Youth Access to Nature Fund

Justice Outside advances racial justice and equity in the outdoor and environmental movement. The organization shifts resources to, builds power with, and centers the voices and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color because the health of current and future generations demands it. Recognizing the need for the movement to attract and retain people of color, and other communities who have had historic and systemic barriers to accessing the outdoors, Justice Outside’s programs include training and professional development for young adults interested in pursuing careers in outdoor education, and fellowships for emerging leaders in the outdoor/environmental/ environmental justice sector.

Justice Outside’s Youth Access to Nature (YAN) Fund ensures young people have access to meaningful personal experiences in nature to help them become stronger leaders and students, improve their mental and physical health, and become the next generation of environmental stewards. This pooled grantmaking fund provides general operating support, capacity building, coaching, and networking opportunities to organizations in the nine county Bay Area that are working at the intersection of youth, racial justice, and nature. The YAN Fund prioritizes funding for programs that engage youth of color, as well as those that experience additionally marginalized identities, supporting and affirming the many experiences and identities our communities hold. Examples of middle and high school YAN grantee programming in 2022 include:

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust’s Mitiini Numma: To Grow The Truth program. Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. In the Mitiini Numma program, young people have access to Rematriated sites, learn about the history of organizing in the Bay Area, Chochenyo language learning, learn about Indigenous history, and participate in youth led research and advocacy.

The Vallejo Project’s Urban Agriculture pathway, a workforce development for marginalized youth using an experiential education model. The program fosters a deep connection between young people and nature, providing the foundation for a lifelong pathway working with and caring for nature, food, and ecological systems.

Other examples of recent grantees include Trips for Kids Marin, Inner City Bliss, and past Battery Powered grantee Planting Justice.

The YAN Fund is grounded in the understanding that when youth spend time outdoors, the benefits are vast. Their health improves, they perform better in school, they have increased self-awareness, and they become more socially responsible. When youth develop a deeper respect for nature, they also develop a deeper respect for each other, opening themselves up to new opportunities and relationships. Through the YAN Fund, Justice Out believes direct meaningful experiences in nature can change the course of many young lives. From its founding in 2016 through 2021, the YAN Fund made grants totalling over $7 million to 35 organizations, and 125,000 youth were engaged with hands-on, transformative experiences in the outdoors. In 2022 alone, 35 organizations in the Greater Bay Area received $1,019,500 in new grants, along with opportunities for community building, networking, and learning to grantee partners. YAN is part of Justice Outside’s Liberated Paths Grantmaking Program, which supports organizations and individuals working at the intersection of racial justice and the outdoors. The Liberated Paths approach priorities organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, in order to overcome the racial bias in philanthropic funding; uses grant application and reporting processes that are co-designed and informed by grantees; and gives grantee organizations the option to participate in quarterly capacity-building trainings to support sustainability and growth. Justice Outside has grown Liberated Paths from 17 funded organizations in 2020 to 114 in 2022.

Justice Outside

Youth Access to Nature Fund

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Kim Moore Bailey

Aly Whalen

Laura Rodriguez

Robert Sindelar

Rena Payan

Amelia Vigil