Valerie Cassity - Special to the Sun

The Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, a land conservation and youth investment program, recently announced the recipients of their Collaboration Fund grant. The grants are part of the Stewardship Council's Youth Investment Program and are designed to support field-wide initiatives and partnerships among youth-serving organizations.

The Stewardship Council is a collaborative land conservation and youth investment foundation. Its mandate includes evaluating and providing recommendations for the conservation of over 140,000 acres of watershed lands (currently owned by PG&E) spread across 22 counties, as well as developing and implementing community-based park and environmental education opportunities for underserved youth. The Stewardship Council's Youth Investment Program supports organizations that make the outdoors more accessible to underserved youth through innovative programs. The Council has granted over $4 million since its inception in 2005 and intends to grant more than $20 million over the next eight years.

"Our goal is to help connect young Californians to the outdoors, but we can't do it alone" says Jayne Battey, Executive Director of the Stewardship Council. "It is only through collaboration among cities, community organizations and schools with programs that educate youth about California's natural environment, will we reverse the trend of kids increasingly staying indoors."

The 2007 grant recipients are diverse in their scope, but every project benefits young Californians and encourages them to experience nature more fully.

The Outdoor Youth Connection, located in the Central Valley, received $125,000 to partner with other nonprofit organizations to train local youth to be peer leaders through a highly structured introduction to the outdoors.

The Community Alliance with Family Farmers in the rural Central Coast received $75,000 for a project which offers hands-on food and farming education that emphasizes farming conservation practices, healthy farm-fresh foods, and agricultural job opportunities for youth of the farm labor community. Contra Costa County Opportunity West received $95,000 to secure safe pathways to local parks or other youth friendly venues in heavy low-income and crime ridden neighborhoods.

The Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services received $100,000 for "YouthWORKS," a program which creates opportunities for part-time jobs in recreation by providing outdoor leadership programs in local after school programs at high schools in Sacramento, the only daily after school program in the area.

The San Francisco Parks Trust received $70,000 to expand existing efforts to create open space in San Francisco by renovating existing lots and making them into parks, open spaces and community gardens; and the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools Office received $60,000 for the "Expanding Horizons for Disadvantaged Youth' program which provides leadership opportunities, career experience, and ongoing outdoor opportunities for disenfranchised youth in Yuba and Sutter Counties. 'The Stewardship council plans on showcasing these organizations later in the year to continue to highlight the good work these organizations are doing,' said Michelle Hannegan, Communications Manager for the Stewardship Council.

The Stewardship Council is only filling a portion of the financial need of the groups that received grants, and hopes that other organizations and philanthropists will work together to ensure that these programs are strengthened. "When we promote the involvement of our children in the outdoors, we're making an investment in their health, their education and in their future.¬Ý We are also making an investment in the healthy and productive future of California's natural resources," said Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman, President of the Stewardship Council Board of Directors. "As stewards of California's lands, these programs are critical for this generation and for those generations that will follow in our footsteps."