Partner – Transparency International Lithuanian Chapter
Location – Throughout Lithuania
Since 2021
The project “Building Resilient and Inclusive Communities through Participatory Budgeting” aimed to promote inclusive and transparent democratic participation from an early age, strengthen civic education and key citizenship skills, and develop the ability to recognise disinformation and critically assess information, ultimately contributing to more cohesive communities and societies.
Through this project, students were able to actively participate in the decision-making process of allocating public funds – to propose and decide on the public spending priorities, leading to transparent, inclusive and accountable governance.
The project’s main objectives were to support schools and their community members to implement participatory budgets; engage students with interactive workshops and trainings; involve students and teachers from the Network of Schools for Integrity and present them with model participatory budgeting examples; engage teachers and school administration members in practical training on how to integrate participatory budgeting activities into day-to-day learning; and present the main findings and experience of participatory budgeting in schools to national and municipal level decision-makers during advocacy meetings. Through the participatory budgeting activities, the dedicated budgets across schools were spent on various initiatives such as building bicycle stands, installing a drinking water station and introducing additional benches in a school park, amongst many others.
By participating in the participatory budgeting process, students strengthened their civic engagement, leadership, and teamwork competences, as well as their public speaking and financial literacy skills. School administrators and teachers gained a deeper understanding of how to encourage and implement civic initiatives among students. Overall, the engagement resulted in the fostering of social cohesion and mutual trust within the school communities, enabling them to collaborate on common agendas while developing trust, positive perspectives and inclusive narratives.
During the project:
Over 5 700 students and more than 150 teachers and school administration representatives from 123 schools directly participated in emplementing participatory budgets
33 participatory budgeting initiatives were implemented
More than 18 200 students from 30 different schools participated in participatory budgeting seminars on the topics of public speaking, civic and financial literacy
This project was also acknowledged by the Government – the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport of Lithuania has pledged to implement participatory budgeting in all the schools under its direct administration