Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez has announced that she will be hosting a demo of the Participatory Budgeting (PB) process for First District residents on Saturday, April 11 at Cesar Chavez Park from 10:00AM to 12:00PM.

“This is going to be a preview of the full scale Participatory Budget process,” said Councilwoman Gonzalez in a statement. “First District residents will get a unique opportunity to directly decide how to spend $50,000 of discretionary funds.”

The First District is partnering with the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower residents to decide how to spend public funds, primarily in the US and Canada, according to the release. PBP will be introducing this process to see what the community values, and to encourage members to “get a feel for the process.”

The demo will include three different gatherings for community leaders and residents to create and collect ideas in order to best decide how to distribute the funds.

According to the release, the White House has already recognized PB as a best practice for civic engagement. Long Beach’s First District joins the Ninth District, which is already using participatory budgeting to give residents power over how public money is spent.

Cesar Chavez Park is located at 401 Golden Ave.

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