Until now neither the citizens nor the representatives of the authorities in Niepołomice municipality were interested in the introduction of civic participation mechanisms. The citizens were not submitting projects for participatory budgeting. The work of the Institute for Strategic Studies Foundation, with its resources and experience, has enabled to convince citizens and authorities to initiate the process of participatory budgeting (PB).

The project’s objective was to increase the involvement of citizens of Niepołomice municipality through the introduction of participatory budgeting.

The project resulted in 136 applications for participatory budgeting. 32% of people entitled to vote participated in project selection. All measures introduced within the project and all documents produced were developed in a participatory manner. PB activities raised considerable interest in the local community.

The rules of Participatory Budgeting (PB) were developed with the use of public consultations. Informational meetings on PB were organized in the municipality’s districts, smaller administration units (sołectwa) and schools, attracting participation of nearly 1,000 people. An information campaign, presenting projects submitted to PB, was carried out. The campaign covered 14 meetings, a number of press articles and mailing of information material to every household in the municipality. Voting within PB lasted 8 days and 6,912 of votes were cast. Afterwards, the rules of PB for the following year were verified and a conference summarizing the project was organized.
The project’s partner – Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Ziemi Niepołomickiej (The Association of Niepołomice Lovers) was responsible for local promotional activities carried out by volunteers engaged by the Association.