Share your civic-minded ideas

Do you have an innovative idea for improving the quality of life in your neighborhood? Or maybe there is a problem on your street that has bugged you for years.

Your best ideas are wanted for participatory budgeting, which kicks off later this year. Northwest Bronx Councilman Andrew Cohen has promised to devote $1 million of the district’s budget to suggestions from the community.

Here’s how the process is scheduled to work.

• Mr. Cohen’s office will hold meetings to seek ideas from the community. Anyone at all can come. Dates and locations of the events are forthcoming.

• From about November to February, groups of delegates will work on crafting the ideas into shovel-ready proposals. The councilman is seeking about 40 to 60 people to be delegates, who will be divided into panels on areas like transportation and senior citizens’ issues.

People ages 14 and up can become delegates. You don’t have to live in the area, but should have some tie such as going to work or school here or having a family member who does.

If you are interested in becoming a delegate, you will be able to express your interest at the forthcoming meetings. You have to be dedicated, since the delegates are expected to meet about 12 times for discussions with each other and various city agencies.

• Once the delegates have turned community members’ ideas into specific proposals, they will be presented at a spring forum.

“It’s basically like a giant science fair from middle school,” Mr. Cohen’s Chief of Staff Daniel Johnson said of the forthcoming expo.

• In late March or early April, people ages 16 and older who live in the councilman’s district will be invited to vote on which proposals they want to receive funding.

• In late April or early May, the councilman will announce the winners. Mr. Johnson said he expects about five projects to receive money.

He added that projects that do not receive funds from the participatory budgeting process will still be eligible for funding from Mr. Cohen’s member item budget.

• The final projects will officially receive funding in the city budget, which usually comes out in June.

“This is a direct way for members of the community to have their voices heard,” Mr. Johnson said. “They know the needs of their community. They know the priorities of their community.”

Mr. Cohen is one of 22 council members throughout the city who are doing participatory budgeting in their districts for fiscal year 2016, according to news reports.

“I think it’s a way to show government can be more transparent,” Mr. Johnson said.