Community Choices is a participatory budgeting programme which means that the public have a vote on the project that they would like to be funded in their community.
Each Ward has a share of public funds to invest in community projects and the amount of funds available in each Ward corresponds to the child poverty rates for that Ward.
Eligible projects go onto the public vote - to let the community choose their favourites.
Voting
Online voting is used for voting to select the preferred projects in each Ward. You can register at the Council's new community engagement platform, Participate+.
In addition, paper ballots are available for each Ward in all local libraries.
Who can vote?
Voting is open to anyone aged 16 years or above, living in the Falkirk Council area.
Residents are asked to select the top 3 projects they would like to see funded within the Ward they live.
Under Place-Based Capital Grants residents could use their votes for the 'Falkirk Wide' category projects that benefit more than one Ward.
Other than the Falkirk Wide category, voters cannot vote for projects in Wards they do not live in.
Voters are under no obligation to use all of their votes. Voters can vote just once, just twice or all 3 times for Small and Place Based Capital Grants. How you vote is entirely up to you.
Falkirk-wide projects
Under Place-Based Capital Projects, ideas that benefit the wider Falkirk area (or more than one Ward) can apply to be included in the Falkirk Wide category. This is not available for the small grants programme.
Weighted voting
Where there are smaller concentrations of households in a Ward, votes will be weighted to ensure a small settlement's project ideas have as fair a chance as areas with more residents.
10% eligibility rule
To secure funding, each project must attain at least 10% of the total eligible votes cast in that Ward.
The projects with the most votes will be awarded the funding requested until that Ward's budget is drawn down. Any unused funding in a Ward will be carried forward into the next programme round for that Ward or category.
Postcode voter verification
At the end of the voting process, internal checks are made to verify that duplicate emails and non-valid postcodes are removed.