Summary

One focus of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program (GRP) is to enhance community resilience at the intersection of climate, health, and equity. These efforts include building and sustaining the capacity of communities who are disproportionately at risk from climate hazards and associated disasters to better prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to the effects of climate change. This funding opportunity seeks to help empower the next generation of community resilience leaders.

Specifically, the GRP is seeking proposals for youth leadership training programs that equip youth (ages 15-24) with the knowledge, skills, and expertise necessary to build resilience to climate hazards and associated disasters. The GRP will accept proposals from academic institutions and nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status based in the GRP’s geographic region.1 Preference will be given to academic institutions and nonprofit organizations that have existing climate, health, and/or disaster resilience programs for youth in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of Alaska. The GRP encourages applicants to build interdisciplinary project teams.

A total of $2M is available for this funding opportunity, with a maximum request of $500,000. The GRP expects to award up to six proposals. All budget requests should be commensurate with the scope of work, that are up to 36 months in duration.

Key Dates

• May 1, 2023: Online Proposal Submission Opens

• July 10, 2023: Full proposals due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

• October 2023: Award Selection and Notification
• December 1, 2023: Anticipated Funding Start Date

Background

Compared to the rest of the nation, communities in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Alaska are confronting numerous complex and interrelated challenges associated with climate change, including culture, livelihood, and language losses, population displacement, sea level rise, flooding, land and habitat loss, extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and/or more frequent severe storms.

The effects of climate change are already imposing a heavy burden on youth.2 Not only are young people experiencing climate hazards and associated disasters, but they have limited power to influence decision-making3 to mitigate the harmful effects of disasters4 in their communities. In addition, there are significant long-term physical and mental health implications stemming from the effects of climate change on youth.5 In a recent study that polled 10,000 youth and children from ten countries, 59% of respondents reported that they were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried about climate change. More than 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily lives.6 Engaging in collective climate action can not only lead to advancing community-driven climate and health priorities, but also help youth cope with their climate fears, engender hope, and enhance feelings of social connectedness.7,8,9

Research shows that youth engaging in collective climate action in their communities can assuage anxieties10 and reduce feelings of sadness and hopelessness that could lead to major depression.11 Building the knowledge, skills, and expertise of youth to help strengthen community resilience will provide them with the leadership capacity they need to effect change in building stronger, healthier, more equitable and resilient communities.

Purpose

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to help empower the next generation of community resilience leaders. Proposed projects will center on the implementation of youth leadership training programs (which may include the development of new, or expansion of existing, programs) in the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of Alaska’s coastal regions. Proposed projects should be designed to equip youth participants with the knowledge, skills, and expertise needed to effectively work in their communities to explore and articulate collective solutions to climate-related hazards and associated disasters.

Community resilience youth leadership training programs could include the following activities: community-based support groups (e.g., mentorships, partnerships with professional peer organizations, facilitation of localized community resilience participatory planning processes); asset-based approaches (e.g., community or arts-based participatory research); participation in formal platforms (e.g., roundtable discussions, conferences, workshops, symposia, and panels) and/or more informal platforms (e.g. storytelling, podcasts, vlogs, Instagram stories, or holding “climate conversations.”)

Program Guidelines

To be considered responsive to this Request for Applications (RFA), projects must develop a community resilience youth leadership training program that:

• Provides youth in the GRP’s geographic region(s) with opportunities to learn about climate change and its effects on health and community resilience in the Gulf of Mexico OR the Gulf of Alaska, including inquiries into the forces driving climate hazards and inequitable disaster impacts;

• Supports youth empowerment and training to increase participants’ abilities to address these topics within the context of (and challenging) local conditions, beliefs, attitudes, and situational circumstances to develop and/or expand collective and action-oriented community solutions to address challenges impeding health and community resilience;
• Is grounded in pedagogies for cultivating critical consciousness that also include collaborative and interactive activities;
• Is responsive to local community needs and priorities;
• Mobilizes youth to experience sustained or increased motivation, intention to act, or action for exploring challenges to health and community resilience and articulating solutions to climate-related hazards and associated disasters with existing actors in their communities (e.g., developing a steady “conduit” of active and engaged youth).

Program Evaluation

All applicants will be required to include a program evaluation plan within the full proposal. The evaluation plan must be developed and implemented by a qualified, independent, program evaluator. Independent is defined as not associated with the Project Director or their organization. The Gulf Research Program intends these program evaluations to:

• Help build an evidence-base that both grantees and GRP can use to understand their training program’s impact;

• Enable organizational learning and increase capacity to provide quality programming;
• Support the sharing of successes, challenges, and insights among funders, grantees, and stakeholders.

If awarded, Project Directors and Evaluators will participate in a Grantee Peer Learning Meeting at the close of the period of performance to present their evaluation results, grant highlights, success stories, and lessons learned with their fellow grantees and GRP staff.

The GRP strongly recommends engaging with your program evaluator early and including them in your program design process. If you have questions about the development of the evaluation plans or need assistance finding a qualified evaluator for your program, please contact gulfgrants@nas.edu.

Award Details

Total funding available: $2M, with a maximum request of $500,000. All budget requests must be commensurate with the scope of work proposed.

Award duration: Grants will be awarded to support programs up to 36 months in length. The programs should be no more than 30 months in length, with up to an additional 6 months for reviewing data and finalizing evaluation.

Estimated number of awards: Resources made available under this funding opportunity will depend on the proposals received. The Gulf Research Program reserves the right to negotiate, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this solicitation.

Award notification: October 2023.

Who Should Apply

For the purpose of this funding opportunity, proposals will be accepted from academic institutions and nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status. Preference will be given to academic institutions and nonprofit organizations that have existing climate, health, and/or disaster resilience programs for youth in the GRP’s geographic region(s). However, partnerships with other organizations, institutions, academia, etc., are highly encouraged.

Preference will also be given to applicants with a history of working with children and/or youth populations who are underrepresented and/or underserved, including but not limited to racial/ethnic minorities, tribal youth, LGBTQ+ youth, students demonstrating low socio-economic status as established by the free and reduced lunch program, children with disabilities, first-generation immigrants, students from rural or remote areas, and/or students experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Programmatic activities must occur in the United States coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of Alaska.

GRP will not consider funding:

• Proposals for political lobbying or advocacy activities.

• Activities currently under consideration for funding from other sources.

For more information about eligibility, application requirements, and GRP grant policies, please review the full RFA.

[1] The GRP focuses its work in the Gulf of Mexico and the adjacent coastal regions of the five Gulf States (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas). The GRP also works in other areas of the outer continental shelf of the United States where there is offshore drilling, hydrocarbon production, and transportation, and in adjacent coastal regions. This includes portions of the coastal region of Alaska.

[2] Sanson, Ann, and Marco Bellemo. “Children and youth in the climate crisis.” BJPsych Bulletin 45, no. 4 (2021): 205-209. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2021.16.

[3] Malcolm Hill. “Children’s Voices on Ways of Having a Voice: Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation.” Childhood 13, no. 1 (2006): 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568206059972.

[4] Hickman, Caroline, et al. “Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey." The Lancet Planetary Health 5, no. 12 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3.

[5] Berry, Helen L., et al. “The case for systems thinking about climate change and mental health.” Nature Climate Change 8, (2018): 282–90. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0102-4.

[6] Hickman, Caroline, et al. “Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey." The Lancet Planetary Health 5, no. 12 (2021): e863-e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3.

[7] Kleres, Jochen, and Åsa Wettergren. “Fear, hope, anger, and guilt in climate activism.” Social Movement Studies 16, no. 5 (2017): 507–519. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2017.1344546.

[8] Nairn, Karen. “Learning from Young People Engaged in Climate Activism: The Potential of Collectivizing Despair and Hope.” Young 27, no. 5 (2019): 435–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/1103308818817603.

[9] Wells, Kenneth B., et al. “Applying community engagement to disaster planning: developing the vision and design for the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience initiative.” Am J Public Health 103, no 7 (July 2013): 1172-1180. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2013.301407.

[10] Cunsolo, Ashlee, et al. “Ecological grief and anxiety: the start of a healthy response to climate change?” The Lancet Planetary Health 4, no. 7 (July 2020): e261-e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3.

[11] Schwartz, Sarah E.O., et al. "Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer." Current Psychology (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02735-6.