Teresa Córdova discussed Participatory Budgeting (PB) in the city of Chicago and described the role of the Great Cities Institute (GCI) in facilitating this democratic process of determining public spending. The presentation included a history of participatory budgeting and describe the process and partnerships for making this process a success. In addition, the lecturer also discussed the challenges of PB and strategies for overcoming them. PB is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It offers people a fundamentally different way to engage with government. The United Nations has promoted PB as a best practice of democratic governance. In February 2012 GCI partnered with The PB Project and a broad coalition of aldermen, city-wide institutions, and community-based organizations to launch PB Chicago. PB Chicago aims to implement and expand PB processes and direct democracy throughout Chicago. GCI is the lead university partner on PB Chicago, responsible for providing overall project management, community engagement, and evaluation. Since 2012, PB Chicago has engaged over 13,000 residents in twelve different communities in directly deciding how to spend over $18 million in public dollars.
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university