The spread: A social transformation process in the participatory budgets - Las Cabezas de San Juan, ES
The goal of the project is to increase the citizens' participation in the town of Las Cabezas de San Juan.
Problem
The illiteracy in Las Cabezas is around 30%, and only 15% of the children access secondary education. The unemployment rate is around 20%. Thus, the Spread Project aims not only to increase citizens’ participation but to produce a real social transformation.
Description
The project began in October 1999. The point of departure was a
situation where the process of representative democracy had
weakened the participation channels and prevented citizens from
intervening in public matters, producing distrust.
Little but important transformations have been achieved:
- New channels of participation have been created for the citizenship, such as the board of neighbours’ representatives.
- A 15% of the population have taken part in the management
and decision processes in fields as municipal works and
sociocultural activities, and their decisions were reflected in the
municipal budgets.
Results
The goal of the participatory budgeting project was not only to
share the responsibility of decision taking but to transform the
daily life of the town, sharing the power and deciding together the
way of living.
The budget has been approved with the active engagement of a 15% of
the population, which has increased the information level and the
strengthened the social networks, while revitalizing the political
life.
The city council workers have learnt to deal with new communitarian
ways of working and evaluating. The politicians have learnt to
share their power and the associations have begun to collaborate
and involve themselves into submitting proposals for the management
of the city council.
Contact info
Las Cabezas de San Juan City Council
Pza. de los Mártires, s/n
41730 41730 Las Cabezas de San Juan
Spain
Phone: +34 955873069
Fax: +34 955872208
Project start date
30/11/2006