Editor’s note: King County Local Services is checking in with some of the winners of the first Participatory Budgeting vote to see how the funding – which the county’s new process made possible by giving voters an opportunity to choose how funds are spent in their neighborhoods – has helped.

  • Grant winner: Art in the Park
  • Amount: $15,000
  • Project: Funding for free pop-up arts and crafts workshops for youths and all ages in Skyway. Program will focus on culturally responsive art and craft projects that target historically underrepresented youths.
  • Reason funds are important: “It just made me feel like I am on the right path as far as making sure the community has access to art materials and art experiences,” said Claudia Villalobos, owner and instructor at Seattle Paint Party, which organizes the Art in the Park events. “I started this business as a way to spread art as an emotional outlet and to make sure that underserved communities are still accessing the arts. This just gave me more confidence to continue to do something similar every year to make this experience bigger for the community … This event today was a collaboration between me and Double Dutch Divas (another Participatory Budgeting winner) to make sure we reach and serve communities that traditionally have been underserved. That’s why we do it.”
  • Participatory Budgeting made it possible. Reaction?: “I just want to say I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to just give these types of experiences to this community. I look forward to doing this more and engaging every member of the community, somehow, some way. Whether it’s through a mural that I make for the community, or it’s art workshops or more ‘Art in the Parks,’ or even the creative totes that they’re going to bring home. I just want everyone to experience art.”
  • Anything else?: “Thank you, again, because this is phenomenal.”