Imagine Democracy - You Decide

Overview

The ‘Imagine Democracy – You Decide!’ initiative offers up to £500 to fund creative actions by groups or individuals that re-imagine local democracy through activism, campaigning, creative expression, building public awareness, etc.

The Imagine Democracy – You Decide initiative is an example of participatory budgeting, a democratic innovation where members of the public come together to explore community priorities and decide directly how public money is spent. It is part of the Participatory Budgeting Works project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund through the Building Change Trust

Who can apply?

Groups or individuals can apply but -

• Applicants must be at least 16 years old at the time of application, however are free to involve younger people in their activities if they wish. Anyone over the age of 10 is free to attend and vote in the event on 30th March
• Applicants must be based in Northern Ireland
• Only one application per organisation, group or individual please.

What kind of things are funded?

For example, you might want to organise a public action, event or visual display to raise awareness or promote action around an issue you care about; encourage voter participation at the upcoming local elections; or persuade government and/or your elected representatives to take action on a particular issue.

They’re very open minded as to the type of actions they will support and are hoping you’ll inspire them with your creative ideas!

Basic criteria

Ideas should be:

• Fair: actions must not be exclusionary or discriminatory in any way and should focus on an issue or issues that are of clear benefit to wider society or groups that are experiencing disadvantage in some way
• Legal: you must have any necessary permissions in place for your proposed activities and it should not breach any existing legislation
• Feasible: the activities must be realistically achievable within the budget and timeframe (all activities must be completed no later than 31st May 2019)
• Non-party political: this funding has been made available by the Building Change Trust, a registered charity, and so must abide by Charity Commission for NI rules – in particular your activities must not explicitly endorse or oppose any specific political party