About People’s Climate Innovation Center and the Young Black Climate Leaders Youth Futures Fund:

People’s Climate Innovation Center (Climate Innovation) works nationally to build capacity for and deploy community-driven solutions to climate change rooted in racial justice. We are pleased to launch the next round of the Young Black Climate Leaders (YBCL) Youth Futures Fund!

The YBCL Youth Futures Fund provides financial awards to young Black climate leaders who are advocating for and transforming their communities toward racial and environmental justice. The fund provides access to capacity-building support and resources for young Black climate leaders who are reshaping the broader climate movement. With a focus on centering local movements and initiatives, the YBCL Youth Futures Fund will uplift models of climate resistance and regenerative practices rooted in creativity and advancing transformative change.

The YBCL Youth Futures Fund supports young Black people who are taking the initiative to dismantle the delusion of white supremacy and disrupt climate chaos. The fund will support a new generation of Black climate leaders to advance work and initiatives at the intersection of racial and environmental justice by supporting the power of leaders who advocate for community participation and reclamation of Indigenous ecological wisdom and practices of the African diaspora. The YBCL Youth Futures Fund celebrates diasporic Blackness and Afro-Indigeneity; we seek to support leaders who embracethe principles of Sankofa, Ngoza Saba, and Black Liberation. Through an emphasis on liberatory arts and culture, story-based advocacy, cultural strategy, community organizing, transformative change, ecological principles, and leadership development, the YBCL Youth Futures Fund aims to support leaders who want to create and actualize their most irresistible freedom dreams from popular education to political and cultural organizing and more.

Funding Opportunity:

Funding is available for new projects or initiatives already in motion that need additional support and may cover training, classes, workshops, certifications, education costs, the purchase of tools and equipment, etc. Projects must be completed in a community or group setting. Projects must align with a community-driven approach that centers the needs, impact, and solutions to and in the community.  All awards will be considered based on the merit of each application. Fund recipients will be selected following a panel application review and (if needed) an interview process. We welcome previous applicants and alumni of our sibling program,  YCLC, who have applied in the past to re-apply if interested. The exception to this is if you are a part of the current YBCL or YCLC cohort. Current YBCL cohort members are not eligible to apply as core programming for YBCL will be standard for each incoming cohort training.

Funding levels:

• Soil – $2,000 awards
• Seed – $6,00 awards
• Water – $8,000 awards
• Grow – $10,000 awards

Application criteria:

Applicants must:

1. Identify as Black, African, Afro-Latinx and or part of the Afro-Indigenous diaspora.
2. Be based and implement their project in one of the following places: the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
3. Be 18-28 years old (OK to turn 18 by July 1 or turn 29 during the project).
4. Be available to complete a ZOOM interview – interviews will be scheduled between  May 3 and May 17, 2024  (if needed).

Application Timeline:

• Fund applications will be accepted from February 21 to March 29, 2024 at 11:59 pm Pacific.
• Interviews will be held from May 3 to May 17, 2024.
• Decisions will be announced on May 31, 2024.

You can find more information and apply here: People’s Climate Innovation Center Submission Manager – 2024 YBCL Youth Futures Fund (submittable.com)