Click here to listen to the recent KQED program on youth and Adventure Education.
At the Stewardship Council, we believe that outdoor experiences (whether in urban or wilderness areas) can positively transform young people personally, socially, and academically. Unfortunately, the most needy and underserved youth have little access to these life-changing experiences. By providing much-needed grant monies to existing community parks and youth development programs, as well as new programs in underserved communities, the Stewardship Council’s Youth Investment Program has been working to make a difference in the lives of young Californians. In doing so, we are helpingnurture the future stewards of our state and its precious natural resources.
The Stewardship Council is a private foundation whose mission includes providing resources to establish a permanent program for young people who currently don’t have much opportunity to connect with California’s natural beauty. The Stewardship Council is funded by a 2003 settlement agreement between Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California Public Utilities Commission. PG&E’s financial commitment is to provide $30 million for the Stewardship Council’s Youth Investment Program and $70 million for the Land Conservation Program, payable in 10 equal installments. PG&E will make its final payment of $10 million in January 2013.
Since 2006, the Stewardship Council has awarded more than $12 million in youth program grants. Our grants have gone to more than 180 youth-serving organizations and have helped fund a broad range of programs and infrastructure projects serving more than 260,000 youth in PG&E’s service area throughout California.
In February 2010, the Stewardship Council established the Foundation for Youth Investment (FYI) to continue the work of its Youth Investment Program beyond the life and funding of the Stewardship Council, which will dissolve once it has fulfilled its land conservation program mission. FYI’s mission as a nonprofit organization is to develop and transform underserved youth by investing in effective programs and creating strategic initiatives that connect kids to the great outdoors. FYI has launched a major development program to generate new funding sources to invest in the field of outdoor education.
In the meantime, the Stewardship Council is supporting FYI with in-kind contributions of staff and services, as well as monetary grants, and intends to make a substantial portion of its future grant support subject to FYI raising matching funds from major donors. The Stewardship Council is looking to the Foundation for Youth Investment to carry forward the work of the highly successful Youth Investment Program, including evaluating and making grants, conducting public outreach, engaging with leaders and innovators in the field, and spearheading efforts to attract more resources to this vital endeavor.
During 2011, FYI helped manage the Stewardship Council’s grantmaking program by guiding the grantmaking review and recommending grant awards. All final grant award decisions, however, were made by the Stewardship Council.
In September 2011, the Stewardship Council board awarded a $2.1 million grant to the Foundation for Youth Investment to fully administer the 2012 grantmaking program. Therefore, beginning January 1, 2012, FYI will be responsible for the solicitation, application, review, and approval of all 2012 grant awards, including the Catalyst, Impact, and Infrastructure Funds. Grant seekers will seek funding through FYI, and the application process will remain very similar to the Stewardship Council’s process. Outdoor Trips Fund and Strategic Initiatives Fund
FYI also manages two additional grant funds that were awarded by the Stewardship Council to FYI in December 2010. The Outdoor Trips Fund will provide small grants for transportation, substitute teacher time, and other essential costs so that students can connect with the outdoors.
The Strategic Initiatives Fund addresses many of the barriers that are preventing underserved youth from experiencing nature and the outdoors. Through this funding, FYI has convened a wide array of youth providers to design an Outdoor Educators Institute (OEI) that will generate a pool of certified, qualified, competent, and culturally relevant outdoor instructors. This is an exciting initiative that will transform the leadership of outdoor programs. In the near- to mid-term, the OEI initiative will help diversify the outdoor instructor corps, while in the long-term it will help create future generations of land stewards that reflect California’s diverse population.
Evaluation and assessment remains one of the major challenges in the outdoor youth development field. In the spring of 2010, the Stewardship Council brought together a group of its grantees to discuss what types of outcomes programs should be measuring and how best to collect and analyze data. The group shared their evaluation approaches, described how they collected participant information, identified short-term outcomes, and discussed their challenges with conducting quality evaluations. FYI is now working with providers to create a common intake form that can be utilized by outdoor youth providers to collect information about their participants. FYI will continue to work with program providers to help strengthen evaluation practices and tools for the field of outdoor education. For more information, visit the Foundation for Youth Investment website.
In addition to these activities, FYI has taken on other important work that the Stewardship Council initiated in its early years. One of the primary goals of our Youth Investment Program has been to help professionals in the field make connections and build up their networks of people, programs, and organizations that connect youth to the outdoors. Regional convenings are designed to help local providers get to know one another and to enhance the relevancy of their programs and organizations. FYI is now taking the lead to organize future convenings through its Cultural Relevancy Initiative.
The Stewardship Council will provide oversight of all grants it has previously awarded and will remain accountable to the California Public Utilities Commission for the proper expenditure of PG&E ratepayer funds.
Moving forward, the Stewardship Council remains committed to connecting Californians to the PG&E watershed lands through its Land Conservation Program. In addition to recommending new fee title holders and working to establish conservation easements on the PG&E watershed lands, the Stewardship Council board and staff will continue to explore ways to bring together its land and youth programs to increase access and use of these watershed lands.