The public is being asked to submit ideas and proposals for projects that would benefit youth in Victoria.
The City has set aside $52,000 for the Participatory Budget, which will be used to fund public proposals for projects.
Proposals will go through the City of Victoria Youth Council and Participatory Budget Steering Committee, who will work with the applicants and city staff to brainstorm ideas and narrow down the details.
Emma-Jane Burian, a member of both the Youth Council and the Committee, says they are in the first stage of the process, accepting proposals and ideas. The Committee and the city will look over them, and then put them out for the public to vote on. She says through this process, they can really engage the public.
Burian is encouraging everyone to put forward their ideas, adding that they would like to see creative and unique proposals.
"Things like creative projects, for example like little place-making things, like maybe small libraries. Or it could go bigger, to like spaces for youths to participate in. Things that youth want to do."
She adds that mental health and addictions education and support, or arts and culture events could also be beneficial for youth.
City staff and members of the Committee and Youth Council will work with the applicants on the proposals, then they will be presented to the general public who will vote on their favourites. After that, the winning projects will be funded.
"So we really want to make sure that this money goes to youth that really are deserving of it, and youth that are making projects that want to develop for the community. So the initial is that they can spend 50,000, but then there's an extra 2,000 out of our budget that we can give them depending on the projects and the scheme of them."
Burian adds that they would rather fund projects put forward by small groups, not corporations, and depending on the scale of the proposed projects, there may be more than one chosen, with the funding split between them.
Proposals are due on April 30th, and can be submitted to the City of Victoria Youth Council website. The public will have a chance to vote on the proposals in July, and the winning projects will be implemented later in the summer.