Digidem Lab has conducted training sessions and workshops for staff at the Lundby district administration, housing companies Familjebostäder and Stena Fastigheter, the collaboration organization Fastighetsägare Centrala Hisingen (FCH), and the staff at Bjurslättskolan. All of this aims to strengthen the participatory budget work and incorporate previous experiences. Placing the school at the center of local development is a practice that has been proven internationally.

– Today, there are over 11,000 institutions worldwide working with participatory budgeting. It’s spreading quickly. We provide examples of how schools and tenants have been involved internationally,” says Sanna Ghotbi, Citizen Participation Consultant at Digidem Lab

The target group for the participatory budget is children and adults in the area around Bjurslättskolan, where the participating housing companies also have rental apartments. In addition to the housing companies, the association Fastighetsägare Centrala Hisingen (FCH), the elementary school, preschool, after-school services department, and the local library participate under the district’s concept School at the Heart of Lundby. The budget amounts to SEK 150,000.

An important factor for a successful process is to involve key individuals and local champions, for example from community organizations. Another prerequisite is trust. Participants need to be understand that their engagement can produce concrete results. This is clearly evident in areas where participatory budgeting has become a recurring practice.

– In France, where I come from, many schools are involved in participatory budgets every year,” says Pierre Mesure, Citizen Participation Consultant at DigiDem Lab. “It has become a routine to vote. My sister, who is in middle school, has become very accustomed to it.

In Paris, tenants from 250,000 apartments take part in housing budgets, with participation rates between 20 and 50 percent.

– That’s an impressive figure for such a new process. We also see this in Sweden in areas where the process has been running for several years. When more people see that proposals are actually implemented, motivation to participate increases the following year,” Pierre explains.