Participatory Budgeting & Raise the Age – The Youth Organizing Fellowship

Dan Apfel speaks with Ahja Haedicke and Noel Bentley, high school students and participants in the Youth Organizing Fellowship, a project of the Multicultural Resource Center. Participants in the the fellowship chose two campaigns to work on for one year in the community. Ahja Haedicke represents the group working on Participatory Budgeting, a practice that gives local residents a greater voice in government spending. Noel Bentley speaks about Raise the Age, a campaign to raise the age at which youth can be criminally charged as adults. In New York State youth only need to be 16 to be charged as an adult and can end up in adult prison for many years. Both discuss the fellowship and their personal experiences. More information on the participatory budgeting effort can be found at PB Ithaca and Raise the Age.