NYC Civic Engagement Commission Announces Winning Projects From The People’s Money Vote

This year, over 130,000 New Yorkers participated in direct democracy to decide how to spend $4 million of the city budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 27, 2026
CONTACT:  publicaffairs@civicengagement.nyc.gov  

New York, NY — On Tuesday, August 25, the NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC; Dr. Sarah Sayeed, Chair and Executive Director) announced the 20 winning projects from the fourth year of The People’s Money, New York City’s innovative annual citywide participatory budgeting process.

The People’s Money vote is the widest on-ramp to democracy for New York City residents in all five boroughs, ages 11 and older, regardless of immigration status. Through this process, New Yorkers voted on how to spend $4 million of the city’s annual budget to help their communities thrive. Voting launched May 6 and ran through June 21. Residents could vote online or at sites hosted by over 80 community partners — with 134,418 voters turning out. The funded projects cover topics such as job training, housing access, and financial empowerment, with the overall results revealing health and wellness as one of the central concerns among New Yorkers, with seven of 20 winning projects in this sector.

The projects cover a variety of issues. The winning health initiatives include preventative care and food security, including a Bronx Mobile Health Clinic to a Wellness Support Program for Families of Special Needs Youth in Brooklyn to a Staten Island Food Recovery and Delivery Program. Other topics included education (with funded projects like Inclusive Programming for Children on the Autism Spectrum in the Bronx, Financial Education Workshops in Brooklyn, and others), social services and accessibility (Helping Older Adults with Lease Renewals in Queens, Helping Youth Find Housing After Foster Care in Manhattan, and more), civic engagement (Working Together to Make Your Block Better in the Bronx and Youth Internship and Leadership Program for Civics and Careers in Manhattan), small business and workforce development (Job Training Programs for Immigrants in Queens), and arts and culture (Creative Workshops for Youth in Queens).

See our website for a full list of winning projects.

“The People’s Money is an expression of New Yorkers’ hopes for democracy and a city where community needs are at the center of the budget,” said CEC Chair and Executive Director Dr. Sarah Sayeed. “It gives residents a way to offer ideas for meaningful solutions to challenges they see in their communities. And perhaps more importantly, it funds those same ideas, reinforcing that the residents who are most impacted by challenges are the ones who have the power and the right to decide how to spend public dollars.” 

With The People’s Money, New Yorkers propose ideas, deliberate through Borough Assemblies, and ultimately vote on which resident-driven projects will be funded with public dollars. The ideas listed on ballots were decided over the course of 20 hours across four weeks by 107 randomly selected New Yorkers, representing all five boroughs; those project ideas themselves were imagined and proposed by nearly 10,000 everyday New Yorkers in previous Idea Generation Workshops during the fall of 2025.

“Thousands of New Yorkers came together this year to identify the needs of their communities and decide how City dollars should be spent to address them," said Tascha Van Auken, Commissioner for the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement. "No one knows this city better than the people who live here, and this year's participatory budgeting gave New Yorkers the opportunity not only to come together and build solutions, but to put those solutions into action. I’m excited to see these winning projects come to life in neighborhoods across New York City.”

“Strong communities are built when New Yorkers have a meaningful voice in the decisions that shape their lives and neighborhoods,” said Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) Commissioner Sandra Escamilla-Davies. “The People’s Money puts that principle into action by giving residents — including young people — a direct say in how public funds are invested to repair, build, and strengthen our neighborhoods, parks, schools, and community centers. DYCD is proud to support a process that turns community priorities into meaningful action.”

All 20 projects chosen by voters this year will each receive funding to implement them in the coming year. The winning projects reflect the challenges New Yorkers face and the services residents themselves feel are needed to foster a more equitable and liveable city. Unlike electoral processes, which exclude many New Yorkers—including young people and immigrants—The People’s Money welcomes these and other historically marginalized communities to participate directly in government decision-making. The People’s Money is direct democracy in action: residents make the decisions themselves about how taxpayer money gets spent.  Since 2023, the public has allocated over $16.6M in participatory budgeting through The People’s Money.

“The People’s Money gives New Yorkers a meaningful say in identifying the issues that matter most in their communities and investing in solutions that address them," said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin. “This year’s results make it clear that health and wellness are a top priority, with seven of the 20 winning projects focused on improving New Yorkers’ well-being. From preventive care to food security, these community-driven investments reflect the connection between health and the everyday needs of New Yorkers.”

“A city with equitable access to healthy food is a city where people can thrive. New Yorkers know the food needs of their communities — The People’s Money helps bring their solutions to life,” said the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy Executive Director Siddhartha Sanchez. "I’m excited to see that the process that gives New Yorkers more say over public spending will provide families more choice in how they nourish themselves."

"When the opportunity came to study the health equity impacts of participatory budgeting, we knew that the Civic Engagement Commission would be the perfect partner. Through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, our team at Mount Sinai is collaborating with the CEC to survey and interview participants and non-participants in the PB process to understand if participatory budgeting has the potential to address adverse social determinants of health and improve health outcomes of some of the city's most vulnerable residents. We are also working with a group of stakeholders across health, public health, social services, and government systems to identify ways to leverage existing data collected in past PB cycles to drive larger changes across these systems, thereby improving health. Seeing this year's winning projects, with their strong emphasis on health and well-being, only emphasizes the importance of this research and of listening to the voice of New Yorkers,” says Nita Vangeepuram MD, MPH, from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) was established by New Yorkers — over a million of whom voted to create it — as part of a City Charter amendment adopted in 2018, with a mission to enhance civic participation, promote civic trust, and strengthen democracy in New York City. The CEC oversees The People’s Money, provides voter language assistance at poll sites, and supports community boards across the five boroughs.

 For more information, visit nyc.gov/cec or follow @NYCCEC on social media.