Click here to listen to the recent KQED program on youth and Adventure Education.
Finding Urban Nature (FUN) GuideGolden Gate National Parks Conservancy was awarded $75,000 for the Finding Urban Nature (FUN) Guide: Train the Trainers curriculum guide to help counteract the physical, economic and cultural barriers many urban youth experience. Through partnerships with local organizations, the guide aims to encourage middle and high school students to engage in outdoor recreation while learning about San Francisco's seven unique urban watersheds and neighborhood nature areas.
Break Down Cultural Barriers Yosemite National Park was awarded $56,500 for their Break Down Cultural Barriers initiative. By aligning program curriculum with the needs and concerns of the Central Valley youth, this initiative aims to address cultural and socio-economic concerns that prevent youth of diverse backgrounds from connecting to the great outdoors. Set in Yosemite National Park, this initiative aims to harness the community's skills, talents, ideas, and assets to engage in meaningful dialogue about the environment, and build relationships so that culturally relevant collaboration can inform program development.
City of East Palo Alto was awarded $200,000 for their Cooley Landing Park Project Cooley Landing, East Palo Alto's first naturalistic bay front park, where local partners can offer a wide range of youth and environmental programming that includes nature and history education; music, poetry, and arts; and job training. This project significantly increases park space in East Palo Alto from 16 to 25 acres and provides a unique outdoor environment compared to existing local area parks.
City of Fort Bragg was awarded $155,000 for their Fort Bragg Community Skate Park in the City of Fort Bragg, in partnership with Mendocino Coast Recreation & Park District (MCRPD). The Community Skate Park will provide a much needed safe and appropriate alternative for youth of Fort Bragg to get outside and support physical fitness.
City of Santa Rosa was awarded $190,000 for their Bayer Neighborhood Park and Gardens Nature Play Area and Trails to create a nature-based, play area with an access trail to become a part of a safe route to school. In partnership with local community programming, the creation of a path and play area will provide an accessible and safe place for children to play and connect with their environment.
Feather River Land Trust was awarded $90,000 for their Learning Landscapes project, a regional collaboration in the Upper Feather River Watershed that uses local schools as the site and gathering place for youth to access and learn about the natural areas near their classrooms to promote engagement and stewardship. This project will enhance the infrastructure of nine Learning Landscape outdoor classrooms in four regional communities.
Pogo Park was awarded $200,000 for their involvement of the community residents to rebuild Elm Playlot located in the heart of the Iron Triangle neighborhood in the Richmond community, which is home to over 5,000 children and young people. The Elm Playlot aims to serve as a safe, and engaging outdoor "commons," to draw local residents out of their homes to strengthen community ties and connections to the outdoors.
The Trust for Public Land was awarded $200,000 for their Boedekker Park and Clubhouse in the Tenderloin, San Francisco's most dense and diverse neighborhood that is currently without a safe outdoor space for children to play. The Trust for Public Land, in partnership with the City of San Francisco, will rebuild the playground and clubhouse according to an extensive community-driven design plan, making it a more accessible and welcoming place for children and youth to be outdoors.
$30,000 to provide challenging wilderness retreats in Yosemite National Park, in-school academic support, and community-wide civic engagement for English Language Learners and their families. ARC builds achievement, connection, and potential for the underserved rural youth of Dos Palos in Merced County. The program links wilderness to academics, adventure to leadership, environmental science to literacy and confidence to activism.
Aim High for High School$25,000 to support the Headlands Environmental Home program, which provides urban youth with a deep understanding of environmental stewardship and responsibility through experiencing the interconnectedness of native species and the impact of human activities in the Marin Headlands.
SAFIRE Rising: Linking Environmental Stewardship$22,000 toward the SAFIRE program, which combines outdoor experiences, ecological awareness, and practices relevant to the ancestral cultures of participants to ignite environmental stewardship and activism of young Asian women from low-income immigrant and refugee families in the Bay Area.
Front country Leadership Training Program (FLT)was awarded $35,000 to support new opportunities for at-risk and underprivileged youth to experience the transformative power of wilderness first hand. Through BAWT’s Front country Leadership Training Program (FLT), youth providers and teachers receive wilderness skills training, access a free outdoor equipment library and program support. These leaders in turn engage the youth they work with in powerful outdoor educational experiences through day hikes and overnight camping excursions.
Stewardship with Outdoor Adventures and Responsibility program$25,000 to support the Youth SOAR (Stewardship with Outdoor Adventures and Responsibility) program. Youth leaders will develop life skills and confidence, lead after-school programs for younger children, and guide stewardship projects in urban and wilderness sites. The project will empower youth, enhancing their strengths in goal-setting, appreciation for the nearby river and national parks, and commitment to community service.
Generation Green Youth Stewardship Programwas awarded $35,000 towards the Generation Green Youth Stewardship Program. This program selects diverse youth from urban and rural areas to complete a summer internship program to improve public lands, learn about natural resource careers, and gain valuable work experience in the forestry field.
was awarded $30,000 towards the Youth Advocates Forging Unity on the Environment, Recreation, and Accountability (Youth AFUERA) program to engage young people of color in Southern Kern County in opportunities to participate in a series of outdoor recreation experiences designed to teach environmental awareness and develop leadership skills.
was awarded $30,000 for their "I am HECKA Strong" project to support the development and expansion of EOBA’s on-site garden and outdoor program. By integrating outdoor experiential learning, arts, academics, healthy lifestyle education, employment and community awareness, East Oakland youth develop a vision of the long-term connections between themselves, their families and community, and the natural world around them.
Youth LEAD Program$30,000 toward the Youth LEAD Program, which provides intensive outdoor leadership opportunities for economically disadvantaged and disabled youth. Participants will engage in summer outdoor leadership courses that follow a watershed from the sea to the mountains. Youth experience sea kayaking, whitewater rafting, backpacking, an organic farm stay, and the opportunity to participate in an eight-month Fellowship Program to further develop their leadership, outdoor, and job-readiness skills.
Earthseed Outdoor Environmental Educational Programwas awarded $20,000 towards the Earthseed Outdoor Environmental Education program that promotes leadership and commitment to environmental stewardship among San Francisco's underserved youth through outdoor environmental education experiences. Participating youth will also be supported in bringing their learning from outdoor day and overnight trips back to their families and communities.
Chae-Mal Wilderness Programwas awarded $30,000 towards the Chae-Mal Wilderness program to provide outdoor educational activities, including kayaking, white water rafting, hiking, teepee building, camping, snowshoeing and skiing, to urban Native American youth and underserved youth who reside in Oakland and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area. The program shall use these activities to demonstrate and practice tribal roles to ultimately revive and nurture youth's cultural connection with the land and encourage a holistic development into adulthood.
Get in the Water program$45,000 to support the “Get in the Water!” program, which will connect 100 disadvantaged youth to the outdoors through year-round environmental classes, 12 overnight trips, and student-led park beautification projects including explorations of California coasts and watersheds. Participants will also undertake a unique eight-week community service program that teaches job skills and environmental justice principles.
Youth Corps program$30,000 to support the Youth Corps program, which provides youth with a direct understanding of the connection between their personal health, healthy food, and the environment. Utilizing Soil Born Farms' property along the American River, the program provides hands-on experiences that focus on environmental stewardship, organic farming, habitat restoration, exploration of the natural environment, outdoor trips, healthy cooking, and community service projects.
Youth in Yosemitewas awarded $25,000 for the Youth in Yosemite program, where 40 youth will engage in an 8-week immersion and internship experience in Yosemite. Students shall work closely with park managers on projects that offer unique opportunities to learn more about natural and cultural sciences, geology, habitat restoration and trail engineering.
Stanislaus County Youth Ambassador Programwas awarded $20,000 for its Stanislaus County Youth Ambassador Program to engage 80 youth in exploring outdoor opportunities in their own county, from hiking and camping to canoeing, fishing and geocaching. Through different lessons, day trips, and overnights, youth will be immersed in the natural, cultural, and historic richness of their county, instilling community pride and the capacity to take advantage of local resources to make the outdoors a more integral part of their lives.
was awarded $30,000 towards Pajaro Valley High School Project-based Outdoor Learning program that empowers Watsonville teens to collect and analyze environmental data as a way to develop a personal connection to the unique wetlands in their community. Working side by side with scientists, docents, and peer mentors, teens explore the great outdoors, develop their own wetland projects, and learn about green careers. They also become empowered to assume leadership roles to mentor other youth in outdoor wetland activities.
was awarded $20,000 towards WildLink program to serve underserved youth through a series of wilderness and community-based outdoor programs offered at no charge. Using a robust partnership network, WildLink educates, inspires, and empowers youth to become long-term environmental stewards with strong connections to the natural world in both the wilderness and their local communities.
Camp to Community program$20,000 toward the Camp to Community program, which utilizes positive youth development practices to empower teens towards developing leadership skills to help their community. YES addresses community conflict, resource disparity in accessing positive youth development activities, and the need for community connection in Richmond. Supported by YES staff, Camp to Community youth will lead overnight Summer Camps, Family Camps and Day Outings.
Band of Environmentally Educated and Employed Teens-formerly the BEET Rangers$10,000 to support the BEETS (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employed Teens-formerly the BEET Rangers) program that inspires and educates teens to be environmentally engaged and to develop practical and personal skills to become environmental leaders and future green collar workers.
$10,000 to support Get Out and Learn’s (GO&L) cornerstone ten-day wilderness expedition. GOAL is a year-round self-contained classroom, providing consistent teacher involvement coupled with greater student accountability, both academically and personally.
Escuela Popular Outdoor Natural High Program$8,000 to support Escuela Popular's Natural High educational program to affect a large number of different types of youth, to develop an awareness of the importance of our natural world by using the outdoors as a laboratory for academic and career studies, improve physical and mental health, reduce substance abuse, increase self confidence, promote wilderness programs as a viable alternative to youth, introduce the concept of a natural high, and introduce outdoor activities that may become a lifetime interest.
The Growing Up Wild Rites of Passage Program for Teen Boys$9,000 to support hands-on outdoor educational experiences in the wilderness to two small groups of underserved Hispanic teenage boys, to promote lasting positive youth development in areas of personal growth, social skills, and environmental stewardship.
$10,000 to support Rural-Urban Youth Environmental Leadership (RUYEL), in which underserved youth from the Bay Area and Nevada County work together to learn about watershed, food/farming, and socio-environmental issues through wilderness excursions, indigenous youth Initiatives, land & crafts workshops, and conferences. Urban and rural youth spend time in each other's home communities, to exchange experiences and strategies for environmental and social change.
$9,000 to enrich lives, develop physical, mental and social capabilities of youth by connecting them to the outdoors, encouraging physical exercise, healthy eating and prevent childhood obesity in Sacramento area.
Phat Beets Produce $10,000 to support the Healthy Hearts Market Garden (HHMG) which will educate teens affected by diet-related diseases about environmental stewardship, nutrition education, and healthy lifestyles choices through the use of organic gardening and green space creation. The HHMG program will engage over 150 teens in garden-based workshops and provide weekly trainings in garden creation, land stewardship, and nutrition education for teen stewards and peer educators from the Healthy Hearts Clinic.
One Cool Earth$8,000 to establish a student-operated California native plant nursery at Liberty High School that will connect with campus restoration efforts, provide green jobs training, and offer a gateway of experience and knowledge through which youth can better understand the natural environment and enter into environmentally-related professions.
Pogo ParkPogo Park a program of Play and Learning in Adaptable Environments was awarded $12,000 to support a grassroots, community-based organization to create a sustainable and replicable model that impacts how parks and playgrounds are designed, built, and operated in inner-city neighborhoods.
Native Alliance of the Sierra Nevada Foothills $12,000 to support the Sierra Native Alliance (SNA) Youth Conservation Internship program that engages low-income youth in Placer and Nevada counties to restore an abandoned environmental education center on a historic Nisenan Maidu site in Auburn. Youth will learn environmental preservation skills from an indigenous perspective, and take the lead in developing a peer environmental education curriculum for ongoing use at the SNA Cultural Education Center.
$10,000 to support the Finding the Good traveling semester (16 weeks) for high school students to practice and promote sustainability in the areas of shelter, transportation, energy, food, culture, and environmental conservation. While traveling throughout California, students study and document working models of sustainability. Following their semester students become the educators, bringing their knowledge back to their schools and communities by giving peer-to-peer presentations and leading sustainability initiatives.
$10,000 to help VOMTC, in collaboration with the Sonoma Ecology Center, combat the 'nature deficit disorder' by providing youth with opportunities for learning and growth through the exploration of their local environment. "Outdoors to Excellence" will include four field experiences in Sonoma County, one overnight trip to the coast, a kayaking trip, and 12 mountain bike trips with up to 15 teens on each trip.
$12,000 to support a field-based study program that teaches core environmental education concepts while integrating WALC's rigorous academic curriculum. This curriculum is composed of seven camping trips, four hiking trips, and weekly habitat restoration for the Balboa High School chapter and four camping trips, 24 hiking trips, and a weekly habitat restoration for the downtown High School chapter.
$10,000 to support WildPlaces which teams underserved youth with talented outdoor educators, activists, biologists, teachers, U.S. Forest Service personnel, archeologists, peer counselors, and artists for trips in the Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. Youth from Lamont, Bakersfield, and Sacramento will experience hands-on habitat restoration, camping, backpacking, rock-climbing, site protection, restoration, community building, environmental stewardship and activism.