Parks and Wildlife Commission panel advances funding for multiple youth-outdoor programs

A Parks and Wildlife Commission grant-review panel met to finalize awards from its latest funding round and agreed by consensus to advance several youth-focused outdoor programs for funding consideration. The panel reviewed the current funding picture, discussed program details and constraints related to federal compliance, and directed staff to return with refined award amounts and scope restrictions.

Speaker 2, the meeting facilitator, opened by saying the panel had preliminarily approved roughly $1,300,000 — “a little bit over 65%” of the total available — leaving about $683,000 to allocate. The group then reviewed 54 full applications on a mapped category board and used a structured process in which each board member raised top choices for group discussion.

The panel discussed and moved forward with Southwest Conservation Corps after members highlighted its workforce-development components, Indigenous youth crew, mental-health supports and budget items including crew leaders, transportation and gear; the application request was listed in materials as $99,804.06. Groundwork Denver was advanced after members cited its prior award (about $99,000 awarded in December 2023), its workforce-development plan and a leadership transition to Derek McCoy as executive director. Board members also advocated for funding a community climbing program described in the materials as a Black-owned gym seeking support for a van and youth-staffing, and Young Masterminds, an Afro-Latino–led initiative focused on mentorship, camping and new program elements such as fly-fishing and bike-packing.

Board members repeatedly discussed whether to make full awards, partial awards or award funds restricted to specific line items. For example, during deliberations members proposed restricting an Outward Bound award to a fellowship program for BIPOC field instructors (an amount discussed in the meeting was roughly $48,580 for the fellowship component) rather than funding broader operational costs. Panelists also explored splitting remaining funds (several board members proposed dividing the balance about $75,000–$75,000 between two high-priority applicants) so that more organizations would receive some support.

Several members raised concerns about federal executive orders and how those rules might affect grantees that propose identity- or affinity-based programming. Speaker 6 warned, “I think I'm all basing it all on an executive order that says you cannot just serve LGBTQ kids,” and other members replied that larger federal funding dependencies can complicate how organizations use discretionary local grant dollars; staff noted many grantees are finding workarounds such as routing programming through student organizations or narrowing scope to activities that are less likely to trigger federal compliance issues.

During a block of faster discussions the panel reviewed single-mention applicants serving rural areas (Friends of Youth in Nature, Logan County CSU Extension, Center for Family Outreach, Mountain Dreamers, Sunstone Inclusivity Network), scrutinizing budgets for capital items (vans, equipment), staffing plans and the potential for restricting awards to youth-facing activities. Staff indicated they can restrict awards or ask recipients to resubmit a revised scope aligned to the amount granted.

The panel recessed for a break to finalize funding numbers and agreed to reconvene at 12:30 to complete decisions on applicants with single votes.

Next steps: staff will draft award letters reflecting the panel’s direction on scope and partial funding where required, confirm whether applicants will accept restricted awards (for example, for fellowship instructors or vehicle purchases), and present a final funding list to the panel after the break.