If you have an idea on how to improve New York, the mayor's office will give money to implement it
'01.11.2023'
Lyudmila Balabay
The program has been operating in New York for several years The People's Money. It allows city residents (regardless of immigration status) to participate in the distribution of budget funds. Now its new stage has begun - New Yorkers have until November 19 to submit their ideas on how best to spend part of the city budget. Next, the winning projects will be determined by voting, and the mayor's office will allocate money for their implementation.
All New Yorkers age 11 and older can submit an idea, regardless of immigration status.
The project you propose must be aimed at improving the lives of your community and last for one year. The City's Civic Engagement Commission (CEC), which administers The People's Money program, recommends projects in the following areas:
✅ Programming, including but not limited to events, fairs, seminars, trainings and classes.
✅ Expanding or improving city services (e.g., after-school programs, food distribution initiatives, etc.).
✅ Organize awareness and advocacy campaigns.
✅ Research.
The People's Money program cannot fund:
❌ Capital projects that involve the construction, renovation, acquisition or installation of physical assets costing $50 or more. This applies to everything from buying garbage trucks to rebuilding bridges and building housing.
❌ Projects that violate New York City laws, promote hatred or unfair treatment.
❌ Projects that increase the size of city agencies, such as hiring more police officers or sanitation workers.
On the subject: You can now message Eric Adams on WhatsApp
If you're ready to register your idea, go to here:. To do this, you must log into or create an account on the CEC website. At the time of writing, 157 projects were registered on the site.
Ideas can be submitted until November 19, then they will be finalized together with the authors (January-February 2024) and put up for a citywide vote (April-May 2024). After this, the city will provide funding and help implement the winning projects.
CEC also conducts free online and offline workshops to help generate ideas. Their schedule is here.
If you need inspiration and insight into City Hall's priorities, at this link you can see the 32 projects that won in the last round of the program The People's Money; the amounts allocated for their implementation; and the process of their implementation. Among the winners are several immigrant projects.
