Yeah. So, I will say, there are both challenges in running participatory budgeting. And there are certainly challenges that participatory budgeting seeks to address more broadly, take at the root of them is understanding that participatory budgeting is community driven, is deeply collaborative, we bring all of the myriad identities that we hold, and the perspectives, the frustrations, the tensions that we're really experiencing, to our spaces together throughout the process. And so it's, it takes a lot of time. I mean, it's not the most, you know, you just check it off a list, you did it, you move forward. It's very intensive, and it needs to be very deliberative. And I think when we consider how participatory budgeting interacts with other kinds of challenges communities face, there are a couple of things that really stand out. And I think that right now, we are still reckoning with the uprisings around racial justice in 2020. We're still in a COVID era, we are experiencing a mass resignation in particularly exploitive industries that but certainly more broadly than that, and we're also healing from the loss of millions of loved ones and community members all around the world, and many more who are facing exacerbated like food and housing, income, security, insecurity, it's really challenging right now to build trust and to build hope. And to really feel like, we are able to do the things to build the things that we know we need. So, I'll say within the broader context of participatory budgeting right now, we think about our work as having to really center community-led decision making that is equitable, accessible, and significant, because those elements tend to be missing from the ways in which community is able to direct, like the decisions that most impact them, how we spend funds, how we create policies. And so, when we think about each of those areas, we really kind of consider and really push ourselves and our partners to recognize ways in which we can make our work as equitable as possible. And I think within that, we're seeing large influxes of funds and policy packages are being proposed or interventions that are being led right now that are not necessarily addressing root causes of inequities. And I think this is where community leadership would be incredibly valuable to direct our investments of time and energy to areas where we're not just continuously treating the symptom, we're really need to get down into the weeds into those roots and really name How is white supremacy showing up? What are we willing to risks to put that out there, and to build differently, interrogate our hiring practices, and like really build an equity at every phase, and they feel one of the challenges that equity is kind of feeling like it's become a bit of a buzzword. It's a way to say I'm a good one, as opposed to say, I will work myself out of a job, if it means that this community thrives. And I think that equity at its core, and really getting to those root causes naming what needs to be named and working actively to dismantle them, no matter the cost is something is a challenge that we take on, you know, headfirst for sure, but certainly, I think is a challenge that we experienced and bump up against time and time again. I mentioned accessibility as well, I think we need to build decision making spaces that are inclusive and accessible to community leadership, and what is accessible is going to differ based on folks different identities and the lived experiences. So we have to design these spaces with community leadership. And I think there are a lot of challenges when too often assumptions are made about what people need to engage without them. And we have to build with community leadership to create and convene spaces that are going to actually facilitate equitable public health interventions, equitable budgetary decisions, stronger communities overall, right.
The last one I mentioned was sort of is the work we're doing significant to people are people really willing to invest significant energy and money resources into processes like participatory budgeting or other kinds of democratic decision making? And I think too often decision making, you know, is still very concentrated in the hands of people who do benefit from inequitable power dynamics. So, we have to involve sort of a broad cross section of our communities, not just in the ways that kind of like, again, take us to that checklist and say I gauged community a bit today. I've done my duty. But really are seeking to disrupt power and disrupt power imbalances and commit to earning the trust that it takes to do this, to put power in the hands of community members, especially community members who you have never ever, ever trusted to lead and deciding for themselves what they need. And so I think though some of the challenges really arise when like those key things are missing, either in where we partner or just kind of like the water we swim in. And our work is really trying to address these challenges because it is rooted in seeking to disrupt power and equities and community leadership.
But I will say after that whole list of challenges, and it's certainly not exhaustive, but I will acknowledge that the silver lining, the really exciting part about this work is that the expertise you need the answers you need, the solutions you're looking for, already exists, right, they're already out there in the hands, if and then the minds and the spirit, the bodies of our community members, all we have to do, which is invest in building together and diverting resources where they're most needed. And we can certainly kind of tap into the hope and the expertise is all around us. And I feel like it's just a matter of being willing to step back and really honor that, that there are some silver linings despite the challenges.