Seniors – act and change your city; Project evaluation report

Completed

People over 65 are the least engaged group in participatory budgeting among Warsaw residents. Why is this? How can this be changed? The Cooperation Fund Foundation and the Jeden Muranów Foundation have a solution.

The "Seniors – Take Action and Change Your City!" project is being implemented in two Warsaw districts – Wola and Śródmieście. Its main goal is to encourage people over 65 to participate in participatory budgeting.

As part of the project, we are undertaking a number of activities aimed at promoting participatory budgeting among seniors and encouraging them to participate in the upcoming edition. These activities include:

disseminating information materials that are easy to understand for seniors,
research on the needs of seniors,
research walks in the footsteps of projects implemented in Wola and Śródmieście as part of the participatory budget,
information meetings,
computer workshops where seniors will learn about the portal for submitting applications and voting,
project creation workshops dedicated to seniors.

The project is implemented by the Cooperation Fund Foundation and the Jeden Muranów Foundation with the support of 40 volunteers and 20 participatory budget ambassadors, i.e. public institutions and non-governmental organizations from the city center and Wola districts who recognize the needs of older people.

Strona projektu

Additional Information

Since 2014, Warsaw has had the opportunity to submit ideas for spending part of its financial resources through participatory budgeting. This provides residents with an opportunity to express their needs and participate in deciding how public funds will be spent.

Over two and a half thousand projects were submitted for this year's participatory budgeting—over three hundred more than a year ago. Despite this, voter turnout was lower than a year ago. It dropped particularly among people over 60. Why is this happening? According to the report "Evaluation of the Participatory Budgeting Process in Warsaw for 2017," 52% of people over 65 responded negatively to the question "Have you heard of the participatory/civic budget in Warsaw?"

This suggests that information on this topic is either not reaching older people or is difficult to understand. The low turnout may also be due to the fact that voting requires basic computer skills or the ability to go to a polling station in person.

If you would like to take part in the project as a participant or volunteer, please send an email to: kontakt@budzetseniora.pl or call 22 450 98 72 or 512 896 832.