Interview with Liam, part of the YOUth Making it Happen PB Steering Group
Description
From the Youth PB Project we have spoken with Liam, who has taken part in the Youth PB processes in Northern Ireland. He talked to us about his experience as a representative of the group of young people who have taken the initiative to promote participatory processes in his town.
According to Liam, before joining the project, he didn’t have the opportunity to work on these types of activities, this being the first participatory budgeting process led by young people in Northern Ireland.
The project started just before the COVID-19 restrictions with a meeting where the group got to know each other and made decisions about the themes, criteria and branding. After making some changes and adapting it to the pandemic situation, it was launched. Of the various topics that were raised to be discussed within the project, the one that Liam was most excited about was sports, health and well-being; since it is something that is given great importance and affects the entire community.
Speaking of future projects in which he would like to introduce participatory budgeting, Liam spoke about the need for this type of budgeting to be increasingly extended to various areas of society and the possibility of more money being allocated, which could help to help the community and bring institutions closer to citizens.
Finally, he highlighted how necessary participatory budgets are, since they serve to help communities obtain what they need and, in addition, they also put people with similar interests in contact, the interest of working for better people’s lives.