Submit a It's Our Money Proposal (Youth-led Direct Democracy)

Support Network Fundraising
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Overview

We have an opportunity to receive $20,000 in funding via the Youth Participatory Budgeting project.

We must use the funds by June 30th. I propose that we submit a project for the Advocacy circle project that’s taking shape right now which will include

  1. Co-creation sessions to make a Youth Power Advocacy Platform
  2. Campaign plan for young people to have voting rights on existing governance bodies like Panels for Education Policy, Community Boards, School Leadership Teams, etc. (need more research to choose exactly which one(s))
  3. Interview series to hear from people all over the city about the status of youth power and what it’ll take to get us to leadership by young people at all levels from nonprofit boards to city hall.

Given the short timeline (deadline January 22nd), I propose that a helping circle of Deborah and Julisa from the business circle + people TBD from the advocacy circle get a draft together next week for review by the circles on Monday, January 18th and then just go ahead and submit.

My questions specific to the business circle

  1. We need a proposed budget. Are there any potential non-negotiables or should the helping circle just go for it?
  2. Organizations MUST be registered in the NYC Payee Information Portal (External link) and in PASSPort (External link), the City’s online procurement system, in order to receive funding from the CEC. I think I’m the one who has the information to do it but @michael, I’d want you to be a partner in getting things documented so this information is available for the next Board Treasurer.
  3. Organization must be able to front the costs of implementing this project. Organizations can only invoice based on deliverables. Here’s where I’m stumped. I’m thinking payment to me we can format as a contract that’s paid upon deliverable, too so it can wait until after the project concludes. We’d need to for other line items to figure out how much we can front. I’m wondering if Integrate NYC could be a partner in this in terms of providing resources to be then reimbursed.

My question specific to the Advocacy circle

  1. Who will be part of this helping circle?
  2. What should be in our budget? I propose it’s staffing, professional development, and youth stipends.

Proposal

It’s Our Money Proposal - Google Doc

Details

https://www.participate.nyc.gov/processes/itsourmoney/f/5/

https://www.participate.nyc.gov/uploads/decidim/attachment/file/19/It_s_Our_Money_-_Statement_of_Needs.pdf

Deadline

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I had a conversation with @zaps just now about Integrate NYC and YPC collaborating on this project. Ideas that came out of that collaboration included

  • If selected, we could run a fundraising campaign for a matching budget. Especially important due to money from the city not coming in until much much later after a project already concludes.

  • We have two potential ways of moving money. One is money goes to YPC and we sub-grant to Integrate NYC. Another is money goes to Integrate NYC and they can pay organizers as independent contractors. Preference for money to go to YPC.

  • Recommendation on youth stipends is that our upper bound is the amount at which we will need to handle complicated tax/legal procedures that our new organization doesn’t have the capacity to handle yet.

  • We can create different stipend amounts based on working vs. supporting organizers.

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And our proposal is live! Check it out below.

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UPDATE: We weren’t in the top 5, unfortunately, but we learned a lot and it was an impetus for us to really reach out to allies! Our Instagram audience grew by 100 people, we experienced the benefits as well as challenges to city-wide youth participation, and we have clearer action steps moving forward. Thank you to everyone who supported!

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