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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.
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.
Groups across Belfast have suggested ideas that bring to life the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ to life. The local community can now decide which projects they think will make a difference. Drop into the four market stall events to find out more about the suggestions and cast your vote. Which one do you think can make a difference to health and wellbeing of Belfast?
Find out more about each voting event.
The video explains how local groups can submit the projects they'd like to develop. The video plays for one minute and 45 seconds.
Read aloud