The deadline to submit proposals for Boston’s first-ever Participatory Budget has been extended to this Thursday (Aug. 15) giving Boston residents more time to suggest how city leaders should spend a small slice – $2 million – of the city’s $4.65 billion budget for 2024-2025.

So far, the city has received more than 600 submissions, according to Renato Castelo, the director of Boston’s Office of Participatory Budgeting (OPB).

“Anyone can submit an idea,” said Castelo. “It’s a process open to any Boston resident, but our emphasis is on ensuring that those voices that are usually not at the table can also be heard.”

Castelo’s office partnered with several community organizations and held over 20 workshops in person and online to encourage ideas. 

Massachusetts Senior Action Council, a grassroots organization led by and for seniors, is one of the community groups whose members have been activated to send in their suggestions.

“We have a very active and strong Boston chapter with just shy of 300 active members,” said Carolyn Villers, the council’s executive director. “Our membership is primarily in the Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan communities. They meet out of the Charles Street AME Church in Grove Hall each month.”

Which is where close to 60 people gathered for one of the OPB workshops earlier this year.

“We began by just explaining what participatory budgeting is generally and then specifically in Boston,” said Villers.
“Folks were sitting at round tables about 8 to a table and began to think about if they had control of the money, what are some of the things they would do in the city of Boston.”

One suggestion that bubbled out of the workshop was to fund a “snow brigade” of youth to help older neighbors with snow and ice removal. 
“People were very clear that it is physically difficult to do themselves and many said they didn’t have family or neighbors that were able to help, and they had a hard time finding something they could afford,” said Villers.

At other workshops, residents proposed using the funds for street improvements, mental health initiatives, public art spaces, and supporting entrepreneurs. 

After the deadline closes on Thursday, the OPB will review the proposals and identify key priorities and themes. Castelo and his team will then share their finding with residents in October and establish a final listing of 15 ideas by January. 

“Once we have the ballot, there will be 15 projects and people will be able to vote up to five,” Castelo said. “As people choose the ideas, they will be able to see how much they cost to implement, and we will be able to fund up to $2 million. It may be we have five ideas that we can fund, but depending on the cost, we can have maybe three or seven.”

The best way to submit a proposal is to log-in here.

Residents may also phone-in ideas and leave a voice message at 617-635-3059 or visit City Hall or any public library branch in the city.

“Something great about our process is all the information we collect is also helpful to inform the larger city budget conversation,” said Castelo. “As we are engaging with people, we’ll learn about priorities, things they really care about and some of those ideas will be funded with the $2 million, obviously not all of them but still helpful in how the city thinks of future departmental budgets for future fiscal years.”