Antonnet Johnson

The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) is a nonprofit organization that empowers people across the United States and Canada to decide together how to spend public money. PBP creates and supports participatory budgeting (PB) processes that deepen democracy, build stronger communities, and make public budgets more equitable and effective. Through its work with partners in over 26 cities, PBP has engaged over 320,000 people in deciding how to spend over $200 million. The Participation Design Strategist works in PBP’s Participation Lab, one of its three program areas. The Lab evaluates, researches, and develops tools and practices to make participatory budgeting and democracy work better. The strategist works closely with other staff and partners to develop and test strategies that improve PBP’s services and PB processes. Through this work the strategist identifies and helps implement design solutions that enable participatory democracy to grow and scale, and that advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in civic participation. This work includes close collaboration with government and nonprofit staff, community leaders, and user design experts.