Denver People's Budget
The People's Budget, Denver’s Participatory Budgeting Program, is a new approach to city decision-making, where people work side-by-side their government to make thoughtful community investments, together. Over the course of a year, people design the program, submit project ideas, and develop those ideas into specific project proposals. Then, the community votes for their favorites and the City constructs the winning projects! To date, more than 6,000 community members have participated and successfully budgeted $3 million toward 13 important infrastructure projects for their neighborhoods. Each cycle of the People's Budget follows four community-led phases, starting with building a guidebook and ending with a community vote on which projects to fund.
Get involved in Cycle 3
Cycle 3 of the People's Budget began in the fall of 2025 with a Community Steering Committee, which developed a guidebook for Cycle 3 and set forward an inclusive process for Denver communities.
Read the Cycle 3 Guidebook: English(PDF, 12MB) | Español(PDF, 4MB)
Serve as a project delegate
Starting this summer, project delegates will lead the next phase of the program by reviewing the ideas submitted and narrowing down the list of potential projects for community members to vote on.
Apply to be a Cycle 3 project delegate
Learn About Previous People's Budget Cycles
Check out results from Cycle 2, during which residents of all ages cast more than 2,000 ballots, ranking their top neighborhood projects, to invest $1 million of capital funds into their West Denver communities. Four projects rose to the top, earning funding for design and construction beginning in 2025:
Intersection Safety
Improve safety at 2-4 intersections in West Denver, focusing on high pedestrian and high crash intersections. Add improvements like stop signs, crosswalks, or flashing beacons. This would benefit mobility for people who use different modes of transportation including biking, rolling, busing, and driving.
Heat Relief for Lower Income Households
Many homes for lower income households were not constructed with cooling equipment, or they are now at the point of needing upgrades or replacements to critical systems. This project would improve existing housing with a particular focus on heat relief and cooling systems in individual units and/or communal spaces.
Mobile Food for Community Access to Health, Culturally Relevant Nutrition and Education
This project will provide access to healthy, culturally relevant foods and education throughout West Denver. Through pop-up food markets, food or farm trucks, mobile food pantries, etc., this project would focus on food desert elimination, bringing food and education directly to those who need it.
Oxygen and Shade for All! Adding Trees in West Denver
Add trees to 7-10 parks or trails in a variety of West Denver neighborhoods, prioritizing parks, trails or green spaces that do not currently have trees of do not have enough shade. Trees purify the air, improve the environment, provide shade, and beautify!
The projects funded through Cycle 2 of the People’s Budget align with both mayoral goals for safe and affordable neighborhoods and with recommendations from neighborhood planning initiatives for the West Denver area, including increased tree canopy, and healthy food access. This cycle of the program built upon recent neighborhood engagement and planning efforts, including the adopted West Area Neighborhood Plan and other public outreach efforts across Barnum, Barnum West, Sun Valley, West Colfax, Westwood, Valverde and Villa Park.
The People's Budget: An Overview
