FirstRoot Rays of Light
Like the sun, our CEO & Founder, Luke Hohmann, shares near daily rays of light that strive to warm your soul and make our world a bit brighter. And while that introduction is admittedly a bit ‘over the top’, you’ll find that Luke’s updates are practical, thoughtful, and just what you need to grow
January 2022
I watched the awesome Netflix film 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible this weekend.
It tells the story of Nepali mountaineer Nirmal (Nimsdai) Purja, who embarks on a seemingly impossible quest to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in seven months.
He did it.
I love these kinds of stories. They inspire me to work hard to realize FirstRoot’s BHAG of getting at least $1K into 1M schools around the world by 2030 and watching what happens when our children have $1B+ in *real money* to make their schools better.
What our children do will be epic.
How we support them will be how we remember ourselves.
Watch the film: https://www.netflix.com/title/81464765
I prefer to celebrate the items on the left more than the items on the right:
- The release more than the PI Planning.
- The results of the Epic more than the funding of the Epic.
- The backlog items that are Done, Done more than the backlog items that are ready.
- The implementation of the proposals from a #participatorybudgeting program more than the voting results.
- Crossing the item off the TODO list more than adding an item to the TODO list.
- Finishing more than starting.
Of course, recognitions and mini-celebrations make the journey more enjoyable. I just prefer the celebrations at the end more than the start.
We’ve decided to make the @FirstRoot 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference a hybrid 24-hour event, starting Mar 25, 2022 at 5:00PM US Eastern. Stay tuned for more details.
We thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Paolo Spada.
We have big dreams for #participatorybudgeting. We want to see every school *in the world* use PB to promote #civic engagement, #financialliteracy, and #designthinking.
These kinds of dreams require us to understand how innovations like PB are adopted within social groups.
Paolo is a lecturer at the University of Southampton at the Centre for Democratic Futures. His research explores the diffusion and impact of participatory and deliberative processes aimed at deepening democracy in Public Administration, Parties and Organizations.
Paolo’s novel talk focused on the ‘Serendipity in Participatory Budgeting’ – the chance encounter with new ideas. His talk centered on the design aspects of PB that promote serendipity, including such time-tested techniques as the devil’s advocate. This is critically important as the social media machine is continually feeding us with ideas that are algorithmically designed to fit our preconceived desires.
We’ve tried to integrate Paolo’s wisdom as part of the discussion points in the design of our software. Paolo’s talk is rich and deep and highly recommended.
Watch Paolo’s presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x9lqj1mf-o
See all of the presentations at https://firstroot.co/conference/.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
Just shared a fantastic, high-energy conversation with Mark Burnett on bringing #participatorybudgeting into schools in Jamaica and the broader Caribbean island region. Will be fun to make this happen.
It is another testament to the power of the #agile community to build alliances and created shared benefits for children everywhere.
+Robert Lewin, Heather Madden, Jose Resto, Frank Santiago, Michael Vizdos, Christine Nieves, Chris Batchelor, Timothy (Tim) Faley
As we start to plan the FirstRoot 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Graeme Keir.
We can’t improve PB programs without critically assessing how well they work in the real world. And doing this, in turn, requires us to assess the role of technology platforms that should make PB easier.
Graeme Keir is an English teacher at Glenrothes High School in Fife, Scotland. He’s the principal teacher for closing the attainment gap within the school. He talked to us his research for the Educational Institute of Scotland on Participatory Budgeting.
He shared that the Scottish National budget has targeted 1% of the National Budget is targeted to Participatory Budgeting programs. This is supported by the thematic approach from PB. Alas, there is a challenge to his story: they chose a platform designed for cities instead of a platform designed for schools. His ‘lessons learned’ have helped us in improving the design of the FirstRoot platform.
Watch Graeme’s presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7MuT1777mQ
See all of the presentations at https://firstroot.co/conference/.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
The FirstRoot Inc approach to teaching #personalfinance and #civics is grounded in #projectbasedlearning (PBL). Instead of games, simulations, or drill-and-kill videos, we believe in putting real money into the hands of kids and supporting them as they decide how to manage it to improve their schools.
It is a decidedly novel approach to teaching real-world decision-making.
Some, though, question the power of PBL and whether or not PBL is an effective learning strategy for all students – even historically marginalized students.
This post from Youki Terada in Edutopia – George Lucas Educational Foundation on the power of #projectbasedlearning (PBL) provides clear evidence on the power of PBL.
From the article: “Researchers found that nearly half of students in project-based classrooms passed their AP tests, outperforming students in traditional classrooms by 8 percentage points. Students from low-income households saw similar gains compared to their wealthier peers, making a strong case that well-structured PBL can be a more equitable approach than teacher-centered ones. Importantly, the improvements in teaching efficacy were both significant and durable: When teachers in the study taught the same curriculum for a second year, PBL students outperformed students in traditional classrooms by 10 percentage points.”
We’re proud of our student-centric, PBL approach to teaching #personalfinance and #civics.
Read the full post here: https://www.edutopia.org/article/new-research-makes-powerful-case-pbl
Today I had the chance to review the results of the Hillsdale High School #participatorybudgeting program. They were so profound I actually teared up.
32 students in the Hillsdale ‘Empower through Action’ class were given $3,000.
At first, they were a bit surprised and delighted that they would be trusted to manage this money. With the wonderful support of teacher Rachel Lauderdale and Assistant Principal Brett Stevenson, the students ended up making fantastic choices.
These included:
- A garden
- A tree
- New sports equipment
- Environmentally friendly, custom water bottles for students
- A coffee cart to drive a coffee business – a means to learn how to manage a business and generate additional revenue for the Empower through Action program.
It was this last item that had me tearing up. Rachel did a wonderful job tailoring our curriculum to meet their needs, and the coffee cart idea was a fantastic opportunity to reinforce a number of important financial concepts.
Our first program at Hillsdale was so successful that we’re already planning our second program. Thank you to everyone – and most especially the students – who collaborated to make this program a success.
Learn more about Empowerment through Action here: https://www.etahhs.org/.
cc/ Scott Gilbert, Julie Badet, Kristyne Cardenas-Sanchez, Jeff Gilbert, Deshawn Mitchell, Eli Kertel
#financialliteracy side hustles are the new normal: We have experienced so much work/job/life trauma and our current political/religious institutions are so dysfunctional that have a ‘side hustle’ is rational because when you ‘cannot trust one thing’ you develop a ‘network of things you can trust’ – e.g., I can’t trust my job, so I create a side hustle.
You see this in every demographic. Boomers who have left a job they detest (the ‘great resignation’) are showing up at jobs they love. Except they are not a ‘job’ – they are a side hustle. Or two.
Millennials who experienced the 2008/2009 recession may be fine with a full-time job provided it lets them keep their side hustle.
GenZ are growing up with side hustles so deeply ingrained in their world that ‘having just one job’ seems… odd, at best, unless it is a part-time job (oh, I mean, a part-time hustle).
We need to adapt our #personalfinance education processes so that side hustles are integrated into the curriculum. I think there are many benefits to a side hustle. I also think there are many drawbacks. Which means that we need to teach our youth who are entering the workforce how to create and evaluate their employment options.
Err…. I mean, we need to teach our youth who are entering the workforce how to create and evaluate their side hustles.
This post is a special shout-out / thank you to the 2021 sponsors of the FirstRoot Inc School Fund:
MERIT SCHOLARS ($200 – $999)
Verne Harnish, Jesse Fewell, Brett Frazer, Ellen Enstrom, Steve Willson, Todd Girvin.
HONOR ROLL ($5 – $199)
Adam Stephenson, Brent Barton, Brian Hackerson, Jason Tanner, Konstantin Popov, MBA, PMP, Laura Caldie, Lisa Hammond, SPC 5®, PMP®, Mike Zabramski, Richard Knaster, Sean Barry, Traci Arieli, PMP, CSM, CSPO, LPM, Michael Cartsonis, Rahul Mukherjee, Rune Kølle Christensen, Kesavan Narayan, Rebecca Davis, Luke Hohmann
Will you join us?
It is with great pleasure that I share the first annual report of the FirstRoot Inc School Fund!
The FirstRoot School Fund promotes #participatorybudgeting by making targeted grants to schools to help them initiate Participatory Budgeting programs.
In 2020 we raised $10,000 via contributions from individuals and FirstRoot and an impressive $21,000 in sponsorships from individuals and corporations to sponsor Participatory Budgeting programs. Our report details the schools we are sponsoring and some of the amazing things they have accomplished.
As FirstRoot heads into our second full year of operations, we remain thankful for your help in promoting financial literacy and civic engagement through Participatory Budgeting in schools. While we know that our schools will face continued to challenges in 2022, we are confident that working together we will be able to overcome these challenges and create a brighter future.
You can find the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gx5D9H8a
Please contribute to our active fundraising campaigns so that we can continue to expand Participatory Budgeting in schools.
Would you like our help in bringing Participatory Budgeting to a school you care about?
PS. Please share this newsletter. Our civic and financial future needs it!
As we start to plan the FirstRoot Inc 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Nimrod Talmon
Nimrod Talmon is a researcher and lecturer in Ben-Gurion University and a consultant in Weizmann Institute of Science.
His talk further developed the important foundations of algorithmic design in Participatory Budgeting. Especially fascinating was the exploration of computational complexity and the impact of competing goals on algorithm selection.
Practically, his presentation helped us understand how proportionality in PB can serve to improve satisfaction of the results, which has profound implications to democratic processes beyond PB.
Watch Nimrod’s presentation here: https://lnkd.in/gWiNvaX4
See all of the presentations at https://lnkd.in/gcewM6Dk.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
As we start to plan the FirstRoot Inc 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Christina Liu Puentes.
A central goal of Participatory Budgeting in schools is promoting civic engagement and creating a project-based learning, positive experience of civic engagement. Doing this well means doing the research on how we learn about civic engagement so that we can design better ways to teach it.
Christina, an MPA candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, gave a powerful and compelling presentation on civic education. A proud daughter of immigrants and a former public school teacher, she infused the academic rigor of her research with the passion that drives progress. While her academic focus is in public education policy, her advocacy lies in enhancing democratic participation and representation in the US.
Watch Christina’s presentation here: https://lnkd.in/gRKzF6jF
See all of the presentations at https://lnkd.in/gcewM6Dk.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
Over the Holiday break I allowed myself to add a few items to the FirstRoot Inc #dreamlog (kinda like a backlog, but way cooler). I added:
- automatic voter registration for students who participate in the PB cycle
- student alumni became automatic proposal coaches
- direct funding of proposals
- could we get Jamie Lee Curtis or Keenau Reeves to sponsor a school?
- every FirstRoot #participatorybudgeting cycles starts with $10K
- could we create a Roth IRA for public infrastructure?
- how do we help students better understand how context influences financial decision-making
Of course, every item in the dreamlog is just a raw hypothesis waiting to be tested (or just a crazy idea that we should ignore ;-).
What’s in your #dreamlog?
Strong schools and successful youth are supported by caring communities. To directly promote community engagement, FirstRoot Inc has recently extended our #participatorybudgeting
platform to enable proposal coaches to help students develop their ideas.
Proposal coaches can be parents, former students, service organization members such as Rotarians, or even retired teachers who wish to remain active in their school community.
Our role-based rights model made it relatively easy to add support for proposal coaches. A proposal coach cannot create proposals or participate in the voting process – we leave that to the students. Proposal coaches can comment on proposals and help implement the proposals selected by the students.
We are thrilled that we’re able to continue to extend our platform in a way that strengthens schools and school communities.
Drop me a line if you want to get involved.
As we start to plan the FirstRoot Inc 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Haris Aziz.
One of the main goals of #participatorybudgeting is creating ‘fairness’. But what does this really mean? And how do we ensure fairness when we’re designing the algorithms that drive the voting? This is not easy, as it involves computer science, math, social science, and the determination of the responsibilities of humans and computers in human-computation systems.
Haris’s presentation provided an incredible foundation for how we might be able to consider these ideas. These ideas are central to PB – and many other aspects of community engagement.
I’m a geek, so I especially loved the algorithms shared by Haris (see slide 20 of his deck!). You’re going to love his talk if you’re into the geeky side of PB (and if you’re not, you should be, because the geeky stuff has a massive impact on what actually determines fairness in a PB program).
Watch Haris’s presentation here: https://lnkd.in/gdW4Dj3n
See all of the presentations at https://lnkd.in/gcewM6Dk.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
One of the cool things about using #SAFe is that when you’ve got a reliable CI/CD pipeline you really can release and rapidly improve new features on demand!
FirstRoot Inc has recently added the ability for students and proposal coaches to comment on #participatorybudgeting proposals. Almost immediately, we started improving this capability, with nested comments, deletion and visibility controls. It is really cool to see a new feature delivered – and then improved upon – right away!!!
This leads to a reflection on the impact of continuous releases on your customers.
When you’re releasing a significant new Feature, you’ll need to ensure that you’ve prepared the proper launch materials. This includes helping users frame the new capability in their existing mental models. Of course, this is vastly easier when you’re leveraging previously formed mental models – in this case, commenting was trivial for students and teachers to understand because they use commenting in other applications.
Once that Feature is released, continually improving it in ways that enhance the experience *and are aligned with the mental model of the users* is really easy – user just experience your solution as ‘gee, it is better every time I use it’.
Which is what’s happening at FirstRoot Inc – we’re getting better every release… ;-).
I’m pleased to announce that FirstRoot Inc has released our #civic curriculum!
Like our #financialliteracy curriculum, our civics curriculum is integrated directly into the 5DPB process. Here is an overview the lessons. I’m proud that we have included lessons on the design of voting algorithms, how transparency fights corruption, why it is important to ratify and honor voting results, and how to make choices that promote #equity.
Discover:
- Introduction to Participatory Budgeting
- Structure: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches
- Structure: Federal, State, City Govt.
Dream:
- Money: How is the Government Funded?
- School Structure: District, Charter, Private
- Money: How are Schools Funded?
- Who determines how money is spent?
- Laws and the Distribution of Funds
Design:
- Civic Rights and Responsibilities
- Civics: Dispositions for Civic Engagement
- Media Literacy
- Voting: Who participates in voting processes
Decide:
- Voting Algorithms I
- Voting Algorithms II
Do:
- Corruption in Politics
- Grants and Philanthropy in Civil Society
- Measuring Impact: Outputs and Outcomes
- Reflection: Is Participatory Budgeting a Good Thing?
You can access our curriculum at https://lnkd.in/gGV_vdzj.
As we start to plan the FirstRoot Inc 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Christopher Selth.
My friend Alex Bould introduced me to Chris a few years ago. Rarely have I felt such a strong connection and found such a kindred spirit in a first meeting. A social entrepreneur and co-founder of Beckon Capital, I find myself inspired by Chris’s commitment to creating economically sustainable enterprises and projects that have direct benefit on people and communities.
Chris’s presentation provided us with a deep analysis of the causes and impacts of economic and income inequality. His dissection of the impact of low interest rates is quite profound.
For my #agile / #SAFe friends, Chris’s presentation on how to allocate capital in ways that promote local businesses and local communities (e.g., financial decentralization) is remarkable. If you’re like me, and you like smashing monoliths with sledgehammers, you’ll love Chris’s talk.
Watch Chris’s presentation here: https://lnkd.in/g6JucN7X
See all of the presentations at https://lnkd.in/gcewM6Dk.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!
As we start to plan the FirstRoot Inc 2022 #participatorybudgeting #conference, we thought it would be fun to review some of the amazing presentations from our 2021 conference.
Today’s featured presenter is Leah Scott.
At the time of her presentation, Leah was a dual enrolled senior at Roosevelt High School and North Seattle College, and served as the college’s student body president. A reformist and active community member with a passion for helping youth succeed, she is majoring in economics and political science and hopes to transfer to the University of Washington.
Leah’s presentation was an amazing overview of the transformative power of Participatory Budgeting from the perspective of the students who are leading the programs.
Watch Leah’s presentation here: https://lnkd.in/gvEJeK_G
See all of the presentations at https://lnkd.in/gcewM6Dk.
Do you want to be a speaker at our 2022 conference? Drop me a line!