The North American Line
165
ballot and 7 were selected by the youth as Name of City: Boston
winners for implementation. In 2014, this
Name of Province/State: Massachusetts
initiative of Boston stood out among 259
Name of Country/Region: United States of
initiatives vying for the 2nd Guangzhou
America Geographic Region: North America Population: 667,137 (2015)
International Award for Urban Innovation and was shortlisted as one of the 10 nominated initiatives for the Award.
Surface Area: 125.41 km2 Population Density: 13,841 people / km2 GDP per capital: USD 858,000 Title or Slogan of the Initiative: Youth Lead
Background of the Initiative “Young people are our future
the Change: Participatory Budgeting Boston
leaders.” To achieve this objective, the
Start Date of the Initiative: December, 2013
City initiated Youth Lead the Change
End Date of the Initiative: July, 2014
and included this program in the city’s
Thematic Area: Society, Economy,
capital budget. Through this participatory
Environment, Governance / Management,
budgeting program, the youth had the
Technology
opportunity to collect ideas for capital projects, distill those ideas into concrete proposals, hold a city-wide vote to determine which projects get funded, and ultimately, directly determine how USD 1 million is spent to improve Boston for its
and ultimately determine how USD 1
people.
million was spent to improve Boston for
Boston is committed to providing
everyone. The goal was to teach the youth
young people with a platform to express
about city building and budgeting process,
themselves and welcoming them to
to gain leadership and professional skills.
participate in government decisions.
Boston thus became the first American
Youth Lead the Change creates a pathway
city in which the youth have been
for lifelong civic engagement and
empowered to decide on a portion of
participation. Best practice in Boston
their city’s capital budget. Over 450 ideas
about youth programming and policy is
were generated, over 1,500 young people
to include young people in the decision
cast a vote, 14 projects made it to the
making and planning so as to ensure that