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Participatory budgeting is a process used across the world to allow people to decide how money is spent in their community.
We’re using participatory budgeting in Belfast to direct funding to where residents think it will make a difference. We want to give people a voice in funding decisions that affect them.
The next participatory budgeting project in Belfast will support 'Take 5 steps to wellbeing’. We want to encourage local groups to apply for a share of funding. We think local groups can deliver projects that can improve emotional health and wellbeing within the community.
Evidence suggests there are five ways in which people can maintain and improve their mental wellbeing. Together and even individually, they encourage us to think about our daily routines.
Even if these are behaviours you already follow, we can all increase the time we spend doing them.
The ‘five steps to wellbeing’ are:
Connect with the people around you: family, friends, colleagues and neighbours at home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these relationships as the cornerstones of your life and spend time developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.
Don’t be afraid to try something new, rediscover an old hobby or sign up for a course. Take on a different responsibility, fix a bike, learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.
Go for a walk or run, cycle, play a game, garden or dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity that you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.
Stop, pause, or take a moment to look around you. What can you see, feel, smell or even taste? Look for beautiful, new, unusual or extraordinary things in your everyday life and think about how that makes you feel.
Do something nice for a friend or stranger, thank someone, smile, volunteer your time or consider joining a community group. Look out as well as in. Seeing yourself and your happiness linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding. It can help create connections with the people around you.
If you, your family, friends, neighbours, school or organised group have an idea related to the ‘take five steps to wellbeing’, you can submit a short application.
The application is simple and straightforward. It's a short summary of your idea. It will begin to help people learn more about your project before casting their vote.
Groups can apply for funding up to £2,500. You don't have to be a large organisation or community group. You also don’t need to have experience or have done anything like this before.
We will invite groups to present their project in a local venue. If people agree it’s a good idea, you'll get funded.
If successful, your group will need to deliver the project between April to October 2025.
Working together with the Public Health Agency and other key community partners, we'll make sure that the project can be delivered:
We’ll check that the project can be finished within budget and the timeframe.
As a rule of your funding, you will need to show what you did with the money at a showcase celebration event in November 2025.
Other than that, it will be up to the community to decide which projects are funded.
Applications open at 9am on Monday 25 November 2024 and close at 4pm on Friday 10 January 2025. We can't consider applications received after this time.
You can read how to apply on our online consultation hub, YourSay.
Go to Your Say - Take Five (link opens in new window).
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