"We make a direct impact on people's lives": Youth empowerment in the context of a youth-led participatory budgeting project

Participatory budgeting [PB] is a democratic process whereby community members determine how to spend governmental funds. Youth-led PB is relatively new, occurring in select U.S. cities. During youth-led PB, youth collect ideas, develop proposals, and advertise community improvement projects for which they, citywide, cast deciding votes. The study examined opportunities for the empowerment youth at each stage of a youth-led PB project. Data collection included individual interviews with 31 youths and adult stakeholders, 3 focus groups with youths, and 7 observations of meetings. The data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods. Findings align well with the psychological empowerment literature and demonstrate several opportunities for empowerment throughout the PB project, including feeling in charge of the process, understanding and allocating resources, and influencing positive community change. Findings also demonstrate potential barriers to empowerment, including understanding bureaucratic decision making, and influencing policy. PB is relevant to furthering our understanding of the empowerment of youth. The youths who participated in the present study expressed feelings of competence, purpose, and an ability to use the skills learned to engage fellow youths in the PB process. Additional empirical research is needed to examine the dimensions of empowerment at each stage of the PB process.