Click here to listen to the recent KQED program on youth and Adventure Education.
New Leaf: A Sustainable Living Collaborative
New Leaf was awarded $25,000 for its Outdoor Experiences project. New Leaf activities are created through the support of a collaborative network of volunteers, non-profits, and businesses. The program provides learning opportunities for students in wildlife ecology, conservation, and leadership development.
ARISE High School (Oakland) was awarded $20,000 to connect underserved Oakland youth to outdoor opportunities. ARISE’s Beyond the Classroom program aspires to engage kids with the environment while providing development opportunities and outdoor adventures. The program builds the skills and confidence youth need for high school graduation and college success.
Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program
Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP) (Bay Area) was awarded $20,000 for its Outdoor Adventures Program. By taking youth with physical disabilities off the paved roads and into nature, this program increases their self-confidence, self-perception, and independence. The Outdoor Adventures Program exposes these youth to a broad range of outdoor activities, shows them how to overcome obstacles, and encourages them to see obstacles as opportunities.
Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT) (Bay Area) was awarded $30,000 for its Frontcountry Leadership Training program. The program provides teachers and youth workers with wilderness skills training; free outdoor equipment libraries; and financial, logistical, and consultative support. This program gives local teachers the skills and equipment they need to provide successful outdoor experiences to their students.
Boys & Girls Club of Fresno County
Boys and Girls Club of Fresno (Fresno) was awarded $20,000 for its Adventures Connecting Career Education and Sparking Stewardship (A.C.C.E.S.S.) for Youth Project The program aims to inspire 40 at-risk youth to seek career opportunities in the outdoor and recreation industries. While engaged in adventure-based learning, youth will develop positive life skills that will help them break the cycle of poverty and risky behaviors.
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (San Francisco) was awarded $25,000 for its Stewarding Diverse Environmental Leadership Program. Through this program, high school youth will help organize a summit to help explore how more youth of color and underserved youth can participate in outdoor activities and programs. In addition, the youth will help with restoration efforts and become interns with other local programs.
Native American Health Center (Oakland) was awarded $30,000 for their Chae-Mal Wilderness Program. The program will provide outdoor educational and recreational activities including kayaking, white water rafting, hiking, camping, and mountain biking to urban Native American and other underserved Bay Area youth. These activities will help revive and nurture the youths’ cultural connections with the land and environment, while supporting their holistic development into adulthood
Project AVARY (Bay Area) was awarded $20,000 for their Outdoor Leaders Training Project (OLTP), a part of Avary’s Youth Leadership Program. Project AVARY focuses on children of incarcerated parents and builds a pool of young outdoor leaders by providing a variety of graduated training opportunities and experiences. The project culminates by connecting trained youth graduates with real employment experiences, both within the program and with partner organizations.
SAFIRE Rising, A Program of ACRJ
SAFIRE Rising, A Program of ACRJ (Oakland) was awarded $20,000. This program teaches practical environmental stewardship among young Asian women from low-income, immigrant and refugee families in urban Oakland. Through a series of retreats at a teaching farm/ecology center and hands-on outdoor experiences, these young women learn culturally relevant ecological practices applicable to their daily lives.
Urban Promise Academy (Oakland) was awarded $20,000 for its Wilderness Independence and Leadership Development program (WILD). This program will provide 300 middle school students with multiple overnight and daylong wilderness excursions and opportunities for local environmental conservation. Through outdoor experiences, students will develop personal connections with nature and build the social, emotional, and life skills needed to achieve academically now and in high school.
Wildlink a program of NatureBridge
WildLink, a program of NatureBridge (San Joaquin Valley) was awarded $20,000 for the WildLink program. This program transforms under-served youth through a series of no-cost wilderness and community-based outdoor programs. Using a robust partnership network, the program educates, inspires, and empowers youth to become long-term environmental stewards with strong connections to the natural world, both in the wilderness and within their home communities.
Youth for Change, Inc. (Oroville) was awarded $25,000 to implement a new wilderness program for youth referred from Butte County Child Welfare Services and the Southside Oroville African American Family and Cultural Center. The intense, nine-month program of learning and wilderness activities will provide culturally diverse youth, with little or no outdoor experience, the opportunity to learn about self, others, and the environment.
Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco
The Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco (BGCSF) (San Francisco) was awarded $25,000 to help youth develop healthy lifestyles that include experiencing nature. BGCSF owns and operates Camp Mendocino, a place for urban youth to explore the wonders of the natural world in a coastal redwood forest. The camp is also the site of the Leaders in Training (LIT) program, which gives low income teens opportunities to develop mentoring and leadership skills.
California Community Partners for Youth
California Community Partners for Youth (CCPY) (San Jose) was awarded $20,000 for its Step-Up/Ahead Outdoor Education, which takes inner-city youths out of their neighborhoods and into nature. Once outdoors, participants develop and deepen their trust and teamwork, foundations for the in-school/in-city components. The program engages teens through peer-led nature hikes, winter camp, and monthly enrichment outings.
California State Parks Foundation
California State Parks Foundation (Multiple Cities) was awarded $30,000 for its Outdoor Youth Connection (OYC) program. The program helps nonprofit partners connect California’s most disadvantaged youth with nature by making resources, access, and information easily accesible. OYC empowers youth to use what they learn outdoors as tools to address issues within their daily lives and communities.
Girls Incorporated of Alameda County
Girls Incorporated of Alameda County (San Leandro/Oakland) was awarded $20,000 for its Eureka! Teen Achievement Program, designed to inspire girls from under-served communities and under-performing schools to pursue education and careers in the sciences. Through Eureka! Environmental Adventures, girls explore the environment, take positive risks, learn new skills, and develop their self-confidence through hands-on, minds-on activities in outdoor spaces throughout Northern California.
Native Alliance of the Sierra Nevada Foothills
Native Alliance of the Sierra Nevada Foothills (Auburn) was awarded $25,000 for their Native Youth Conservation Project (NYCP), which addresses the social, cultural, economic, and environmental engagement needs of Native American youth in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The year-long environmental internship program trains youth in environmental restoration, advocacy, education, and leadership.
Urban Tilth (Richmond) was awarded $35,000 for their Homegrown Experts initiative to engage 30 teens in a six-week summer apprenticeship that connects low-income, urban youth with farms. The program offers 100 hours of paid, hands-on urban agriculture education, vocational training, community service, and employment. Apprentices also spend two weekends working (and camping) on organic local farms owned by farmers of color.
Adventure Risk Challenge (ARC) (Central Valley) was awarded $30,000 to connect underserved Merced County youth to outdoor opportunities. Using best practices in youth development and outdoor education, ARC will train a diverse group of UC Merced undergrads to mentor participants from similar backgrounds in a year-round program of outdoor adventure and literacy. The program’s goal is to build the skills and confidence youth need for high school graduation, college success, environmental stewardship, and civic engagement.
Real Options for City Kids (ROCK) (San Francisco) was awarded $20,000 to help break the cycle of poverty and violence in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood. Through a combination of outdoor adventures, community service, and leadership training, and by implementing best youth development practices, the organization empowers its participants with the tools and experiences necessary to become successful, productive adults.
Youth Enrichment Strategies (Berkeley)
Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) (Richmond) was awarded $20,000 to strengthen community through connections with nature in Richmond, California. YES’ Camp-to-Community program utilizes positive youth development practices to empower teens in developing leadership skills and translating these skills to the community and world of work. Supported by YES staff, Camp-to-Community youth serve as leaders at local “green” agencies and in YES’ overnight summer camps, family camps and day outings.