IAP2 Learning Webinar - NAC Encore: "Participatory Budgeting to Promote Resiliency and Community Healing in Response to Ferguson"

How does a community recover from something like the vicious civil unrest Ferguson, Missouri, experienced in 2014? In this reprise of the very popular session at the 2020 IAP2 North American Virtual Conference, Paula Southerland and Michelle Mitchell of the St Louis County Department of Public Health, will discuss how Participatory Budgeting (PB) played a significant role.

You'll get an in-depth view of St. Louis ReCAST (Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma) a SAMHSA-funded initiative that began in 2016, and the participatory budgeting (PB) utilized in the design and delivery of all services related to the grant. The presentation will briefly recap the 2014 Civil Unrest in Ferguson and introduce how partnerships and community conversations are critical to resiliency after large-scale traumatic events.  

PB incorporates resident perspective and ensures programmatic funding aligns with community voice.  The project is community-driven and has empowered more than 800 St. Louis Promise Zone residents to help determine important community issues and interventions promoting behavioral health and violence prevention.