OmaStadi makes Helsinki better – do you know what participatory budgeting is?

Through OmaStadi, the City of Helsinki has already spent 32 million euros on implementing residents' ideas. The fourth round of OmaStadi is currently under way. Right now, the co-creation phase is on the go, where residents and city employees work together to plan how the OmaStadi projects will be implemented. OmaStadi is Helsinki's participatory budgeting process.

The City of Helsinki’s participatory budgeting initiative known as OmaStadi allows residents of the city to decide on how to use a part of the city’s budget. The funds are used to implement improvements proposed by residents. The funding allocated by the city for the proposals in the ongoing fourth round is 10 million euros, up from 8.8 million euros in the previous two rounds.

Last autumn, Helsinki residents came up with a record number of ideas for OmaStadi. Residents voted for their favourite proposals from 11 to 29 March 2026, and based on the voting results, 54 proposals moved forward to implementation. Now residents can have their say on how these projects are carried out by commenting on them on the OmaStadi website from 20 April to 1 June 2026 as well as attending the OmaStadi development workshop at the Helsinki Central Library Oodi on 27 May 2026 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Read the full article (hel.fi/en).

Photo: Kimmo Brandt