After years of urging the City of Milwaukee to launch a participatory budgeting process, members of the African American Roundtable have a reason to celebrate.

In April, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $600,000 participatory budgeting program. 

Here’s what you need to know.

What is participatory budgeting?

Participatory budgeting is a democratic process in which community members decide how public dollars are spent.  

The African American Roundtable has been educating and advocating on the process for years because staffers believe residents should have the right to be fully engaged in civil processes. 

The group felt so strongly that last year it launched its own initiative.

The organization’s Participatory Budgeting Program allowed Northwest Side residents to propose, vote on and execute ideas on community-led projects.   

Thoughts about participatory budgeting

“We’ve been doing this work for over five years now,” said Devin Anderson, the African American Roundtable’s membership and coalition manager. “We are excited to see the city allocate these funds for participatory budgeting and even more to see that this allocation was part of a larger $2.4 million that invests in communities.” 

Richard Diaz with the Coalition on Lead Emergency, or COLE, said he remembers working with the Roundtable’s Liberate MKE campaign in 2018 when the group began sowing the seeds for participatory budgeting. 

“I’m happy to see the African American Roundtable kept advocating for this budget,” he said. “And really that they kept at caring about having residents voice their concerns.” 

According to Diaz, these funds are a step in the right direction. He’s hopeful the program will expand in coming years. 

What’s next

 “Now it’s about implementation,” Anderson said.

He said as the organization that fought for these funds, it now has to follow and track how implementation of the funds go.

In the meantime, he said the AART will continue to provide the community with education surrounding participatory budgeting and other ways to be civically engaged. 

What city leaders are saying

Ald. Mark Chambers said the funds are not just an allocation but a statement to the council’s values, priorities and commitment to a stronger, more inclusive Milwaukee. 

“This investment is a testament to what we can achieve when we prioritize people over politics,” he said. 

For more information

You can check the African American Roundtable Facebook page for more information. 

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Here’s what you need to know about participatory budgeting in Milwaukee 

by PrincessSafiya Byers, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
June 11, 2025

<h1>Here’s what you need to know about participatory budgeting in Milwaukee </h1> <p class="byline">by PrincessSafiya Byers, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service <br />June 11, 2025</p> <p>After years of urging the City of Milwaukee to launch a participatory budgeting process, members of the <a href="https://aartmke.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawK286hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFDaFNDaUp5OXJ1OG94dHc5AR7FVykY5MlLl4BL9JPm3iWtLhZYXr7DFdWGGXUSp8gChla5Sx9Swhqhj0L3uw_aem_hbLrc_CRlnyp6xVdyXiOqw">African American Roundtable</a> have a reason to celebrate.</p> <p>In April, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $600,000 participatory budgeting program.&nbsp;</p> <p>Here’s what you need to know.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What is participatory budgeting?</strong></h2> <p>Participatory budgeting is a democratic process in which community members decide how public dollars are spent.  </p> <p>The African American Roundtable has been educating and advocating on the process for years because staffers believe residents should have the right to be fully engaged in civil processes.&nbsp;</p> <p>The group felt so strongly that last year it launched its own initiative.</p> <p>The organization’s Participatory Budgeting Program allowed Northwest Side residents to propose, vote on and execute ideas on community-led projects.  &nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Thoughts about participatory budgeting</strong></h2> <p>“We’ve been doing this work for over five years now,” said Devin Anderson, the African American Roundtable’s membership and coalition manager. “We are excited to see the city allocate these funds for participatory budgeting and even more to see that this allocation was part of a larger $2.4 million that invests in communities.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Richard Diaz with the Coalition on Lead Emergency, or COLE, said he remembers working with the Roundtable’s Liberate MKE campaign in 2018 when the group began sowing the seeds for participatory budgeting.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I’m happy to see the African American Roundtable kept advocating for this budget,” he said. “And really that they kept at caring about having residents voice their concerns.”&nbsp;</p> <p>According to Diaz, these funds are a step in the right direction. He’s hopeful the program will expand in coming years.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What’s next</strong></h2> <p>&nbsp;“Now it’s about implementation,” Anderson said.</p> <p>He said as the organization that fought for these funds, it now has to follow and track how implementation of the funds go.</p> <p>In the meantime, he said the AART will continue to provide the community with education surrounding participatory budgeting and other ways to be civically engaged.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What city leaders are saying</strong></h2> <p>Ald. Mark Chambers said the funds are not just an allocation but a statement to the council's values, priorities and commitment to a stronger, more inclusive Milwaukee.&nbsp;</p> <p>“This investment is a testament to what we can achieve when we prioritize people over politics,” he said.&nbsp;</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>For more information</strong></h2> <p>You can check the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AfricanAmericanRoundtable/">African American Roundtable Facebook page</a> for more information.&nbsp;</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2025/06/11/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-participatory-budgeting-in-milwaukee/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org&quot;&gt;Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-NNS-Favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=116126&amp;amp;ga4=G-HGM4XK3QCM&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2025/06/11/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-participatory-budgeting-in-milwaukee/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/milwaukeenns.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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