Youth Community Access Grant Program (Round 4)

YCA Grants will fund projects that serve youth from low-income and disadvantaged communities and provide immersive and meaningful experiences with natural or cultural resources within California that participants otherwise would not have. Low income and disadvantaged communities are defined in the program guidelines as those that disproportionately lack access to natural and cultural resources.

California voters passed the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (Proposition 64) on November 8, 2016, which legalized the recreational sale and use of cannabis to people over the age of 21 and levied new excise taxes on the cultivation and retail sale of all state-regulated cannabis. Proposition 64 created the Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention and Treatment Account (YEPEITA) into which the State Controller deposits 60% of the tax revenue from marijuana sales for youth programs to support youth substance use prevention, which is overseen by the Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS). A portion of these funds are appropriated to the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) for grants to support youth access to natural or cultural resources, with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities. Funding is distributed by CNRA as grants awarded through the Youth Community Access (YCA) grant program.