What's OmaStadi?
There are 59 neighbourhoods and 34 districts in Helsinki. The city creates a budget for development goals for the city’s functions, and an account of how the operations and investments will be financed. The job of the mayor is to prepare a yearly budget followed by the economic plan for the three coming years. Then, the city council will discuss in October and November and approve the proposal in the last meeting. If there will be any changes in the approved budget in the year, only the city council can alter the contents.
However, it is not enough for the Mayor's office only to propose what kind of development the City of Helsinki needs to implement. It is necessary to understand the residents' way of thinking as their city grows and develops itself. To get more and different ideas, the city brings to all residents the possibility to participate and propose what they think is better for the society.
OmaStadi (omastadi.hel.fiOmaStadi (omastadi.hel.fi) is the website that the city uses to conduct participatory budgeting and execute the ideas that come from people. The city allocated 8.8 million euros for this operation. The ideas are proposed by residents, preselected, then turned by the city’s employees into a workable proposal together with the residents. After that, the shortlisted proposals will be voted on by the residents, and the city implements those who got the most votes.
Vote by October 28th at 20:00!
At the age of 12 and older you can share your ideas, develop them, and vote through OmaStadi to make your city better. Act now, voting ends on October 28th at 20:00! You can vote in Omasatadi by choosing your district’s own proposals or those for the entire Helsinki. Remember that after making your decision you can’t change it again, so think before you do it!
The participants need to use banking authentication methods to vote. If you are younger and don’t have banking authentication, you can use your own Wilma identification.
OmaStadi has a help center, and you can find video links that show you how to vote and what to do in case you have some issues with voting.
Voting closes on October 28th at 20:00. Act fast! You can find more information about how to vote at the links below:
- Instructions with pictures on how to vote: https://omastadi.hel.fi/pages/kuvalliset-ohjeet-aanestykseen?locale=en
- Click here to vote: https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/185/vote
Support Helsinki’s diversity through OmaStadi
The proposals chosen in the previous round of OmaStadi did not reflect or focus very much on the diversity of Helsinki. One reason was that foreign-language speakers were less active than others in voting. However, this autumn’s proposals contains several initiatives that would promote the equality and participation of foreign-language speakers in Helsinki. If you haven’t made your choice yet, consider giving your vote to the following proposals. Please note that some of the proposals’ descriptions are only in Finnish:
- Saavutettava SOTE monikielisessä kaupungissaA proposal by African Care ry and the Jade center to have a multilingual system to reserve times with the health and social services and to improve access to interpretation with phone and remote interpretation apps.
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/790 - Selkokielisiä uutisvideoita Helsingin kaupungin ajankohtaisista asioista: Having news videos in Simple Finnish about what is going on in the city, just like Yle’s Selkouutiset
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/1060 - Increase English language skills and employability of foreigners: Finnish language courses targeted to foreign-language jobseekers.
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/969 - Online resources for diversity in companies: Creating a website with resources for businesses to better manage diversity and include foreign-background employees.
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/976 - Multicultural Helsinki (more multicultural activities): Expanding the courses and activities in English and other languages in the Helsinki Adult Education Centre..
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/1004 - Enhancing the opportunities to study native languages at schools: Organizing club meetings for children to ensure they can learn their mother tongue.
https://omastadi.hel.fi/processes/osbu-2020/f/184/plans/1039
It is very important to vote, because participatory budgeting is a democratic process that involves every resident in how the local government spends the city’s budget, which we all contribute to. You get to decide where part of the public budget goes!
This blog was written by Moniheli intern Ahlam Adan together with Yuri Kitaba, Julie Breton, and Anni Huovinen.
