Citizens' idea sparks project for Leisure Centre for Adults with Autism in Budapest

The city will provide 600,000 euros for the project, inspired by a submission in the participatory budget

Last week, the City of Budapest released a new open call for projects in the participatory budget, while also announcing a public tender for one of the most exciting ideas from last year. The city is looking for someone to execute the project to create a Leisure and Cultural Centre for Adults with autism.

A participatory budget is a municipal programme where residents can contribute and vote for ideas on how to use a portion of the local budget. Budapest provides a pot of one billion Hungarian forints (around 2.5 million euros) for that annual initiative.

The Leisure and Cultural Centre

The idea garnered a lot of polar support, winning the ‘All Budapest’ category in the vote. Local authorities, in their own right, have decided to grant the project 250 million Hungarian forints (about 600,000 euros).

The goal of the project is to create a sort of a community space that can provide a lot of services currently lacking in the city. Additionally, according to an official statement, local authorities hope to also create a space for social services that can fill a gap and provide lifelong support.

Only non-profit organisations and institutions whose basic documents include helping and supporting people with autism can participate in the tender. Furthermore, the city will only give the grant for creating a new cultural and leisure centre, it cannot be used to finance existing services.

The next round of the participatory budget

According to an official statement by the city, the participatory budget is becoming more popular with every passing year. This year, people can contribute ideas until December 31 and voting will start in 2023.

Officials also say that when thinking about submitting ideas, citizens should think about adding something new to the city, not fixing something that does not work properly. Additionally, they can offer their ideas in three categories: Green Budapest (Zöld Budapest), Opportunity Creator Budapest (Esélyteremtő Budapest) and Open Budapest (Nyitott Budapest).

Opportunity Creator Budapest focuses on ideas for improving social inequalities and supporting disadvantaged communities, while Open Budapest focuses on developing digital solutions, community ideas and experimental solutions.