People’s Climate Innovation Center and the Young Black Climate Leaders Youth Futures Fund Program (US)

The fund offers 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, its disproportionate impacts on Black communities and communities of color in general, 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 climate justice by supporting the power of leaders who advocate for community participation and the reclamation of Indigenous ecological wisdom and practices across the African diaspora.

The People’s Climate Innovation Center works nationally to build capacity for and deploy community-driven solutions to climate change that are rooted in racial justice. The realities of the climate crisis and the disproportionate impact climate chaos has on frontline communities, particularly Black communities, provide a clear and demonstrated need for access to resources and supports that effectively contribute to solutions-making that is rooted in the needs, expertise, and leadership of those most impacted.

Aim

• 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.

Theme

• Projects should be rooted in principles at the intersection of racial justice, environmental justice, and/or climate justice. They focus on centering local movements and initiatives, and will uplift models of climate resistance and regenerative practices rooted in creativity and advancing transformative change that are dismantling the delusion of white supremacy and disrupting climate chaos.

Funding Information 

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

Funding Tiers

• Soil: This funding tier provides seed grants to projects in the “idea” phase. These are projects that may need support getting off the ground, proving the concept, etc.
• Seed: This funding tier supports projects that are beyond the idea phase but that still need support to scale and grow.
• Water: This funding tier supports more established projects. These projects have demonstrated a clear proof of concept, scale, etc., and are working to expand reach and impact.
• Grow: This funding tier supports clearly well-established projects. These projects have demonstrated a clear proof of concept, scale, etc., and have previously shown their reach and impact.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must:
  • Identify as Black, African, Afro-Latinx, and or part of the Afro-Indigenous diaspora.
  • 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.
  • Be 18-28 years old (ok to turn 18 by July 1 or 29 during the project).
  • Be available to complete a Zoom interview.

For more information, visit People’s Climate Innovation Center.