Questions/Answers

Project Robin Hood is a participatory budgeting project led by City of Melville’s Youth Advisory Council. Initially $50,000 annually then increased in 2015 to $100,000 is distributed via a number of small grants ($1,000 - $20,000) for projects initiated by the community. Unlike traditional grant funding the decision making for the allocation of the budget to proposed projects is made by the community via online voting. Participatory budgeting generally involves several basic steps: 1) Community members identify spending priorities 2) Project proposals, with help from experts are developed 3) Community members vote on which proposals to fund 4) The top proposals are implemented. Project Robin Hood utilises these overarching principles with further adaptations. Since 2013, 110 community initiated project concepts have been submitted, with 27 projects, totaling $252,000 voted by the community to be funded. Leadership of the project was given to the City’s Youth Advisory Council with their task to develop a transparent open process providing the community with equal opportunity to participate. The presented an extraordinary challenge to the City, and a major shift in usual practice. Historically local government processes for budget expenditure are controlled by the organisation, thereby mitigating any risk. Project Robin Hood turned this upside down with control being handed to the community to both develop the projects and vote on the ones to be implemented. Additional training, workshop attendance, participation of organizational technical experts and criteria to support the decision-making was incorporated into the project process. Initially one of the greatest challenges presented was a reluctance of community members to participate based on a general disbelief held by the community that they could actually decide on how to spend $100,000 of public monies. The City of Melville model is the only one known in Australia to utilise a Youth Advisory Council as

The purpose of Project Robin Hood is to encourage community participation in the selection of priority projects in their community; support the creativity of community owned project ideas; and build improved relationships between the community and the City of Melville The community is empowered to be the final decision maker in the allocation of funding to projects that will benefit the whole community. The objectives for Project Robin Hood are to: • Provide an opportunity to deepen citizenship and democracy • Empower citizens to influence public decisions that directly affect their lives • Enhance government responsiveness and accountability to citizens • Enhance citizen understanding of public budgets and budget constraints, creating more realistic expectations • Enhance citizen confidence in Council • Promote greater democracy and equity in the allocation of public resources • Encourage community cohesion and help build understanding, trust and consensus among citizens. • Promote productive dialogue and constructive working relationships between City staff, Elected Members, citizens and communities.

Project Robin Hood hands the decision making to the community. In addition this initiative has handed project management to the Youth Advisory Council with the outcomes identified as: • Engagement of the community with civil society and local government • Skill development for young people, e.g. Project design, management and implementation • Increased awareness of issues important to the community • Creation of a formal, on-going communication body between young people and local government • Increase community understanding of local government budgeting systems e.g. Through workshops and information dissemination • Encouragement of creative processes and idea exploration by community • Development of projects to address community issues, identified by the community • Implementation and review of projects, according to the budget and designed process Project Robin Hood aligns with the City’s Strategic Engagement Framework and Council Policy which states a commitment to ‘effective and appropriate relationships with its various stakeholders. It is further recognized that authentic and well-planned Stakeholder Engagement leads to positive outcomes for the community and creates more responsive policies, more appropriate planning decisions, better delivery of services and an improvement in the sustainability of programs and services.’

Project Robin Hood strongly aligns with SDG 11 by empowering community members and strengthening community connections to build resilience and contribute to enhanced community well being. Projects are initiated, developed and designed by the community with the City playing a supportive, facilitation role to streamline project delivery and reduce ‘red tape’ for the community to complete their initiatives. As the community votes on the projects to be implemented, this ensures the projects delivered are priorities for the community. In addition the community groups involved in each project take ownership for ongoing maintenance of any infrastructure in the public realm. Return on investment for the City is a shared responsibility and reduced budget for maintenance of community infrastructure. As young people lead the overall project, the role of the City is to ensure they have the skills and knowledge required by providing relevant training/coaching thereby building the capacity and providing opportunities for young people to be in a community leadership role.

Project Robin Hood allocated funding to pubic priorities as identified by the community. For government institutions, the challenge to deliver projects in a timely way is encumbered by internal organizational requirements such as procurement procedures, risk assessments, hierarchical decision making processes and competing project priorities. By handing the project development and decision making to the community these bureaucratic challenges were removed and projects completed within shorter time-frames. The process for obtaining funding was also streamlined. For example the Youth Advisory Council identified only three grant criteria – the project must benefit the community, be safe and be legal. This is a stark contrast to the City’s grant program with several pages of conditions. By empowering community members to positively contribute to activities within their community, this has led to other projects being initiated independently by them such as market days and local community events. Project Robin Hood brings people together to initiate and develop projects that benefit their own communities.

There are positive impacts for both the young people managing Project Robin Hood and the wider community being involved in the initiation and development of projects identified as priorities by and for them. A major marketing and communications strategy was developed and implemented by the Youth Advisory Council project members. The campaign was centered on the Robin Hood theme and included the project team dressing in relevant period costumes and visiting sites where community gathered throughout the City. This included a highly visible presence at places such, major music events, cafes and shopping centres. The youth team were trained and coached in public speaking, communications and promotions and facilitation for community workshops that they run. The project team have conversations with the community on the project to explain the project in more detail. As a result of Project Robin Hood many collaborative partnership have formed within the community with people coming together for a common purpose. Relationships have been established between businesses and community members with a common goal to improve the communities in which they live. This community connectedness has seen increased participation in community activities by people not previously involved.

Project Robin Hood is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent. The City of Melville model the only one known in Australia to utilise a Youth Advisory Committee as community leaders in the process. Project Robin Hood is led and initially was designed by young people. For Project Robin Hood a core group of 6-8 young people formed the project team, rather than the project being led by City administration. Initial briefing provided to the Youth Advisory Council was that a $100,000 budget was available for the community to vote to spend on projects initiated by them. The Youth Advisory Council is open to all young people aged 12 to 25 years who live, work, play or study in the City of Melville. The Youth Advisory Council has a sub-committee structure that initiates and manages projects in the areas of music, environment and arts and media. They are a talented, dynamic, creative and innovative group facilitated by the Community Development area of the City of Melville.

Participatory budgeting generally involves several basic steps: 1) Community members identify spending priorities 2) Project proposals, with help from experts are developed 3) Community members vote on which proposals to fund 4) The top proposals are implemented. Project Robin Hood utilises these overarching principles with further adaptations. The Youth Advisory Council developed the following Project Plan: What: Financially support community ideas and projects from a grassroots level that seek to improve community wellbeing, and allow the community to own the decision making process Where: Within the City of Melville, for the city’s residents Why: To empower the community to build and facilitate their own community wellbeing, local ownership and shared responsibility of projects, participation and involvement, togetherness, sustainability, accessibility, transparency and integrity. How: By providing $100,000 for a number of small community grants ($1,000-$20,000). Applications for grants will be available to community groups and individuals to come up with project ideas. The projects will then be open to the public to vote.

$100,000 annual budget allocation. Technical staff to advise on logistics of proposed community initiated projects - e.g placement of community seating in parks so as not to interfere with water reticulation Training for young people

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Other local governments in Australia have initiated participatory budgeting processes via a small grants programs or allocation input for mainstream budgets. However, the City of Melville is the only local government to have a Youth Advisory Council manage the project.

The City Council has endorsed the funding for Project Robin Hood be placed into the City’s operating budget. As more Project Robin Hood projects are delivered by the community, so these community members become advocates for future projects, supporting other to participate. Allocating small grants demonstrates a commitment to building capacity within the local community. It provided the opportunity for the local community to take charge of facilitating the type of small-scale changes and improvements they wanted to see within their communities. It’s these small steps that have the ability to pave the way to more substantial improvements such as upgrades or redevelopment of local businesses.

The City’s role is to provide ‘value add’ opportunities such as when Professor Giovanni Allegritti a global expert in Participatory Budgeting who has assisted with and researched participatory budgeting across the globe visited our City to present a workshop on how participatory budgeting can lead to more effective public administration of government. The City funded the attendance of Youth Advisory Council members and key City staff to attend this workshop. The City also engaged the support of David Engwicht founder of Creative Communities International, an incubator for social innovation which works to build the capacity of citizens and cities to create vibrant neighbourhoods, prosperous shopping streets and add magic to the public realm. Several Placemaking workshops were funded by the City with an invitation to both community and staff and the Youth Advisory Council project members to attend. The purpose of these workshops was to get people to think creatively about possible projects for funding.

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The project is evaluated via survey and interview with participants and improvements implemented based on this feedback. The return on investment for the City is calculated on project cost V project cost for City implementation. The cost analysis below relates to one project – the installation of gabion walls, seating and shade in the commercial hub known as the Risely Centre. Riseley Centre – A place for Friends to Meet. $7500 budget for chairs, tables and benches and umbrella component. Chairs, tables and benches invite people to take a few minutes to chat to friends at the shops, have a coffee, or eat lunch. Project budget estimate for gabion tables chairs and shade umbrella or similar if provided by City of Melville $14,400 With invested community members planning, designing, coordinating and installing the furniture for public use, the project was completed with minimal involvement by the City other than minor technical advice and support.

In November 2017 a survey was sent out to the contact list of everyone who had submitted a Project Robin Hood concept during all 3 rounds with the purpose being to get feedback on their experience with a view to improving future projects. 55 invitations to complete the survey were sent, with 21 total responses. The survey asked a range of questions to gather information on the Project Robin Hood process - so things like whether information sessions/workshops were attended and useful, usability in relation to the submission and voting platform etc. It was also an opportunity to get suggestions for the future and determine whether there was interest in being part of a Project Robin Hood Community Reference Group or similar. Participant Comments: “We found it a very empowering experience and an opportunity to contribute to the Melville community in a unique way. Many friends from other council areas thought it would be a great idea for their councils to adopt.” “Ensure that small groups have an opportunity to make a difference.” “Keep doing it, each cycle awareness will grow.” “I thought it was great, the contact was awesome and support was good, people really seemed interested and would answer any questions the best they could.”

Number of projects out forward by the community Number of on-line votes for projects Number of page visits for Project Robin Hood Number of participants at community workshops Dollar value of projects out forward by community

The City of Melville engages extensively with our customers and community, developing ongoing conversations and building relationships. A 10 year strategic community plan, reviewed every two years with community involvement aims to: acknowledge community aspirations and priorities, provide an opportunity for participation by the community in decision making, coordinate decision-making and use of resources of the City of Melville and other organisations working with and in the community, provide a long-term focus for the delivery of facilities and services by the City and other organisations working with and in the community and provide a basis for accountability. Our strategic community plan People Places Participation 2016-2026 provides the City and others with a clear understanding of what matters most to the communities within it and guides the way in which we and others plan for the future and deliver services. It is from the involved and engaged aspiration where the community identified they desired to be engaged and participate in decisions that affect their lives with a strong local democracy and effective partnership – that gave rise to initiating a participatory budgeting project – Project Robin Hood. Project Robin Hood has seen the development of collaborative partnerships between community members, non-government groups, government organisations and local businesses to achieve community led initiatives that benefit the whole community.

One of the greatest impacts is an acceptance by an increased number of City staff that the community has the skills and knowledge to achieve positive outcomes as defined by community members and that simple processes can still obtain beneficial community outcomes. The level of trust by the City of the community and the community of the City has been elevated with acknowledgement by the City of the community’s capability to deliver innovative projects that meet their requirements. Different sections of the organisation who perhaps did not work as closely with the community on projects, now more readily seek out community input with renewed passion and confidence, taking a partnership approach. Following each round of funding we review feedback from participants with a view to improving the ease of participation and ensure that any barriers to participation are removed. Groups linked to other grant programs if they don’t receive number enough votes from the community to enact the proposed project, the view being that community have voted to support the project Project participants become ambassadors for future projects –building capacity of fellow community members and sharing their learnings directly.