I believe you, you're listening to Ted talks daily, democratic government is by the people, for the people as the line goes.

But back when those words were first used in America, the people didn't include women or black folks. And the government continues to leave large swaths of people behind.

Cherie Davis, a solution, imagination and participatory budgeting. Now, the executive director of the Participatory Budget Program, Sherry, explains her compelling idea in her talk from Ted 20-20.

Hi, I'm Selena Russian, a host of a new podcast from Ted called Panjab Every week you'll travel to a different location around the world, get lost in a new vibe and tap into a surprising idea.

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My name is Cherie Davis, and let's be honest, I'm a recovering government employee. And I say that with a huge shout out to the folks that work in government and on systems change, its heart can be isolating and the work can feel impossible. But government is the people that show up. Really, it's the people that can show up and are committed to the promise that public service offers service to people, democracy and fixing the problems that community members face.

Seventeen years ago, I walked through city hall for the first time as a staff member, and that walk revealed something to me. I was a unicorn, there weren't many people who look like me that worked in the building, and yet there were folks committed to addressing hundreds of years of systemic inequity that left some behind and many ignored where there was promise there was a huge problem. You see, democracy, as it was originally designed, had a fatal flaw.

It only gave pipeline for rich white men to progress. And now if you're a smart, rich white man, you understand what I say. That's a massive talent has been left off the field. Our moral imaginations have grown anemic. Our highest offices are plagued by corruption.

We're on the brink of a sort of apathetic apocalypse. And it's not OK. We've got to open the doors to city halls and schools so wide that people can't help but walk in. We've got to throw out the old top down processes that got us into this mess and start over with new faces around the table, new voices in the mix. And we have to welcome new perspectives every step of the way, not because it's the right thing to do, although it is, but because that's the only way for us to all succeed together.

And here's the best news of all. I know how to do it. The answer well and answer is participatory budgeting. That's right. Participatory budgeting or PBH for short PBH is a process that brings community and government together to develop concrete proposals and vote on projects that solve real problems and community. Now I realize that people don't get up and dance when I start talking about public budgets. But participatory budgeting is actually about collective radical imagination. Everyone has a role to play in PBH and it works because it allows community members to craft real solutions to real problems and provides the infrastructure for the promise of government.

And honestly, it's how I saw democracy actually work for the first time. I remember it like it was yesterday of twenty fourteen in Boston, Massachusetts. And Mayor Menino asked me to launch the country's first youth focused effort with one million dollars of city funds. Now, we didn't start with line items and limit or spreadsheets and formulas. We started with people. We wanted to make sure that everyone was listened to. So we brought in young people from historically and traditionally marginalized neighborhood members of the queer community and youth that were formerly incarcerated and together, often with pizza and a sugar free beverage.

We talked about how to make Boston better and we design process that we called youth lead the change we imagined of Boston, where young people could access the information that they need to thrive or they could feel safe in their communities and where they can transform public spaces into real hubs of life for all people. And that's exactly what they did in the first year. Young people allocated ninety thousand dollars to increase technology access for Boston Public High School students by delivering laptops right to Boston Public High schools so that students could thrive inside and outside of the classroom.

They allocated sixty thousand dollars to creating art walls that literally and figuratively brightened up public spaces. But they addressed a more important problem. Young people were being criminalized and pulled into the justice system for putting their art on walls. So this gave them a safe space to practice their craft. They allocated four hundred thousand dollars to renovating parks to make them more accessible for all people of all bodies. Now, admittedly, this didn't go as smoothly as we had planned.

Right before we broke ground on the park, we actually found out that it was on top of an archaeological site and had to halt construction. I thought I broke up, but because the city was so committed to the project, that's not what happened. They invited community in to do a dig, protected the site, found artifacts, extended Boston's history and then move forward with the renovation. If that isn't a reflection of radical imagination in government. I don't know what is what sounds simple is actually transformational for the people and communities involved.

I'm seeing community members shape transportation access, improve their schools and even transform government buildings so that there is space inside of them for them. Before we had. I would see people who look like me and come from where I come from, walk into government buildings for this new initiative or that new working group, and then I'd watch them walk right back out.

Sometimes I wouldn't see them again. It's because their expertise was being valued. They weren't truly being engaged in the process.

But PBH is different. When we started doing PBH, I met amazing young leaders across the city, one in particular a rock star. Malachi Hernandez, 15 years old, came into a community meeting shy, curious, a little quiet, stuck around and became one of the young people hoping to lead the project. Now, fast forward a couple of years. Malachi was the first in his family. To attend college a couple of weeks ago, he was the first in his family to graduate.

Malachi has appeared in the Obama White House several times as part of the My Brother's Keeper initiative. President Obama even quotes Malachai in interviews. It's true. You can look it up. Malakai got engaged, stayed engaged and is out here changing the way we think about community leadership and potential.

Or my friend Maria Hatam, who is involved in the first PEB process in Chicago, then went on to become a founding participatory budgeting project board member, eventually a staff member, and then unseated a twenty eight year incumbent, becoming the first queer black older person in Chicago's history. That's real engagement that's being taken seriously. That's building out and building on community leadership. That's system change. And it's not just in the US. After starting 30 years ago in Brazil, PBH has spread to over 7000 cities across the globe.

In Paris, France, the mayor puts up five percent of her budget, over one hundred million euros for community members to decide on and shape their city globally.

PCB has been shown to improve public health, reduce corruption and increase trust in government. Now we know the challenges that we face in today's society. How can we expect people to feel motivated to show up to the polls when they can't trust that government is run by and for the people? I argue that we haven't actually experienced true participatory democracy in these United States of America just yet.

But democracy is a living, breathing thing and it's still our birthright. It's time to renew trust and that's not going to come easy. We have to build new ways of thinking, of talking, of working, of dreaming, of planning in its place. What would America look like if everyone had a seat at the table, if we took the time to reimagine what's possible and then ask, how do we get there? My favorite author, Octavia Butler, says it best in Parable of the Sower.

Basically my Bible.

She says all that you touch, you change, all that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change. It's time for these 50 states to change. What got us here sure as hell won't get us there.

We've got to kick the walls of power down and plant gardens of genuine democracy in their place. That's how we change systems by opening doors so wide that people can't help but walk in. So what's stopping you from bringing participatory budgeting to your community? PR ex.