails to the City Council at this email: council@seattle.gov. You can also attend Budget Committee meetings in-person and remote on October 11th and October 25th at 9:30am. In addition, there will be public hearings on the budget, also remote and in-person, on October 11th at 5:00pm, November 8th at 9:30am, and November 15th at 5:00pm. See here for more info: https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/select-budget-committee   In local homelessness news, we look at the on-going story of King County's planned expanded enhanced shelter and behavioral health services hub in the SoDo neighborhood, which has seen a lot of pushback from local residents. This is a complicated story about providing care to those who need it, while at the same time making sure that the county works with local communities about what happens in their neighborhoods. The CID has faced heavy burden during the pandemic, and has dealt with a number of government projects that have been pushed through with little community engagement. If a community is telling us there wasn't enough engagement, there wasn't enough engagement, and we need to remember not to dismiss these grassroots community voices just because there are bad faith actors trying to take advantage of them. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at@finchfrii and find today's co-host, Evelyn T Chow, at @evelyntchow. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Resources Hacks & Wonks is hosting a Seattle Municipal Judge Candidate forum on October 12th at 7:00pm! Please see the link here for more details: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/blog/municipal-judge-forum-october-12-2022    The Institute for a Democratic Future is now accepting applications for its 2023 program! The Early Application Deadline is November 2nd, with an application fee of $35, and the Final Application Deadline is November 13, with a fee of $75. See their site for more details: https://democraticfuture.org/    “Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law” by Michael D. Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/us/politics/biden-marijuana-pardon.html?auth=login-email&login=email    “In a Sign of Worsening Conditions, Understaffed King County Jail Has Lacked Water for a Week” by Erica C. Barentt from Publicola: https://publicola.com/2022/10/06/in-a-sign-of-worsening-conditions-understaffed-king-county-jail-has-lacked-water-for-a-week/    “Proposed Surveillance Tech Can Lead to Biased Policing” by Amy Sundberg from News From the Emerald City: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amysundberg/issues/proposed-surveillance-tech-can-lead-to-biased-policing-1383779    “Seattle mayor budgets $1M for controversial gunfire detection tech” by Melissa Santos from Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/10/07/mayor-million-shotspotter-gunfire-detection    “$30M Seattle participatory budgeting effort gears up with staff, workgroups, and a steering committee” by CHS from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/10/30m-seattle-participatory-budgeting-effort-gears-up-with-staff-workgroups-and-a-steering-committee/    Learn more about how you can get involved in the Participatory Budget process here: https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/select-budget-committee      Seattle Solidarity Budget: https://www.seattlesolidaritybudget.com/    “Chinatown International District pushes back at expanded homeless shelter. Officials ask where else?” by Greg Kim from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/chinatown-international-district-pushes-back-at-expanded-homeless-shelter-officials-ask-where-else/    “OPINION | Hooverville Then and Now: Who Is Worthy of Space?” by Caedmon Magboo Cahill from The South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/10/03/opinion-hooverville-then-and-now-who-is-worthy-of-space/    “King County planning expanded enhanced shelter and behavioral health services hub in SoDo with new lease“ from King County's Press Office: https://kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/news/release/2022/March/23-SoDo-Enhanced-Shelter-Transmittal.aspx    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we are continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time today, our co-host, Evelyn Chow. Hello! [00:00:51] Evelyn Chow: Hi, thanks for having me. [00:00:53] Crystal Fincher: Hey, I am excited. Just so people understand who you are - you're a transformative justice advocate, community organizer, writer, and sociologist. You were born and raised in Hawai'i, moved to Seattle 7 years ago where you received your degree in Sociology from Seattle University. Currently work as the District Director to Councilmember Tammy Morales, representing Seattle City Council District 2. Previously, they worked for non-profits Real Change and Ingersoll Gender Center, and did communications work for several local and state political campaigns. You are a force to be reckoned with. [00:01:34] Evelyn Chow: I appreciate that praise. I don't feel like such, but - [00:01:41] Crystal Fincher: I am so thrilled that you are here on the show today 'cause I have appreciated and admired your work for a bit here. So I'm excited. [00:01:51] Evelyn Chow: Thank you, Crystal, for having me. [00:01:53] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Before we get into all of the stuff, there are two reminders, or upcoming things that are coming up. One is the Municipal Judge Forum that we are putting on next week - it's a live candidate forum that will be streamed via Twitter and Facebook - and it will be a Municipal Court judicial forum. So the two contested seats are Position 3 and Position 7 - Adam Eisenberg vs Pooja Vaddadi and Nyjat Rose-Akins vs Damon Shadid. So we will be hashing it out, talking about what they believe in, want to do on Wednesday, October 12th - that's this coming Wednesday - at 7:00 PM, which will be live streamed online. So pay attention to that. Also want to remind you about something we've talked about before on the program. The Institute for a Democratic Future, or IDF, is opening its application period. This is a six-month program, with about 10 weekends over those six months across the state of Washington and in Washington DC, covering politics and policy from all vantage points throughout the state - how policy passed is actually implemented and impacts the people on the ground. Great network, great education - it's responsible for my career in politics. Just a great preparation, whether you want to work in the political sphere as a candidate or staff, policy - wide variety of options there, even in the nonprofit or advocacy space. Just great preparation - helps you get a great understanding and connections to people in a great network. So if you're interested in that and - you don't have to want to work in politics, but maybe you just want to advocate for policy or explore what options may be - I highly recommend the Institute for a Democratic Future. We'll include the information in our show notes. Feel free to @ me, email me if you have any questions, but just wanted to make sure that is on everybody's radar and the application deadline is in November, so you have a little bit of time. But now is the time to get started on that if you're interested. Now we'll get to the news of the week. So there's a lot that has happened in a lot of different areas. We had a couple chaos days with news this week of every kind, but looking at politics and policy in the state - want to start talking about some big news that broke yesterday with Joe Biden pardoning federal simple possession of marijuana. What did you see as the most important takeaways from this settlement? [00:04:33] Evelyn Chow: What we saw yesterday - huge news, in terms of Joe Biden setting his agenda by making the statement that, on a federal level, simple possession convictions of marijuana will be pardoned. And I think across the board we've seen a lot of different parties, people, interests react. On my end, while I'm really hopeful that states will follow suit across the US and do the same thing, which will impact more people, I also want to. acknowledge also that pardons don't mean, necessarily, released from prison. Nor are they expungements of criminal records. And the administration does say that about 6,000 people will be pardoned. And which is really again, huge - it means you're forgiven - but it's still on paper. I would love to see the expungement of it from records, though we also know, just from doing work in community, that expungements are costly. Lawyers have to file the expungement, on top of cost of filing, and they know that this is a cost that a lot of working class people might not be able to afford. And the method becomes like a fiscal generator for municipalities. Sorry, now we're going down the rabbit hole of the negative or maybe the under-the-surface, but I think on the surface this is really huge. I do hope to see more states follow suit in that - this is not nothing. For a lot of, I think, abolitionists and criminal legal system reform advocates, I've seen a lot of this just kind of brush through. And I understand where that sentiment comes from and at the same time, this is not nothing. This just - it's a something that will hopefully evolve. [00:06:31] Crystal Fincher: It is, absolutely - I think that's exactly right. It's something that is positive, that hopefully continues to evolve here in Washington State - we've been more fortunate than a lot of other states in the country. There are states where you can go to jail for possessing a joint, where there is no legalization at all. We're used to the ability to go to the store here and pick out our selection of weed - that is not the case in a lot of the country. And there have been recent - pretty pointed - efforts on behalf of the Republican Party in several states to roll back marijuana legalization. So it is not even like legalization, in one form or another, is even safe in places where it has been implemented. So I think this is important - one, as you said, in setting the agenda and really urging states to move down the path of decriminalization, which I think is important, and just puts a little bit of external pressure on different states. I was surprised to hear about this just because of the news, previously, that Biden didn't have the friendliest marijuana policy for his own administration and looking at issues with that. But I do think that this moves the conversation forward across the entire country. We're ahead of the conversation a little bit in Washington State, but a lot of people are not there and this is meaningful for a lot of people in states where the population - the people there - want this change, but they have leaders who are very, very resistant. Also, looking at the rescheduling of this - to keep it from being classified similarly as heroin or fentanyl - it clearly is not. All the public health data shows that, and it's a barrier to research and a bunch of other things. So this is a step in the right direction, I think. Still have a lot more to go, but it's a fight that Biden is willing to take on even before we get to these elections. It's a winning issue and it's the right thing to do. So if you can - absolutely, if you can win on an issue and it's the right thing to do, should be moving forward with it. And I'm glad to see that this happened. So in other news this week, we saw that the King County Jail is lacking water. They've lacked water for a week. This is a story that PubliCola broke on Thursday, I believe. And we've seen news and lots of people have made their opinions known about the water crisis in Jackson - sometimes it's just, Oh my goodness, that's horrible there, it could never happen here. It's happening here. It's happening in a place where people have literally no other choice, no other option about what to do. They're being given bottled water instead of being able to access the water, because there are currently health issues. And there are questions about whether people are even getting enough water - it looks like they're having to choose between hydration and hygiene. What do you see with this? [00:09:52] Evelyn Chow: I have a status as a volunteer at the women's prison down in Purdy, in Tacoma. And was a volunteer for a few years until COVID, in which - none of us have been able to get back in for programming, except for a few of the churches - which is a discussion for another time. But, I think often the way that we see punishment in this country is, in a way, a just sweeping things under the rug - putting people in prisons and jails is this. And when you put people there, there's that perception of - all of the stigmatization of what you put on a population that has often done things that maybe you have also, but maybe I've had the privilege of not being caught for. And what happens to those people is they get forgotten, or they get put into conditions that we would never ourselves want to be in, regardless of any of the harm that we have caused as individuals. I think in this issue - sorry to get philosophical with it, I just needed to set that context of - [00:10:59] Crystal Fincher: No apologies necessary. [00:11:01] Evelyn Chow: This is not, obviously, the first time in the US or even across the world where prisons, people who are getting placed into prison, are experiencing extremely degrading and violent circumstances, right? From the article, we hear that there are women in the jail who are getting their period and they're unable to get a change of underwear for the week. And this is also something that is across the board even pre-COVID, pre-pandemic times, of people needing to spend the very limited resources they have on hygiene products - things that should be guaranteed rights for people. It's inhumane, it's also just a clear liability for the county. [00:11:47] Crystal Fincher: It's infuriating. It's infuriating because - one, this could have, this started and went on for a week before it even caught notice. And thankfully for PubliCola's reporting, it did - otherwise it would've gone on longer - that inmates often have no voice in our community. We make it so hard for people who are incarcerated to communicate, to advocate for anything. They frequently face punishment for just bringing up issues of clear illegality, or challenges just in terms of health, violations of policy - and too many people in the community who just feel like we can discard rights of people who are incarcerated or that somehow they're deserving of it. And if someone is incarcerated, the sentence is the incarceration. That does not in any way absolve all of us because they are being held, on behalf of our society with our tax dollars - this is a community responsibility to make sure they are treated as humans. One, because it's the right thing to do. They should not be subjected to harsh, inhumane, insufficient - facilities, supplies, regulations, any of that. We should be treating them and making sure they have all of the provisions they need. And it's wrong morally not to do so, it's also highly ineffective and increases the chances that they're going to come out when they get released - because everybody's, just about everybody's getting released - and are not going to be able to successfully integrate into our society and contribute to the problems that so many people then complain about on the other side. We have to invest in people, treat people, make sure they have resources - access to education, access to therapeutic programming, arts, lots of different things. We need to make sure that they come out more whole than they go in, if they are going in. That is what's best for our community, that's what's best for the safety of everyone, that's what's best for legal liability resources. And so this is just infuriating. And on top of this, the jails are understaffed. And so there's a big question about - are people dehydrated right now? They don't have a way to tell us most of the time. They are limited to receiving one bottle of water at a time - I'm assuming these are small, 20-ounce bottles of water that we normally see - because they're afraid of affiliated, associated safety concerns. They can exchange an empty bottle for a full bottle. How frequently is that opportunity to exchange? Why are we rationing water to people? It just doesn't make sense, we have to do better - this is - we have to do better. And so this is on Dow Constantine, this is on all the employees there, this is on every elected official - the King County Council. We have to do better - this is inexcusable. [00:15:22] Evelyn Chow: And I'd also, if I could Crystal, just point out - this recent, this ongoing water shutoff is only the most recent example of the different types of problems that they've been experiencing at the jail over the past few years, if not since the jail has been there. We've been hearing from folks there that they are getting limited access to medical care, to their attorneys, to even spend time calling people like family members and loved ones. All of this has been exacerbated by COVID, but is a statement of the existing conditions at a lot of these jails and prisons. So I agree - there has to be a better way of - people need to do better, our electeds need to do better. [00:16:04] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and these are public resources that are being spent or misspent in these ways. We need to demand better. They must do better. And to your point, this is the latest in a litany - and as a reminder, both public defenders and the corrections officers in our King County jails came together earlier this year to ask King County to release more prisoners 'cause they're woefully understaffed. This is a safety issue for the corrections officers, it's a safety and health issue for the people who are incarcerated there. It is working for nobody and ignoring this is only allowing those conditions to get worse. Someone is going to end up injured, ill, or worse. And this is entirely preventable. In other news, more discussion this week about Mayor Harrell's budget proposal, including part of the proposal that he has to address gun violence with the ShotSpotter surveillance program. What is this program and what is your perspective on this? [00:17:12] Evelyn Chow: Shotspotter is a private program and it's - over the past years - been marketed to dozens of cities across the US. However, they've proven to have little investment on their return. So the description of what they are proposing that this technology does is - it's a microphone system and it triangulates the location of where they would hear supposed, or alleged, gunshots. And that would allow first responders, specifically the police, to show up to that scene quickly and supposedly de-escalate the situation or apprehend whoever had fired a gun. I think the system, as we've seen in cities across the US like in Charlotte and in others that have actually used this technology - we've seen that the system generates a lot of notifications when the sensors are triggered. But there's very little evidence that that data leads to any arrests, convictions, or even - most importantly - victim assistance. Cities across the US have already been canceling their contracts with ShotSpotter for the past few years, citing the poor results. And I think even in New York City, the system had triggered enough false positives that the NYPD Deputy Commissioner a few years ago was like - this is an unsuccessful system and it just logs noise. It was logging things like an exploding volleyball - like a popped volleyball - or a car backfiring. And so I think, before we choose to invest a million dollars in this upcoming budget cycle in a technology that is proven time and again and again that it doesn't work - perhaps that million dollars could be better spent in other places that will actually promote community and public safety. And I just also want to make the point that there is already increased surveillance technology equipment in SPD, especially around South Seattle communities, but citywide. And the data that it collects is not transparent in any way. With existing technologies and this new proposed, or not necessarily new, but proposed technology - we need to, at least - the public deserves to know how that data will be used and who will have access to it. I know a few years ago, when the ShotSpotter was being proposed, they talked about how it, as a private entity company, owns that data. And so there's a lot of repercussions that I can see coming up with - if the city decides to move forward with implementing ShotSpotter. And I also hear a lot of people who have very fair questions, candidly, about whether this is going to be effective at all. And, my answer is no. [00:20:17] Crystal Fincher: Your answer is no. And so many different entities' answers are no. An AP investigation earlier this year found serious flaws with prosecutors using ShotSpotter for evidence - noting, as you said - it can miss live gunfire next to its microphone, but misclassify the sounds of fireworks or cars backfiring as gunshots. A study published last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Health found that ShotSpotter appeared to have no significant impact on firearm-related homicides or arrest outcomes in 68 large metropolitan counties from 1999 to 2016. It has no impact on gun crime, it has no impact on public safety. A separate study on Philadelphia's use of SENTRI, a ShotSpotter alternative - and it's important to note that there are different alternatives - they all experience these problems, so if they substitute another one with ShotSpotter, these surveillance programs that are essentially trying to hack public safety and hack a solution to gun violence are just not effective - that found that the technology increased police workload. At a time where they keep complaining that they're overworked, that they don't have enough police to address public safety concerns - it increased police workload by sending officers to incidents where no evidence of a shooting was found. So once again, we're in a situation where Bruce Harrell has the opportunity to define what his plan for public safety is going to be and we're hearing things, that not only have no evidence that they're going to work, they have evidence to the contrary. While lots of people are suggesting things that are backed by data, backed by evidence - when he came in office, he said, Look, I'm going to be evidence-based, data-driven. People are like, So here's that evidence that you said you wanted, and here's this data that you had said you wanted - let's do this. And it's, No, let's go to this thing that has been demonstrated not to work. And we do need public safety solutions. We do need to make our streets safer. We do need to reduce the amount of people who are being victimized urgently. And we can't afford to waste this time and money on solutions that have proven not to make people anymore safe. We just can't afford this. And I am asking, I'm begging public officials to - yes, follow the data. There is so much available that shows what is helpful and useful to do. And I will note that some programs - Bruce has defunded, that have been effective in doing this this year, so it's just frustrating to see. And I wonder - this is me wondering, obviously - a lot of people have moved here over the last 10 years and may not remember Bruce Harrell being on the City Council. He was for quite some time. And I think that we are hearing a number of proposals that were talked about 10 years ago when he was on the council. And he was on the council for several years - for a decade, basically. [00:23:39] Evelyn Chow: I think three terms - yeah. [00:23:41] Crystal Fincher: Yes, and so it's like we're bringing back the hits from 2010, 2012 - and sometimes, there was even some promise for some of those things at that time. Wow - they've been implemented in so many cities across the US, we've had the opportunity to gather data and figure out what has evidence of effectiveness and what doesn't. And that just doesn't seem to enter into what they're proposing. It's really confusing and we're waiting - we're waiting on proposals that will make people more safe - and more than just hiring more police, which can't even happen until next year. What is going to happen now to make people more safe? It's frustrating, as I am sure you deal with in a very immediate and present way on a daily basis. [00:24:35] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, absolutely. Everything you said - public safety, community safety is an urgent issue and they keep trying these tried techniques, right? Tough on crime didn't work in the nineties, it's not going to work now. And investing in all of these things that are scientifically, with data and evidence, proven not to work is just not the way we need to move forward. And I think similar to King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay's op-ed in the Times, I think a few weeks ago now, talking about how public safety is not about scoring political points. I think the executive put out this proposal with a very specific - I guess, his specific base in mind. And that does not encompass the lived realities of a lot of people across, especially South Seattle, but across the City as well. [00:25:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So we'll continue to keep our eye on that. Also, it's budget season in the City, in the County - which you are in the middle of and steeped in. And so, there was an article in Capitol Hill Seattle this week covering the $30 million Seattle participatory budgeting effort that is now gearing up. What is happening with this, and what is happening just in the budget process overall? [00:25:53] Evelyn Chow: The mayor gets eight months to put together his proposed budget and then it comes to Council - it came on September 27th, a few weeks ago now - and we get about eight weeks in the council to splice and dice that budget. And you brought up participatory budgeting - I am glad to see that - I think the context, to just set a little bit of groundwork for participatory budgeting - this was money that was allocated in September of 2020, following the protests that sparked nationwide after the police murders of George Floyd, of Brianna Taylor, of too many others. And it really came as a demand from community to the council to direct money into community-led safety initiatives. And this is an opportunity for the community that's most impacted, that's usually furthest away from being able to make decisions about how their money is spent, to be engaged in that process. And the Seattle City Council allocated $30 million into this participatory budgeting process, and this is going to be the largest undertaking in, I believe, North America with a similar initiative. And so just a little bit more of groundwork before I get to where we're at - King County Council did the same allocation on a smaller scale of $11 million. And they've already executed their contracts and that money has gone out into community. I believe it was about $11 million to 45 different community-based organizations. And where we are now - it's been a couple of years since the money has been allocated, and I know that some people are starting to ask - what's the status update? And I know in the Neighborhoods, Education, and Civil Rights Committee on the Seattle City Council - we recently held presentations to get that status update from the King County Council and the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, where that contract is now housed. And so - I believe they're in the design process and that they are working to make sure that community engagement is really steeped in this step and every step along the way to direct this funding. I think at this point, it sounds like the group that got contracted from the City is called the Participatory Budgeting Project. They're a national organization and they are currently working to hire local staff to help on their steering and working group committees, which will in turn shape and launch this effort. So I'm excited to see - I think at a time when we're talking about the budget season in Seattle, on the county level - and a lot of folks are feeling particularly enraged at several of the proposed line items in the mayor's budget around these new technologies, around the caps for service workers on their raises. This is an opportunity - participatory budgeting - to put funds towards, quite frankly, where the executive is not going to invest right now - in these types of solutions that we know community has already been working on, for years, to address violence on an interpersonal and on a state level. So I'm excited to see this continue to be underway. [00:29:42] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I'm excited too and I'm broadly in favor of the community being actively engaged, actively involved in allocations that impact them and that they should have a voice. All neighborhoods in Seattle should have a voice. Traditionally, some have had much more of a voice than others. And there are some that have had many more resources, that have had close relationships, the time and ability, and frankly privilege, to get familiar with budget processes, engagement processes - which can be very exclusionary and hard to figure out how to even become a part of it. And they're not necessarily friendly to someone just walking up trying to figure out what's happening. Making sure that we reach out to every single community in the City and that they have a voice in shaping the investments is really important. I'm also excited to see this, excited for this money to get distributed and for this process to actually get started. And then for the budget process overall - so we've talked about this participatory budgeting, but this is in the context of the larger budget process overall, which is a big process - lots of resources there. I guess we'll talk about specific hearings and stuff in a moment, but what would your personal advice be, if people are looking to become more involved in budget decisions in the City, and how money is invested and where it's involved? [00:31:26] Evelyn Chow: That's a great question because it's - I don't see it enough, especially in communities where there's intentional, whether implicit or explicit, ways to de-incentivize people from being civically engaged. Where I've seen the people build the most power - and we saw this in 2020, as well as when people with their specific values and interests come together - and really work on contacting their elected representatives, setting up meetings throughout the year, making sure they're being held accountable to the votes they're taking in committees, in Full Councils and being like - here are the updates that I see on the ground, as people who are doing work as - at community-based organizations and non-profits, etc. And here's the needs that we see emerging in our communities, and here's what you can do about it in the budget season. [00:32:16] Crystal Fincher: So I'm glad that participatory budgeting is hopefully going to be getting underway. At least they're hiring - hopefully the money actually gets distributed soon. Engaging in budget processes is always complicated overall. I'm sitting here - I've worked in politics for a while, I've worked with tons of people who've worked with budgets - and budgets are so opaque and so complicated, and so - these are documents over, that are thousands of pages long, oftentimes. You have to have a deep and intimate familiarity with everything to even understand what they are. You can see the numbers on the paper, but is that more than I spent before? Is that less? What does that mean? Where did this money come from? Is this continuing? It's a complicated and convoluted thing. And we have this budget process, which is at a certain period of time during the year. One, I always just want to reiterate and reinforce with people, 'cause we don't talk about this enough, I don't think - is that a lot of the groundwork, whether it's budget, whether it's legislation, or anything - there's a period of time where there are hearings and everything to discuss it and that's valuable. But a lot of the groundwork, a lot of what actually shapes that - happens long before that process. And so the importance of engaging within community, within organizations that are familiar with the budget and advocating there, being familiar with your County Council person, City Council person, mayor and keeping that line of communication open - and anyone can call your elected representatives. They are your elected representatives. If you are a resident - you don't have to be documented, you don't have to be anything else. If you live in whatever jurisdiction, they represent you and they should be responsive to you. But you can ask questions, you can do all that kind of stuff and start there. That's always helpful to do and sometimes that helps to get an understanding of things so that when these processes do officially ramp up, that you know where everything stands and can be prepared to advocate for what you want - hopefully already getting that and how it's shaped in there. But if you don't, you're prepared to advocate. For people who are getting engaged in this process now - now that this process has spun up - what are ways that people can get involved, whether it's hearings or anything else? [00:34:43] Evelyn Chow: Couldn't have said it more eloquently - thank you, Crystal. I can give a vague overview, or I can give a timeline of the budget process. Anyone in the public gets to provide feedback on the budget. You can call your representatives, you can send emails into their offices. I will say that mail form responses don't receive as many individual responses as just a personal - Hey, I'm concerned about this - you know what's going on. The Seattle City Council does have public hearings. There will be three in the next few weeks. The next one is coming up next week on October 11th, which is a Tuesday, at 5:00 PM. And then in November there will be two public hearings on November 7th and November 15th. The Select Budget Committee will be meeting throughout these weeks. And on the first meetings of the Select Budget Committee, I believe there will also be public comment allowed. Now this is a shift from, I think previous years where, people could give public comment at each committee hearing, and so I've definitely heard some pushbacks on there. I think a lot of the reasoning is just that - we are still in COVID but - yes, there will be those public hearings. And folks are able to give feedback in public comment during the Budget Committee hearings. And the first one had already happened on September 28th. There will be another one coming up on October 11th, similarly, but in the morning. And those Select Budget Committee meetings are happening all week. And next week is when the Council is going into, going to deep dive into basically every issue area with the Central Staff. And so it starts next Tuesday - I believe Tuesday is just going to be a general overview of the General Fund and Capital Investments. And then each day throughout the week - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - they'll be covering several different issue areas, whether it's SPD, homelessness, Office of Planning and Community Development. And so - folks are really encouraged to stay on top of the Budget Committee meetings as well - there is a link on the City of Seattle's website to stay on top of when these committee meetings are happening throughout the weeks. So just to summarize, there will be Budget Committee meetings that folks can give either remote or in-person public comment to - for the Select Budget Committee, which is just made up of members of the Seattle City Council. And there will be public hearings on the budget specifically. The first one is set for next Tuesday, and then there will also be on - November 8th and November 15th. And at any time throughout the budget process, folks are encouraged to reach out to their elected officials, to stay on top of their representatives - either social media, newsletters, mail - all of the different forms to get information. And partnering up and joining up with these organizations that you specified, Crystal, that have been doing this type of advocacy work and have dedicated staff people to dissect those year-round. Just a number of ways - [00:37:56] Crystal Fincher: There are - number of ways - not the simplest process to follow, but there are ways to get engaged. One of those groups with the Seattle Solidarity Budget - we'll include all of this information and all of the dates that Evelyn just talked about in our show notes - Solidarity Budget is another effort involved in this budget process, a more community-focused budget that they're advocating for. The website will also link to - has information, ways to advocate, you can look through that - also, ways to help - social media stuff - with alt text provided for the social media graphics that they provided, which I appreciate. But just a lot of different things. So I encourage people to get involved because we all talk about the impacts and effects of there's not enough funding here, and we need to do this, and why aren't we doing this? And this is how these decisions are made, this is where those funding decisions are solidified, and this is the time to engage if you have an opinion about what is happening within your city. That's a lot there. It's a lot to go through, but definitely worth it. I also want to cover news - it's been making news throughout the past several weeks. Just talking about the SoDo shelter expansion and some pushback from within the CID. Starting off - what is happening, Evelyn? And then we can talk about some thoughts about what's happening. [00:39:32] Evelyn Chow: Yes, I'm happy to give a quick overview of that. King County is planning to expand their - this enhanced shelter, that is currently housed in SoDo. It's right along the bottom edge of the CID, under where the Uwajimaya is on the south end. And the proposal is to expand the shelter - it currently has 269 beds, they want to add an additional 150 beds - mind you, these are congregate shelter. And they want to expand into having a behavioral health services center, as well as support for RV residents and Pallet shelters, which are essentially tiny homes. So that expansion of 150 that has been talked about by the executive - King County Executive - is going to bring the total number of people at that site to approximately 419 people. So that's just a high-level of what's happening. [00:40:36] Crystal Fincher: And it's also known as the Megaplex, correct? [00:40:39] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, I guess a lot of folks have been trying to call it the Megaplex. Yes. [00:40:44] Crystal Fincher: But just for people's familiarity, if they happen to hear that term - this is what that's in reference to. [00:40:49] Evelyn Chow: Yes. Yeah. I didn't really like that term because I feel like it dehumanizes the people who live there. [00:40:54] Crystal Fincher: It does. [00:40:55] Evelyn Chow: So I just call it the SoDO shelter. [00:40:56] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:40:57] Evelyn Chow: But you are correct that that is what it's being called by a lot of more clickbait media. The Seattle City Council allotted funding from their federal ARPA - the emergency, the American Rescue Plan Act - funding towards this. And last year, I believe that Councilmember Tammy Morales did propose an amendment to divert that funding from where it currently is to the Salvation Army Shelter, to instead Chief Seattle Club for them to build a unit or several units of non-congregate shelter. But that amendment did not pass. And towards the late summer of this year, I think around September, is when we heard of the plans for expansion. That is when the county had announced, more fully to the public at the CID Public Safety Forum, and there are claims of doing community engagement before these plans started moving forward. The county claims to have done community engagement prior to the implementation of these plans. And I think a lot of community folks have pushed back being like - No, we actually didn't hear about this at all. They have their list of people that they've reached out to and we've heard some critiques be - Yes, we did hear about a plan to expand a shelter, but I think if we had known the size of this project, we would've had more engagement. And so I think, just on the government side, there hasn't been a lot of authentic community engagement with folks in the CID. And there are other players in this situation, namely some right-wing think tanks of the Discovery Institute that have been trying to co-opt what is happening in the CID for their political agendas. And so it's created this extremely tense environment to be able to talk about the dynamics of - yes, everyone deserves housing, everyone deserves shelter - I think there's no doubt there. There are indeed some people who don't believe that, who are part of the pushback. And the CID is a really small neighborhood, it's also the third CID that the City of Seattle has seen, right? They've already relocated two times. And throughout the pandemic, a lot of folks in the CID have burdened a lot of the the impacts of the pandemic. And businesses have been slow to open back up if they have it all. There's boarded up windows everywhere and people generally have really valid concerns around public safety in the neighborhood. There are a lot of other government projects that are taking place in the neighborhood that have been plowed through without also similar meaningful community engagement. Most recently, the Sound Transit expansion of the West Seattle Ballard Link extension, where their proposed Fifth Ave or Fourth Ave options still do propose closing businesses - and all of this to say, and I'm sure there's more to say - there's a lot of moving factors around what's happening in the CID right now. I think some of the bottom lines are that the community there does not feel like engaged in these decisions that are being made. Going back to our conversation earlier around participatory budgeting, it's really important to have dedicated forces of people who will meaningfully take what people have to say and propose solutions, have meaningful dialogue. And people also need to be housed and it's an urgent crisis. So this is where we're at. I will say, just in the blog put out by the King County on this project, they stated that the lease renewal for that site in SoDo, which currently encompasses the Salvation Army Center as well as the surrounding block - it is supposed to be a one-time lease for five years. If they did not use the funds they secured to renew this lease, they would've had to close this already-existing 270-bed shelter which seems like a terrible ultimatum to give in a lease - it's like they had to renew the lease and take that additional property. And so now they're trying to find uses for that property - and so that's where I've seen the county's messaging come through. [00:46:03] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that overview - it's good kind of level setting for the conversation. I guess thinking about this - one, I've seen a lot of reactions to this. I've seen a lot of commentary. And a lot of it has just been dismissive in one way or another. And looking at the situation and - Oh, these are people, this shouldn't be anywhere and this isn't the solution. Or these are NIMBYs just not wanting this there. And I think we have to be real. And sometimes, oftentimes, these conversations aren't simple. One, as you said, engagement is so important. You just talked about the West Seattle Bridge extension - even with the deep bore tunnel and that issue was hard on that community - that community homes so many services and service centers overall there - just so many different things involved there. And we keep asking a small percentage of the communities in Seattle and in King County to bear the majority of the brunt of infrastructure challenges, infrastructure disruptions - public safety concerns aren't being held, or being heard, or being dismissed. And yes, there are challenges everywhere in the City, including there, with people who need housing. Yes, there are challenges there and so many places in the City with people feeling unsafe in their neighborhood. But there seems to be a divergence between how those concerns are heard and what is done in response. And what I continue to hear from people in the CID, people in the Rainier Valley, people in other places are - Hey, people in Magnolia are saying this and we are saying this. And they keep getting listened to over there and somehow projects always get diverted away from there and then land here. Projects always get picketed somewhere else and then land here. And we have been doing our fair share and other people have not. And so once again, you're asking us to bear the brunt of this without even having a conversation with us first. And kind of news flash - if the community is saying you haven't done adequate engagement, you haven't done adequate engagement. That is the community that wants you to engage with them. You gotta go deeper than the organizations that you have - like that's a flag and a signal to the organization - you have to go wider and deeper than you have before, clearly. At the same time, there are also people with bad faith criticisms. There have been some King County GOP efforts - they showed up with picket signs and basically astroturfed some stuff and are joining onto this effort to try and get publicity to try and characterize it in their own way. And so certainly, that's a bad faith effort and they're not coming with the same concerns. They're not rooted or invested in that community and they're exploiting that community. But that does not give us the right, or I guess the moral authority, to then ignore the concerns that are genuinely rooted in that community. And so there should have been better engagement, there needs to be more engagement clearly. There need to be more alternatives cited. There need to be invest - we have to look into how we determine where potential sites for this are. We talk after the fact - well, these requirements or specifications for a desirable location say it can't be near this, and it has to be that, and it can't be near this. Well, yeah - they're written that way to exclude certain communities. How do we make this impact more equitable? How do we make sure that we don't unduly burden individual communities and ask people to continue to bear the brunt of what other neighborhoods say that they don't want. And how do we make it work all over the place? So I do think this is not a simple solution. We do have a crisis of people on the street and they do need to get housed. We need to take action on that quickly. We can't do that without listening to community, and we can't shortcut this process by just saying, Okay, we'll just put it over here again. We can do it over here and maybe they won't yell as loud as some people in other neighborhoods, or maybe because they may not have enough financial resources, that they won't be, they won't have enough time to engage and they won't be as much of a "headache" to us as other people will consistently - it's just not good enough. And we have to engage with that reality. We have to talk within communities. And that doesn't mean that those communities are automatically NIMBYs for that, right? They have valid concerns that we have to listen to and work through. [00:51:34] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, and something else on this issue that I just, I really wish I was seeing more of - from both the county and other local partners on this - is engagement with the actual people who are living unhoused by that shelter. I think in terms of the the people who are involved in these decisions, that's one entity. The people who are housed in the neighborhood, or provide services, or have businesses in the neighborhood - that's another one. Also, I want to hear also directly from the people who are living outside - what their thoughts of - a lot of, and I won't say this is either in good or bad faith, but we've been seeing protests outside of the existing Salvation Army shelter for the past few weeks now, since the news broke. And the shelter is right next to a large, I guess, unsanctioned encampment of folks who have to listen to these protests day in, day out about just the circumstances that they're under in life. And I can't imagine what the relationship would continue to look like or evolve between those who are living there because they seemingly have no other options currently - and that site is also close to other services that they are receiving - and the residents and business owners of the neighborhood, many of whom have developed extremely tense relationships and antagonistic relationships with each other over the past years, especially since COVID when just socioeconomic conditions across the nation have worsened. And I just think, in moving forward with these conversations, the engagement has to be inclusive of the whole CID community. I think a lot of the folks who are very vocal now are the ones who are also historically vocal in a lot of decisions. And that's not to say it's a good or bad thing, it's just there's a lot more to folks in the CID than the three dozen people who show up to protest because they have that time every week. [00:53:54] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely - well said. So I hope that engagement does happen with this - continued and for all the future stuff. And we have to look at why we keep having to have these conversations in the exact same communities and they're telling us that, repeatedly - Hey, there hasn't been enough engagement and now you are just implementing something, ramming it through, and we're paying the price. We're happy to do our fair share but why are we doing the majority of it when the rest of the City exists? And that's with this issue, that's with so many issues. It's with issues surrounding public safety, around environmental and climate change, impacts around education, around so many things. And the reasons why are related and share the same root cause. So I hope there are better conversations about this while also - no need to entertain the bad faith conversations, but engage with community. [00:54:57] Evelyn Chow: Unfortunately, the bad faith conversations are really good at co-opting narratives right now. So I think it's on - [00:55:02] Crystal Fincher: Yes, they are. [00:55:03] Evelyn Chow: - people with, it's on people to, if they don't already have existing relationships, build those and continue to show up, especially our elected leaders. To make sure that everyone is being served in the best possible way. [00:55:17] Crystal Fincher: And with that, I want to thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, October 7th, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler. Our assistant producer is Shannon Cheng, and our Production Coordinator is Bryce Cannatelli. Our insightful co-host today is Evelyn Chow. You can find them on Twitter @EvelynTChow, E-V-E-L-Y-N-T-C-H-O-W. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just search "Hacks and Wonks." Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thank you for tuning in - and we'll talk to you next time.

House Warming Podcast, Episode 012: Building the Foundation for the Future City that We Need to Be with Maria Hadden, Alderwoman of the 49th Ward    In this episode, Sarah Bury talks with Alderwoman Maria Hadden about the environmental legislation she has supported, including an order to assess the cost of bringing back the Chicago Department of Environment.  Alderwoman Maria Hadden was born in Columbus, Ohio, and her parents Skip and Toni taught Maria  two foundational lessons. 1) Be curious and ask questions. It's important to understand how things work and why. 2) Problems that affect any of us, affect all of us. And that if you see something wrong and you're able to help, you should do what you can to make it right.  After graduating from The Ohio State University with a BA in International Peace and Conflict Studies, she moved to Chicago. She chose Rogers Park because of its affordability, welcoming community culture and proximity to the lake. A weekly regular at The Heartland Cafe, in Rogers Park, Maria found community.Rogers Park was the first place Maria lived in Chicago, where she purchased her first home and where her activism blossomed. When the housing bubble burst in 2007, and the developer of her building fled the country, Maria helped organize her neighbors to save their homes. Maria has been organizing with the community ever since.Maria has been a leader in the 49th Ward through her advocacy, her art, and her work with Participatory Budgeting in Chicago. She lives with her partner, Natalia, and their rescue dog. Maria is a photographer and artist who leads screenprinting workshops for young people. She took over The Art Patch Project from longtime Rogers Park activist Chris Drew and believes art is an important medium for activism and personal expression.Before becoming Alderwoman, Maria Hadden was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a national nonprofit organization she founded to enable communities and government across the country to redesign democracy for more empowered and equitable participation. Her expertise in public participation is grounded in grassroots organizing efforts for social change.Before launching her own organization, Maria was a founding board member of The Participatory Budgeting Project, where she worked for 8 years with communities and government officials in the Midwest and South to create and facilitate democratic processes around public budgets. In this role, Maria has also worked with Aldermen throughout Chicago to design participatory budgeting processes around Aldermanic menu money, school budgets and TIF funds.​Maria currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, and Voqal. BYP is an organization of activists aiming to create justice and freedom for all Black people through the principles of leadership development and inclusivity using  Black, queer, feminist lens. Voqal is a nonprofit that uses technology and media to build an educated, empowered and engaged public. Maria also:Participated in a cohort on inclusive innovation in America's Cities for The Aspen Institute where she worked to bridge the gap between innovation in cities and marginalized and underserved communities.Is an active member of the New Economy Coalition helping to create deep change in our economy and politics.Serves on the Social Capital Committee of the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation.Works on the local level with organizations fighting for progressive causes like Network 49 and United Working Families.The Illinois Environmental Council 2021 City Council Scorecard can be found here: https://ilenviro.org/chicago-scorecard/Support the show

When the news broke of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it was chilling to many people to learn that 40 percent of that small city's budget was allocated to public safety - a budget allocation that utterly failed to keep the children and teachers at Robb Elementary school safe. What might have been a better way to spend that city's precious funds? After Uvalde, and in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, residents of many US cities asked that same question. They're turning to a tool called participatory budgeting that gives residents and taxpayers real decision-making power over their cities' budgets. It's already spread to more than 7,000 cities around the world. This week, Laura speaks with Shari Davis and Kristania De Leon, co-directors of the Oakland and NYC based Participatory Budgeting Project, and Shaun Glaze, research director of the Black Brilliance Research Project in Seattle. Participatory budgeting makes a real difference, they say, and at a moment when US democracy itself is hanging by a thread, the experience of participating in budget-making is beginning to validate people's belief in voting. Could this model bring power to people where they live?“Participatory budgeting is about transforming the relationship that people can have with government and with community-led decision making so that we make really good, fiscally responsible decisions that reflect community spending priorities.” - Shari Davis“How do we actually start to move in a way that allows us to meet our needs together, build relationships and see value in the collective?” - Kristania De Leon“Communities have this expertise. They know what they need. Let's make sure that we are honoring that expertise and turning that into action.” - Shaun GlazeGuests:Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director, Participatory Budgeting ProjectKristania De Leon, Co-Executive Director, Participatory Budgeting ProjectShaun Glaze, Research Director, Black Brilliance Research Project We are listener & viewer sponsored. Full episode notes including related articles and LFShow episodes to watch and/or listen to are posted at https://Patreon.com/theLFShow. Patreon  Members receive access to the FULL UNCUT CONVERSATION.  The show airs on 300+ Public Television households across the U.S., on over 40 community radio stations and as a podcast. 

One of the troubles with Bitcoin adoption as legal tender in El Salvador is having enough well-trained adult El Salvadoran developers to continue to help with adoption and improving functionality for transactions, mining and safe storage and beyond.  There are many “How to Use Bitcoin” courses for people but not nearly enough job training programs. Torogoz Dev aims to fix this with their free training program run by genius and generous Bitcoin volunteers.  Torogoz Dev is an educational program based in El Salvador, it aims to train in the area of ​​Bitcoin and Lightning Network development , to give students the opportunity to opt for better job opportunities and have the skills and knowledge necessary to contribute value in the development of Bitcoin & Lightning on a national and international scale. Join this celebratory interview with Marina Spindler on the 1st day of the program! MARINA SPINDLER Twitter @marinaspindler Marinaspindler.com Torogoz.dev Twitter @torogozdev  Follow and support Torogoz Dev on their journey to creating and supporting new Bitcoin Developers! National Bird of El Salvador The Torogoz is a bird that does not adapt well to captivity, it means that you can't have it locked at home, also this bird is a symbol of family unity because reflects the participation in partners in the care of their chicks babies. More on Marina - Marina Spindler is a communications expert and business development advisor for blockchain and digital currency companies. She is a sought-after connector that brings together founders with strategic partners and investors. In 2016 she founded SPINDLER EDGE to bring clarity, structure and accountability to global ventures looking for a competitive edge. Some of her clients include Chaincode Labs, Ava Labs, IOV Labs, Hyper Island, Falabella and The Orchestra of the Americas. She is also the lead author of a global report on women, cryptocurrency and financial independence published by The Defiant and Open Money Initiative. As the former CEO of the Group of Fifty (G50) for over a decade —a business network founded with the support of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace— Marina identified and recruited forward-thinking business leaders and global thinkers. She also tripled the participation of female executives and launched the Millennium Leaders (ML50), a network of entrepreneurs under 40 years of age.  Marina seamlessly bridged cultures to forge partnerships with global corporations, academic institutions and government organizations in 11 cities including Palo Alto, New York, Cambridge, Singapore, Madrid, Beijing, Shanghai, Santiago and Washington, D.C.  Bilingual and multicultural, Marina holds a master of public administration from New York University and a bachelor of arts in international affairs from The George Washington University. Throughout her career, she has advised startup founders and important social ventures including Code for Venezuela, Participatory Budgeting Project, Social Rocket Factory, Plantsss and PACEMD. She is a speaker at important regional conferences and has been a featured guest in various podcasts on business strategy and crypto adoption. Business strategy and communications expert with 15+ years of experience in business development and strategy within multiple industries, including finance and technology. Marina has been advising international companies and foundations to build client relationships and open doors in new markets. Led several international projects, including: Forge 20+ strategic partnerships, including with the World Economic Forum, IMF, World Bank, The Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs, Smithsonian, Femsa, Real Madrid, and MIT (G50) Go-to-market strategy for a New York-based smart contracts platform expanding in South America (AVA Labs) Communications and storytelling training for an Argentine company that brought Bitcoin to the Ethereum network (IOV Labs) Manage client relationships and facilitate workshops for a leading digital innovation firm from Sweden (Hyper Island) Build product roadmap and help define marketing strategy for Grammy Award-Winning Orchestra (OAmericas) Marina is a member of the 2021 WoC Blockchain Delegation to the U.S. Congress and a Kernel and SheFi fellow.  She spoke to Blockcode and La Bitcoineta about the industry's outreach efforts and her strategies for disintermediating public relations in a networked economy. Most recently, she spoke at Blockchain Summit Latam and BlockConf Digital. Marina was the inaugural guest of Spain's RESELECT podcast focused on digital innovation and building trust in times of change. Marina was guest mentor for the Social Impact Hackathon at New York Blockchain Center and 2020  Hackathon Series Online organized by HackLatAm and Ava Labs.  She is a member of Meta Gamma Delta and an investor with MetaCartel Ventures, a cryptonative distributed autonomous organization with funds and assets managed on-chain via smart contracts. Marina is the coauthor of a Global Report on Women, Cryptocurrency and Financial Independence that was published in The Defiant and Open Money Initiative. El reporte actualizado y traducido al español esta disponible aquí.  

One of the troubles with Bitcoin adoption as legal tender in El Salvador is having enough well-trained adult El Salvadoran developers to continue to help with adoption and improving functionality for transactions, mining and safe storage and beyond.  There are many “How to Use Bitcoin” courses for people but not nearly enough job training programs. Torogoz Dev aims to fix this with their free training program run by genius and generous Bitcoin volunteers.  Torogoz Dev is an educational program based in El Salvador, it aims to train in the area of ​​Bitcoin and Lightning Network development , to give students the opportunity to opt for better job opportunities and have the skills and knowledge necessary to contribute value in the development of Bitcoin & Lightning on a national and international scale. Join this celebratory interview with Marina Spindler on the 1st day of the program! MARINA SPINDLER Twitter @marinaspindler Marinaspindler.com Torogoz.dev Twitter @torogozdev  Follow and support Torogoz Dev on their journey to creating and supporting new Bitcoin Developers! National Bird of El Salvador The Torogoz is a bird that does not adapt well to captivity, it means that you can't have it locked at home, also this bird is a symbol of family unity because reflects the participation in partners in the care of their chicks babies. More on Marina - Marina Spindler is a communications expert and business development advisor for blockchain and digital currency companies. She is a sought-after connector that brings together founders with strategic partners and investors. In 2016 she founded SPINDLER EDGE to bring clarity, structure and accountability to global ventures looking for a competitive edge. Some of her clients include Chaincode Labs, Ava Labs, IOV Labs, Hyper Island, Falabella and The Orchestra of the Americas. She is also the lead author of a global report on women, cryptocurrency and financial independence published by The Defiant and Open Money Initiative. As the former CEO of the Group of Fifty (G50) for over a decade —a business network founded with the support of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace— Marina identified and recruited forward-thinking business leaders and global thinkers. She also tripled the participation of female executives and launched the Millennium Leaders (ML50), a network of entrepreneurs under 40 years of age.  Marina seamlessly bridged cultures to forge partnerships with global corporations, academic institutions and government organizations in 11 cities including Palo Alto, New York, Cambridge, Singapore, Madrid, Beijing, Shanghai, Santiago and Washington, D.C.  Bilingual and multicultural, Marina holds a master of public administration from New York University and a bachelor of arts in international affairs from The George Washington University. Throughout her career, she has advised startup founders and important social ventures including Code for Venezuela, Participatory Budgeting Project, Social Rocket Factory, Plantsss and PACEMD. She is a speaker at important regional conferences and has been a featured guest in various podcasts on business strategy and crypto adoption. Business strategy and communications expert with 15+ years of experience in business development and strategy within multiple industries, including finance and technology. Marina has been advising international companies and foundations to build client relationships and open doors in new markets. Led several international projects, including: Forge 20+ strategic partnerships, including with the World Economic Forum, IMF, World Bank, The Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs, Smithsonian, Femsa, Real Madrid, and MIT (G50) Go-to-market strategy for a New York-based smart contracts platform expanding in South America (AVA Labs) Communications and storytelling training for an Argentine company that brought Bitcoin to the Ethereum network (IOV Labs) Manage client relationships and facilitate workshops for a leading digital innovation firm from Sweden (Hyper Island) Build product roadmap and help define marketing strategy for Grammy Award-Winning Orchestra (OAmericas) Marina is a member of the 2021 WoC Blockchain Delegation to the U.S. Congress and a Kernel and SheFi fellow.  She spoke to Blockcode and La Bitcoineta about the industry's outreach efforts and her strategies for disintermediating public relations in a networked economy. Most recently, she spoke at Blockchain Summit Latam and BlockConf Digital. Marina was the inaugural guest of Spain's RESELECT podcast focused on digital innovation and building trust in times of change. Marina was guest mentor for the Social Impact Hackathon at New York Blockchain Center and 2020  Hackathon Series Online organized by HackLatAm and Ava Labs.  She is a member of Meta Gamma Delta and an investor with MetaCartel Ventures, a cryptonative distributed autonomous organization with funds and assets managed on-chain via smart contracts. Marina is the coauthor of a Global Report on Women, Cryptocurrency and Financial Independence that was published in The Defiant and Open Money Initiative. El reporte actualizado y traducido al español esta disponible aquí.  

TODAY'S GUEST Shari Davis is a TED speaker, a participatory budgeting facilitator, and as she defines it, a recovering local government employee. She joined the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) after nearly 15 years of service and leadership in local government. As director of youth engagement and employment for the City of Boston, she launched Youth Lead the Change, the first youth participatory budgeting process in the US, which won the US Conference of Mayor's City Livability Award. We spoke at the end of February, and I was very excited to talk to Shari because of her work on participatory budgeting, which seems to be one of the most promising new ways for everyday citizens, from all walks of life, to supervise and have a say in how public funds are being spent. Participatory budgeting has the potential for having an enormous impact on corruption, on efficient use of funds, on creating better, more efficient and more impactful programs, and also a huge effect on how people feel about their government. And all of this is already happening around the world, so I was very excited to hear about this from someone who's really leading this movement. It was really fun to chat with Shari. She clearly has a lot of practice at connecting with, and including many different kinds of people. And so she puts you right at ease and she uses humor effectively. But it was the topic of the conversation that was really amazing to hear about. ( * Please note: this episode was originally recorded under they/she pronouns. )     EPISODE SUMMARY In this conversation we talk about: How her early involvement in martial arts as a kid really shaped her attitudes towards practice, responsibility, and community. How she initially got involved in the city government in Boston, eventually leading the youth department and bringing together resources and services for the youth of the city into one place. How she was asked to lead Youth Lead the Change. How the city earmarked $1M to be spent however the youth decided it should be spent, using the power of participation to make better decisions, and how that whole process unfolded. The US democracy's fatal flaw and how a lot of decisions happen in non-transparent, closed-door ways, ways that deepen inequality and division. How to run and lead a successful inclusive participatory budgeting project, whether you're a local government, a school, a non-profit or a national government, and why that makes such a huge difference.   What stayed with me is this idea that by bringing people together and putting them in the right kind of process, and then paying attention and designing the process itself, how much better decisions are. Talking to Shari was really energizing and hopeful, and this is one of our goals with every conversation we bring you including several conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, makers, authors, entrepreneurs, and activists who are working to change our world for the better. So if you're interested in these types of hopeful conversations, follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to remakepod.org to subscribe.    And now let's jump right in with Shari Davis.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS   [4:48] Life During Covid [9:26] Early Childhood Guiding Forces [16:22] A Journey From Martial Arts to Government [22:29] Democracy's Fatal Flaw [26:51] Youth Lead the Change [34:56] Participatory Budgeting Project [43:04] Inclusive Design [45:16] Traveling Into the Future [49:54] Where Hope Lives [53:02] A Short Sermon on Change   EPISODE LINKS Shari's Links

Today's guest is Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director at Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money, primarily in the US and Canada. Our conversation with Shari starts with her journey into the work that she does with Participatory Budgeting Project and its beginnings in the culture of community responsibility found in martial arts. We discuss what participatory budgeting is and how it works toward making decision-making for budgeting more democratic and equitable by involving communities in the process of design, proposal development, and ideation.For the show notes, visit: https://www.lifteconomy.com/blog/shari-davisSubscribe to Next Economy Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you find podcasts.---LIFT Economy NewsletterJoin 7500+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter---Next Economy MBAThis episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.Join the growing network of 350+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.---Show Notes + Other LinksFor detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcastIf you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts by visiting:  https://bit.ly/nexteconomynowTwitter: https://twitter.com/LIFTEconomyInstagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/LifteconomyMusic by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/The spring cohort of the Next Economy MBA is officially open! Save 20% when you register before 1/29 with our early-bird sale ➡️ https://lifteconomy.com/mba

In this episode, we dig into participatory budgeting with Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project to better understand how an expansion of the democratic process can benefit communities. We also speak with Angelica Chazaro, an organizer with Decriminalize Seattle to discuss Seattle's movement to defund police, as well as PG Watkins, Director of Detroit's Black Bottom Archives, and community organizer about the durational fight for a people's budget in Detroit. Want to learn more about how to organize around defunding police and investing in communities? Interrupting Criminalization's The Demand Is Still Defund report: an excellent resource on how to run #defund budget fights.

How would you like to decide directly how your taxes are being spent? It's already going on in thousands of cities throughout the world and dozens of cities around the U.S. and Canada. It's a chance to shift more power from politicians to the people. We can all help it expand and grow if more people become aware of it. This episode's guest is Elizabeth Crews who is with the nonprofit group called Participatory Budgeting Project. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theandrewmillershow/support

This one is a slow burn folks! We got Shari Davis of the Participatory Budgeting Project and they came to drop some wisdom and provide people the tools to personalize the revolution wherever you may be! From Shari's love of the force from a bad ass feminist, to the weak penalties for insurrectionists, this episode has hope and heart! Follow Us: Twitter: @SithtyMinutes @AAA_Photog @LooksJediToMe @PBProject Instagram: @SithtyMinutes @PaulaBear92 @RBW3000 @General_Leia_The_Pup Show Notes: Interview Fires, Floods, and Heatwaves are just the beginning IPCC Full Report Climate Change is in the Defense Budget Exxon Lobbyist describes Congress Bribes Fire on the Water Melting Glaciers PB in Brazil Black Brilliance Research Report Participatory Budgeting in School Districts Judge Presses DOJ on Restitution Fees DeRay McKesson's Court Case Private Jet Insurrectionist Democracy Beyond Elections Why Outing can be Deadly

Maria Elaine Hadden is a Chicago politician and community activist. She is a member of Chicago City Council, serving as alderman for the city's 49th ward. She won election to that office after defeating 28-year incumbent Joe Moore in the 2019 aldermanic elections. The 49th ward includes most of Rogers Park and portions of West Ridge. Hadden was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1981. She earned her bachelor's degree in International Peace and Conflict Studies from the Ohio State University, and subsequently moved to Waukegan, Illinois to begin a job with the AmeriCorps VISTA program in 2003. She moved to Chicago in 2004. She later earned a master's degree in International Public Service Management from DePaul University. Before becoming Alderwoman, Maria Hadden was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a national nonprofit organization she founded to enable communities and governments across the country to redesign democracy for more empowered and equitable participation. Her expertise in public participation is grounded in grassroots organizing efforts for social change. Before launching her own organization, Maria was a founding board member of The Participatory Budgeting Project, where she worked for 8 years with communities and government officials in the Midwest and South to create and facilitate democratic processes around public budgets. In this role, Maria has also worked with Aldermen throughout Chicago to design participatory budgeting processes around Aldermanic menu money, school budgets and TIF funds. Maria lives with her partner, Natalia, and their two rescue dogs in Rogers Park. She enjoys living in a place where neighbors are friends and community is family - and she is proud of her community's resilience and motivation to work together in difficult situations. In her free time Maria is a photographer and artist who leads screenprinting workshops for young people. Recommendations: The Confidence Game Book by Maria Konnikova Oh Hey, and I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian ;) UNBOSSED IS… “Paths To Success of Amazing Women in Chicago” I welcome you to ask questions, participate, and join me as we explore these topics by emailing me at info@unbossed.io or visiting www.unbossed.io. Available on- Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTz6_FepG04QTs1BjFLBjw/ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eUhfH8E Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e7cWtBv Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/enjChPt And others.. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti/support

Whitney Quesenbery makes the case for strengthening democracy through design, and shares how she's making this happen. This episodes includes:   What is Civic Design and why is it important? How is democracy a design problem? What impact can good design have on elections?   ======   Who is Whitney Quesenbery?   Whitney is the co-founder and Director of the Center for Civic Design - a non-profit UX consultancy, working to "ensure voter intent through design". She serves on numerous advisory boards, including The Center for Tech and Civic Life, VotingWorks, and The Participatory Budgeting Project.    And, among many other things, she is also the co-creator of the first course on Election Design, for the University of Minnesota and the author of three books on UX.   Before starting the Center for Civic Design, Whitney invested over 23 years solving complex problems, as a consulting UXer, for organisations like the National Cancer Institute, the New York Times, and Sage Software.   ======   Find Whitney here:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyq/ Website: https://civicdesign.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/whitneyq   Center for Civic Design:   Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent - https://civicdesign.org/fieldguides/ Projects - https://civicdesign.org/projects-2/ Showcase - https://civicdesign.org/showcase/   Whitney's books:   A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences - https://bit.ly/2T9EOwJ Storytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design - https://bit.ly/3bMLlUs Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World - https://amzn.to/3vjRWh1   ======   Thank you for tuning in! If you liked what you saw and want more ...   ... please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listened).   You can also follow us on our other social channels for more great UX and product design tips, interviews and insights!   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/   ======   Host: Brendan Jarvis https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/

Shari, Jay, and Matt explore the role of budgets in organizing - and how to make budgetary processes of all sorts more accessible and equitable. Shari walks through the steps in the participatory budgeting process and how it can make budgets into the positive moral documents they should be in communities through democratizing decision making power. Jay shares his experience in the budgeting process at his school, what he calls a bit of a "black box." Shari and Jay unpack how budgets are moral - and historical - documents. They share their advice on how to break down barriers of inaccessibility for folks to engage in budget processes of all sorts by asking good-faith, deep questions.  Resources Referenced: Shari's 2020 TED Talk Participatory Budgeting Project website Democracy Beyond Elections Law for Black Lives Transgender Law Center BYP 100 Student Voice Youth United for Action Facebook page Bios: Shari is the Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project. She joined the Participatory Budgeting Project after working for 15 years in local government. When she was the executive director of the Department of Youth Engagement and Employment for the City of Boston, she launched the first youth-led participatory budgeting (PB) process in the United States, Youth Lead the Change. Davis initially got involved in city government as a student leader in high school, serving as the citywide neighborhood safety coordinator on the Boston Mayor’s Youth Council. In 2019, she was honored with an Obama Foundation Fellowship for her work on participatory budgeting and in summer 2020 she delivered a TED Talk on the power of PB. Jay Philbrick is a college freshman studying economics and public policy at Brown University. Originally from North Yarmouth, Maine, he graduated from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, where he served as President of the Student Senate and a voting member of the school's Board of Trustees. Throughout high school, he served on the Board's Advancement, Program, and Student Welfare Committees, where he focused on strengthening the school's mental health and Title IX resources to better protect students. In his free time, he leads Maine's branch of TeleHealth Access for Seniors, a non-profit that connects seniors with used electronic devices to promote telemedicine adoption, and he is also one of the youngest members of the Electoral College in American History. 

The ATLANTIC INSTITUTE and ATLANTIC PROGRAMS are hosting a series of webinars about our world post COVID-19. While the coronavirus has physically distanced and isolated millions of people, it has more than ever in our life-times, drawn people and organisations together under a common humanity and a profoundly collective commitment to act. In this series of webinars, we turn our imagination to something (k)new where we remember, reflect and shape what our local and global futures might look like post COVID-19. In this webinar, the speakers discuss anti-racist leadership, in particular commitment, action and sustainability: (1) ELIZABETH CREWS, Director, Democracy Beyond Elections, Participatory Budgeting Project; (2) BETSY HODGES, 47th Mayor of Minneapolis and Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity; and (3) DR LEYLA HUSSEIN OBE, psychotherapist, Founder of The Dahlia Project, and Rector of the University of St Andrews. MODERATOR | TANYA CHARLES, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and Program and Impact Lead, Atlantic Institute.

Across the world, elite politicians, militaries, and powerful business and political groups appear to have a monopoly on representative democracy. By exploiting the resulting discontent, populists and authoritarians have created an international narrative of democracy in decline. But in many regions and countries, including some ruled by autocrats, citizens are collaborating with local and provincial officials to expand participatory and direct democracy so that residents can make decisions themselves. What is the relationship between the seemingly opposing trends of authoritarian nationalism and stronger local democracy? How are people using participatory tools to change their communities, and the world? And what are the future possibilities and perils of direct citizen decision-making? Participatory Budgeting Project executive director Shari Davis, political scientist and “Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy” author David Altman, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy senior fellow and former Taiwan foreign vice minister Michael Kau, and Mexico City-based youth participation expert and Ollín president Greta Rios visited Zócalo to consider how direct and participatory democracy might counter autocracy. This Zócalo/Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy online event was moderated by “Noema Magazine” Executive Editor Kathleen Miles. Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: https://zps.la/3n7Evgo Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

In this episode we’re joined by Shari Davis, Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, and Derrick Braziel, co-founder and Development Director of MORTAR Cincinnati.On today’s show, we follow the money. We discuss public budgeting processes, the moral weight of budget decisions, and the opportunities we have to make these documents “living, breathing reflections of community need and community-driven investment.” Participatory budgeting (PB) is a process by which all people in a community can play a role in shaping the kinds of projects their governments spend money on. We discuss what this means in general, and what role PB plays in rethinking public safety and economic development. We also discuss the reality for many Americans—especially in communities of color—who have a business idea but lack the connections to necessary tools and resources to get off the ground. Derrick started MORTAR to help people from marginalized groups get the training and resources to start and grow their own businesses. In addition to the programs MORTAR runs, Derrick discusses some of the policies they pushed for locally that have helped ensure the viability of the Cincinnati's Black-owned businesses.In addition to this background, we discuss:Some of the biggest barriers to challenging the status quo in city governmentsTrust and mistrust in local governmentFighting for systemic change while also experiencing traumaHow COVID-19 and the growing movement for Black lives have affected the ways Derrick and Shari are thinking about their work—and what’s possibleThe importance of narrative shift when conditions shift—and the importance of sharing stories that seldom get toldWhat we mean by “safety”—and who we’ve too often left out of the discussionInvesting in the broader ecosystem of social justiceHow PB is a tool to build the infrastructure for what reinvestment in community looks likeWhose talent we’ve historically been leaving off the field in our communities—and what the implications are for today’s recovery effortsThe challenges associated with discussing changes to policing and first responseHow we might make society more democratic and participatory as a wholeKey takeaways for local government leadersBook recommendations! (See below)Links to things mentioned in this show:‘Represent’ initiative in CincinnatiEngagement Strategy, by adrienne maree brownThe Alchemist, by Paulo CoelhoExcuse Me, Your Life is Waiting, by Lynn GrabhornParable of the Sower, by Octavia ButlerUnapologetic, by Charlene CarruthersThe Source of Self-Regard, by Toni Morrison--The Go Cultivate! podcast is a project of Verdunity. Find more about this and other episodes (and our blog) at verdunity.com/go-cultivate.You can also find us on social media. Facebook / Twitter / LinkedInAnd if you haven't yet, sign up for our weekly email digest. It's not lame! (Each week we collectively curate a list of the things we read that caught our attention. Then we hand-package your copy, spank a first-class stamp on that baby, and drop it right in your email inbox.) Sign up here!Join us (and your peers!) in the Community Cultivators Network.(This episode features music from No Money & Custodian of Records)verdunity.com/podcast/episode-66

GUESTMaria Hadden is the Alderwoman of the 49th Ward of Chicago. Maria is one of the first Black Aldermen on the North Side of the city as well as the first openly gay women of color on Chicago's City Council. In addition to the Progressive Caucus, Ald. Hadden sits on the Chicago Aldermanic Black Caucus, the Women's Caucus, and the LGBT Caucus.Previously, Maria was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a nonprofit organization supporting civic engagement processes for transformative social justice. Maria is a founding board member of the Participatory Budgeting Project and, from 2010-2018, led their technical assistance work in the Midwest and Southern United States.She earned her B.A. in International Peace and Conflict Studies from The Ohio State University before moving to Illinois to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Maria's interests in community voice and the role of civil society were the focus on her graduate studies at DePaul University, where she earned an M.S. in International Public Service Management. Maria serves on the board of directors for Voqal, and she lives with her partner and their two dogs in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.OVERVIEWFollowing up from the first installment with activist Camille Williams, BrownTown listens, learns, and again converses about electoral and radical politics with sitting 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden of Chicago. With a changing political landscape on the local, national, and global level, Maria and BrownTown discuss how and why Left and/or "progressive" policies are gaining more mainstream appeal, how movements are shaping platforms, and how to push elected officials to embrace a radical imagination for a more equitable future.The Alderwoman shares her background working in non-profit and grassroots movement spaces and the impetus to seeking her current position in City Council. The gang discusses the meaning and co-opting of the term "progressive," how access to basic necessities really isn't radical, the uniqueness of the 49th ward, and the interworkings of City Hall. They wrap by exploring the current state of the Chicago city budget in terms of police spending, the importance of demonstrated alternatives to push better legislation, and an intergenerational report on the Democratic National Committee in 2020.--Follow Maria on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Stay up to date with the ongoing of her office at 49thward.org and sign up for their newsletter! Campaign site here.--CREDITS: Intro news clip sound bites layered onto song God Won't by Fiendsh. Outro song Juicy by Notorious B.I.G. Audio engineered by Genta Tamashiro. Recording session photos by Andrew Merz.--Bourbon ’n BrownTownSite | Become a Patron on Patreon!SoapBox Productions and Organizing, 501(c)3Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Support

This week we are talking about deepening democracy in our communities through participatory budgeting and participatory decision making more broadly. We're joined by three great guests: Shari Davis of the Participatory Budgeting Project, Lorian Ngarambe of the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, and Yale University Ph.D. student Alexander Kolokotronis. Transcripts for all episodes can be found at https://thenextsystem.org/learn/collections/next-system-podcast.

Maria Hadden has lived in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood for 10 years. It was her first neighborhood in Chicago. Hadden wants to find a new way to support her beloved neighborhood by running for Alderman in the 49th Ward. If elected, Hadden would become the first queer Black woman on the Chicago City Council.  She is the recipient of the Esteem Award for Outstanding Service, Female - Chicago award. She attended Ohio State University where her undergraduate study was in International Studies, specifically in peace and conflict studies. After finishing college, she signed up to work for the nonprofit organization AmeriCorps, which brought her to Chicago. Maria’s interests in community voice and the role of civil society were the focus of her graduate studies at DePaul University where she earned an M.S. in International Public Service Management. Maria is a founding board member of the Participatory Budgeting Project and from 2010 - 2018 led their technical assistance work in the Midwest and the Southern United States. She serves on the board of directors for Black Youth Project 100. She is currently Executive Director of Our City, Our Voice, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to support civic engagement processes and organizing with the goal of building community capacity to advance transformative social justice and democratic practice in the United States.

Local governments have goals and mandates that include community engagement and transparency, especially in the budgeting process. Participatory Budgeting is gaining momentum in the US as an effective tool through which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. It has been lauded as a way of creating a bottom-up conversation that illuminates a community’s needs, making local leaders more responsive, and expanding civic engagement. We talk with Jennifer Godzeno, Deputy Director at the Participatory Budgeting Project, about the benefits, process and future of PB.

As the federal budget remains in limbo, we had to ask, “Is there a better way to build a budget?” We talk this week with Shari Davis, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Participatory Budgeting Project, about her work in spreading a community-driven, authentically democratic process for deciding budgets. We learn what participatory budgeting is, why this process results in more equitable and impactful publicly funded projects, and what elements need to be in place in order to successfully implement a participatory budgeting process in local governance.

Josh Lerner is Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization in New York City that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money.

Maria Hadden, Participatory Budgeting Project, will discuss how cities around the world are using participatory budgeting to fund neighborhood priorities. 

Josh Lerner is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics (MIT Press, 2014). Lerner earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research, and is now the Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money. Lerner asks the question at the start of the book: Can games make democratic participation more fun? He does not mean game theory, he means actual games. Designed activities aimed to infuse the rules of a game to political decision making. He traces the use of gaming to advance public participation through Latin America, with particular attention on Rosario, Argentina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Lerner is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics (MIT Press, 2014). Lerner earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research, and is now the Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money. Lerner asks the question at the start of the book: Can games make democratic participation more fun? He does not mean game theory, he means actual games. Designed activities aimed to infuse the rules of a game to political decision making. He traces the use of gaming to advance public participation through Latin America, with particular attention on Rosario, Argentina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Lerner is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics (MIT Press, 2014). Lerner earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research, and is now the Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money. Lerner asks the question at the start of the book: Can games make democratic participation more fun? He does not mean game theory, he means actual games. Designed activities aimed to infuse the rules of a game to political decision making. He traces the use of gaming to advance public participation through Latin America, with particular attention on Rosario, Argentina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Lerner is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics (MIT Press, 2014). Lerner earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research, and is now the Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to decide how to spend public money. Lerner asks the question at the start of the book: Can games make democratic participation more fun? He does not mean game theory, he means actual games. Designed activities aimed to infuse the rules of a game to political decision making. He traces the use of gaming to advance public participation through Latin America, with particular attention on Rosario, Argentina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given the chance to spend $1 million in your community, what would you do? On this CommunityMatters conference call recording, we’ll learn about Participatory Budgeting (or “PB” for short), a public process where community members decide how portions of their city or town’s budget should be spent. Featuring Josh Lerner, Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project and Marti Brown, Councilwoman at the City of Vallejo, California. Recorded on February 14, 2013. Notes available online at bit.ly/Vc4KmV. Photo credit: The Participatory Budgeting Project

Last week, we spoke about ‘managed democracy’ in the US. In this show, we bust the myths about the democracy movement in Venezuela. The US media routinely misreports on Venezuela because its success threatens US Empire. Mike Fox, a journalist and documentarian, has covered the rise of participatory democracy in Venezuela and other Latin American countries over the past ten years. Following the election of Hugo Chavez, the people of Venezuela rewrote the Constitution granting rights to education, health care, land for growing food and more. They have worked to build new institutions to meet their needs and are creating a democratic structure of governance through community councils. The results are that they have the lowest index of inequality in all of South America and are ranked fifth in the world in happiness. We then speak with Maria Hadden of the Participatory Budgeting Project in the US. Participatory budgeting gives decision-making power over public funds to the people. In the US, it started in Chicago and is growing coast to coast.

“A year ago, City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito was instrumental in helping to bring participatory budgeting to New York City, engaging her district and giving them say in the political process by allocating a percentage of the council member’s discretionary funds for capital projects of their choosing. In 2011, Mark-Viverito was one of four members, along with Jumaane Williams, Eric Ulrich, and Brad Lander, to introduce the process in their districts.” This seminar, therefore, presents a broad perspective on participatory budgeting in government and describes specifically the pilot process in four New York City Council Districts. Moderated by Daniel W. Williams, Associate Professor at Baruch College of the School of Public Affairs, the program includes panelists Donata Secondo, Project Coordinator of Participatory Budgeting Project, Melissa Mark-Viverito, New York City Council Member of 8th District in Manhattan and Hazel Martinez, Member of the District Committee in New York City Council District 45 and of the Citywide Steering Committee for Participatory Budgeting.

“A year ago, City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito was instrumental in helping to bring participatory budgeting to New York City, engaging her district and giving them say in the political process by allocating a percentage of the council member's discretionary funds for capital projects of their choosing. In 2011, Mark-Viverito was one of four members, along with Jumaane Williams, Eric Ulrich, and Brad Lander, to introduce the process in their districts.” This seminar, therefore, presents a broad perspective on participatory budgeting in government and describes specifically the pilot process in four New York City Council Districts. Moderated by Daniel W. Williams, Associate Professor at Baruch College of the School of Public Affairs, the program includes panelists Donata Secondo, Project Coordinator of Participatory Budgeting Project, Melissa Mark-Viverito, New York City Council Member of 8th District in Manhattan and Hazel Martinez, Member of the District Committee in New York City Council District 45 and of the Citywide Steering Committee for Participatory Budgeting.