School participatory budgeting is an innovative civil participation tool, which is currently actively implemented around the world for youth participation in decision-making. Thanks to School PB, children improve their leadership qualities and schools gain practical experience of civil participation. The Toolkit presents recommendations of the CoE Project and is a roadmap for the implementation of the School participatory budgeting. Now each municipality, using the Toolkit developed through the innovative methodology “CivicLab”, will be able to implement the School PB.

The CoE Project "Promoting Civil Participation in Democratic Decision-Making in Ukraine" developed the Toolkit after analyzing the best international and Ukrainian practices of School PB. Also, the CoE Project has developed the first in Ukraine Concept of the Regulation on the School Participatory Budgeting, which can be adapted to the peculiarities of any community. Thanks to step-by-step and detailed methodological recommendations, communities will be able to choose the optimal model of School PB and develop their own Regulation on the School PB, which will involve children in the process as much as possible and ensure gender component and inclusion.

Representatives of 44 cities from all over Ukraine joined the online presentation dedicated to the launch of the Toolkit, including 45 representatives of local authorities, 17 representatives of schools, and 25 representatives of non-governmental organizations. Participants discussed the Council of Europe standards and best European practices of youth participation in decision-making and how to adhere to the principle of non-discrimination during the implementation of the School PB.

The Council of Europe project "Promoting Civil Participation in Democratic Decision-Making in Ukraine" is supporting municipalities in setting up new participation mechanisms such as School Participatory Budgeting. Thus, we invite Ukrainian communities, interested in the implementation of School PB to fill in the application form: https://bit.ly/2W60SHA

Toolkit on School participatory budgeting (available in Ukrainian):