2021 Grantees – Justice Outside

At Justice Outside, we believe a meaningful experience in nature can change the course of a life, and we strive to ensure that as many youth as possible can partake in the outdoors. Our grantmaking program supports organizations committed to equity and cultural relevancy in the outdoor field, to improving outcomes in health, and to increasing environmental awareness and advocacy among young people. Justice Outside’s grants provide crucial resources that help develop and maintain organizational capacity for sustainable programming while enhancing leadership opportunities for youth historically underrepresented in the outdoors narrative.

The following is a full list of Justice Outside’s 2021 grantees:

Acta Non Verba $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award for their Urban Youth Farm Project that connects youth of color from East Oakland to a nature-based farm program. Youth learn about healthy eating and sustainable farming, and help youth build savings for their educational future.

Adventure Risk Challenge $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award for their programs that provide Wilderness-based literacy and leadership development summer courses for English-learning high school students.

Amah Mutsun Land Trust $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award to support Native American youth ages 12-17 to participate in summer camp programming focused on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and conservation along the California coast.

Brothers on the Rise $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award for their programs which provide access to nature to low-income urban youth of color, integrating outdoor-based life skills, leadership development, and environmental career opportunities.

Brown Girl Surf $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award to support programs that integrate awareness of marine and coastal ecology through hands-on explorations and projects, while surfing. Brown Girl Surf works to build a more diverse, environmentally reverent, and joyful women’s, girl’s, and gender expansive surf culture by increasing access to surfing, cultivating community, amplifying the voices of surfers of color, and taking care of the earth.

California Indian Museum and Cultural Center $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award to support their work in empowering youth to reclaim California Indian environmental stewardship of oak woodlands through culturally relevant caretaking.

Camp Phoenix $50,000 awarded in 2021, first installment of a grant award to support programs that provide low-income, middle school students with outdoor-based adventure opportunities, educational enrichment, and social-emotional learning.

Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant to support youth who have been impacted by multiple criminalizing youth-serving systems, including foster care, juvenile and adult criminal injustice system and punitive school districts. Funds will assist in the development of a robust garden ecosystem where community needs intersect with programmatic needs while developing an edible garden, healing herbs garden, hosting and caring for land and soil via a worm composting system and a beehive.

Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant awarded to support youth programming which all include components of environmental stewardship, cultural relevancy, and health and well-being. Programs connect youth and young adults with environmental stewardship through conservation work and also serve as a bridge to access CA State Parks, National Park Service, or US Forest Service representatives.

Elevated Legacy $18,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award supporting programming that employs an intergenerational model on competitive athletics, popular education trainings about social justice, community service, wilderness immersion, and indigenous rituals for sustained community transformation.

Environmental Volunteers $30,000 awarded in 2021, one year award to support the Transportation Fund which provides bus and transportation subsidies to help low-income students access science and environmental field trips throughout the Bay Area.

Movimiento $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support their work developing young people’s leadership and life skills via outdoor adventure, counseling and therapy, cultural exchange, service-learning, farming, and indigenous youth events. Movimiento’s focus is to synthesize outdoor-based learning experiences with mental health.

Oakland Leaf $23,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support the Love Cultivating Schoolyards program, which includes a stipend high school internship in which interns establish and maintain food-producing school-based gardens and compost programs, lead after-school gardening classes, and participate in monthly community experiences in nature.

Our Wilderness Now $17,500 awarded in 2020, first installment of a grant award to support their community-based programming that empowers youth through nature connection, many of whom are developing their first sensitivity to stewardship of the environment.

Peacemakers, Inc. $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award for their work to help students and their families within the Richmond Bay Area to succeed educationally, socially, and emotionally through mentorship and restorative outdoor experiences that focus on the calming effects of nature.

Planting Justice $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant supporting their programs that are dedicated to creating tangibly healing, economically scalable, and ecologically sustainable projects led by black/latinx/and indigenous people that transform unused community spaces into community farms, gardens, and nurseries.

Project Avary $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support early intervention and long-term prevention programming for children of incarcerated parents (CIP). Project Avary relies on outdoor education and recreation as a key strategy in improving the lives of CIP’s and breaking their social isolation.

Seven Tepees Youth Program $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support work with urban youth on day and overnight wilderness trips to foster the skills they need to make lifelong positive choices, and to give them the skills and values that will enable them to achieve college or career readiness by their senior year in high school.

Sunrise Middle School $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support work to empower students in central/east San Jose to become leaders by exposing them to the natural world and leadership opportunities through outdoor experiences such as the snow, the desert, horseback riding, river rafting and more.

The Trust for Public Land $100,000 awarded in 2021, single-year grant award to support the implementation of a green or ‘living’ schoolyards initiative in Oakland that will transform asphalt-covered schoolyards serving disadvantaged communities into green spaces that will provide access to nature, improve health and learning, and benefit the schools and their surrounding communities

Urban Sprouts $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to leverage school gardens as interactive classrooms, inclusive spaces, sources for fresh and nutritious food, and as incubators for a 21st-century workforce that understands the importance of environmental stewardship and social justice.

Warrior Institute $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award for their programs which provide holistic, innovative solutions to organize and build indigenous leadership in the northern California region by forging new generations of young leaders with balanced (ki:maw) minds, bodies, and spirits who are empowered to create health, economic equality, and environmental justice for the next seven generations and beyond through outdoor experiences and environmental education.

Waterside Workshops $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to provide job training, outdoor recreation, and holistic wraparound support for impacted youth to promote youth development, encourage sustainable and healthy lifestyles, and cultivate positive change in the Bay Area community.

Weekend Adventures $20,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support programs that provide meaningful routine outdoor adventures that help to create connections within the participant groups and to the planet for youth living in marginalized neighborhoods in San Francisco.

YES Nature to Neighborhoods $22,000 awarded in 2021, second installment of a grant award to support their programs which provide outdoor camp and community experiences for teens to develop leadership and life skills that promote a successful transition to adulthood, and to expose youth to careers in the outdoors.