Denver Participatory Budgeting Program: Cycle One

Denver launched its first cycle of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in 2022, empowering residents to budget $2 million of capital funds for neighborhood projects. In the pilot cycle, over 4,200 residents, predominately from Denver’s historically underserved communities, successfully designed the program guidelines, brainstormed project ideas, developed ideas into proposals, and voted for their top projects. Through rank choice ballots, residents chose to invest into nine community-developed infrastructure projects:

1. $400,000: Accessible sidewalks in Ruby Hill 

2. $362,500: New lights in FNE Parks/Trails

3. $300,000: New Freedom Park Improvements

4. $225,000: Shower trailers for unhoused residents

5. $200,000: Tiny homes for unhoused residents

6. $187,500: Safer intersections in Capitol Hill

7. $175,000: Community Gardens at subsidized housing

8. $112,500: Accessible transit in City Park

9. $37,500: New trashcans in FNE Parks/Trails

Throughout the first year, Denver saw success in engaging residents who face the greatest barriers to civic participation. During the idea collection phase, 97 percent of respondents identified as a person of color, over half of respondents reported earning less than $25K annually, and over half of respondents reported earning only a GED or had not earned a high school diploma. During the voting phase, people who cannot or may not participate in traditional civic processes had the opportunity to vote, including children, undocumented residents, currently incarcerated residents, and people experiencing homelessness.

Beyond the turnout numbers and demographic results, a true success of the program was its ability to build long-term, meaningful relationships with residents and spur their continued involvement and enthusiasm for civics. While these achievements are harder to quantify, the impacts can be felt through stories and experiences with residents who participated with the program. One resident went on to join the Mayor’s Commission on Mobility while a youth resident began volunteering for a candidate in a local city council race. Another resident decided to go back to school and study public administration while another individual, an unhoused resident staying at one of the city’s homeless shelters, said she voted for the first time ever in the municipal mayoral election the spring after the first cycle. 

Of course, it would be impossible to say participatory budgeting is causing these outcomes, but there are correlations that would suggest PB is benefiting larger efforts to increase participatory democracy in Denver. In cycle one, the program not only demonstrated the potential to allocate funds through a community-led approach, but also built a stronger sense of trust and collaboration between the government and the public and developed a more robust, diverse, and representative network of residents eager to be involved in civic processes. 

While leveraging these successes, and building off lessons learned in cycle one and shared through the third-party evaluation, Denver is preparing for the second cycle of participatory budgeting, which is set to begin in Fall 2023.

www.denvergov.org/DenverPB