Participatory budgeting builds trust in government
The year 2020 was challenging for most of us and, when people are suffering, they tend to blame their governments – local, state, and federal. If we’re being honest, however, trust in our governmental, academic, scientific, and civic institutions has been eroding for some time. The polarization of our society has made it increasingly difficult to work together to solve our shared problems, and the barriers erected by those in power have discouraged easy engagement by community members in civic life, especially voting, which only serves to reinforce a sense of hopelessness shared by many people.