2025 Youth Climate Action Grants Announced
We are excited to introduce you to this year’s recipients of the Youth Climate Action Grants, an initiative that places the power to mitigate climate change through local action in the hands of young leaders in our communities.
Our 2025 cohort of grantees represents youth-led projects that are as innovative in their approaches as they are committed to environmental sustainability. Ecological restoration plans shaped to transform communities, novel pathways to reconnect ourselves with our aquatic friends, and educational programs set to unite generations make up just a handful of the 19 projects you’ll find listed below. A deep dedication to meeting the challenges of a changing climate, while inspiring their communities to act, is what unites them all.
This work was made possible through the support of the Youth Climate Action Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation (BCPI) at Johns Hopkins University.
The 2025 Youth Climate Action grant awardees include:
The Spark of Hudson
Watts in Your Hands?
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: Through an interactive hands-on workshop and local outreach, Watts in Your Hands? will empower Hudson locals with ways to reduce their carbon footprints, conserve energy, and adopt cost-effective, eco-friendly solutions.
Project Location: Hudson, Columbia County
The Spark of Hudson
The Spark Path
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Spark Path will help residents connect more with local businesses, green spaces, and Hudson’s history–while inspiring tourists to enjoy Hudson like a local. Led by youth apprentices who will create a walking map that encourages people to explore the Hudson’s scenic routes and neighborhoods.
Project Location: Hudson, Columbia County
Greater Newburgh Parks Conservancy
Ancient and Future Trees of Newburgh
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: This project will initiate a process to document, map, and introduce Newburghers to ancient trees and, through direct action and experience, begin building crucial community support to preserve its ancient trees, while planting and protecting thousands of trees city-wide.
Project Location: Newburgh, Orange County
Schooner Apollonia + Poughkeepsie Public Library System
Bringing Climate Education to the Waterfront: A Collaboration with Schooner Apollonia & Poughkeepsie Public Libraries
Award Amount: $3,400
Project Description: This collaboration centers on local resiliency, climate education for youth, and the role of libraries as vital community spaces for knowledge sharing through climate educational days, accessible bookmobiles, and storytelling rides on the Schooner Apollonia, the Hudson Valley’s wind-powered freight ship.
Project Location: Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County
Oakwood Friends School Climate Club
Clothing Swap and Climate Education Event
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Clothing Swap and Climate Education Event will bring together community members from across the Hudson Valley to exchange gently used clothing—items that might otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators. This event also serves as a valuable educational opportunity with many local climate action organizations in attendance.
Project Location: Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County
Hawthorne Valley Association
Cool with Cars
Award Amount: $1,000
Project Description: Cool with Cars is a community-driven carpooling platform designed to reduce carbon emissions and improve transportation accessibility in the Hawthorne Valley area. By connecting users through location-based profiles, the platform makes it easy to find and coordinate rides, offering a sustainable and practical alternative to single-passenger car trips.
Project Location: Ghent, Columbia County
The Albany Academy
Creating the Albany Academy Environmental Club
Award Amount: $3,000
Project Description: This project aims to create Albany Academy Upper School’s Environmental Club to spread awareness of climate issues and solutions within the Albany Academy Community. The goal is to implement two main projects: a native pollinator garden and recycling in common spaces.
Project Location: Albany, Albany County
Rhinebeck Interact
Landsman Kill Water Quality Testing and Pollinator Garden
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: Rhinebeck Interact, a youth service organization sponsored by Rhinebeck Rotary, will develop a water quality monitoring plan on the Landsman Kill with the support of Bard College’s Community Sciences Lab, and a pollinator garden, in consultation with Pollinator Hudson Valley, along a section of the stream to filter storm water runoff.
Project Location: Rhinebeck, Dutchess County
Radix Center Ecological Sustainability Center
Native Plant Understory Forest and Trail
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Radix Center’s youth employees will design and lead the planting of a diverse group of understory, mid, and cover forest species that will provide habitat and browse for native fauna and pollinator insects, while learning about about invasive and early succession plant management as they create a path on a hillside with degraded soil.
Project Location: Albany, Albany County
Kite’s Nest
ReGen Teens: Community Food Forest
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The cultivation of an edible forest garden will amplify ReGen Teens’ long-term impact by bringing a renewing source of sustainable food into our area. The youth staff will expand their focus on providing culturally relevant and native foods to local communities, specifically addressing the needs of BIPOC, immigrant, and food-insecure families.
Project Location: Hudson, Columbia County
Kite’s Nest
The ReGen Teens Community Food Justice Distribution Hub
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: ReGen Teens seeks to expand its food distribution hub by installing dedicated cold storage on our site as this would allow us to increase our capacity to better receive and distribute farm surplus, including meat and eggs, in addition to produce.
Project Location: Hudson, Columbia County
Zena Democratic School (Forest Garden)
Zena Democratic School Forest Garden Project
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The goal of the ZDS Forest Garden Project is to implement urgent actions of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The project will educate and engage youth in climate change mitigation, including increasing biodiversity, cultivating habitat for native species, and increasing carbon sequestration. Young people will be involved throughout the project at every stage, including researching, designing, implementing, clearing, and cultivating the Forest Garden, and engaging guest educators.
Project Location: Kingston, Ulster County
Tivoli Free Library
Tivoli Free Library Garden and Tools
Award Amount: $4,950
Project Description: Young people in Tivoli will help The Tivoli Free Library to expand its climate programming and offerings, and to update its park and community garden to include more educational and environmentally friendly projects. These include the addition of checkout-able electric yard tools to the library’s holdings, the addition of rainwater gathering barrels on our park’s gazebo, and the expansion of the community garden to include a “teaching” plot and pizza garden for youth in the village and those enrolled in the summer camp located in the park in July and August.
Project Location: Tivoli, Dutchess County
Good Work Institute
The Learning Garden at Chambers Elementary
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Learning Garden at Chambers Elementary engages 10 young people ages 15-24 in a unique paid vocational training opportunity. The initiative will facilitate hands-on, outdoor learning for these elementary school students, enriching their understanding of biology and ecology, instilling a lifelong love of the outdoors, and promoting interest in conservation and climate action. The project also addresses food insecurity and will support the installation of an educational garden.
Project Location: Kingston, Ulster County
Riverkeeper
Fish Migration Celebration Zine for Climate Action
Award Amount: $3,465
Project Description: This learning zine project will introduce youth to their fishy neighbors, local climate change impacts, and calls to action through DIY journalism. Youth participants will editorially develop the zine utilizing key journalistic skills like researching climate challenges impacting migrating fish, interviewing, editing, brainstorming calls to action, and assigning content to peer reporters and illustrators, resulting in a free, 20-page physical booklet (and digital version).
Project Location: Kingston, Ulster County
Ecological Citizen’s Project
Crystal Lake: Youth Media Storytelling on Community-led Conservation
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Youth Media Parks Team project aims to help secure formal park designation for the 109-acres surrounding Crystal Lake in Newburgh by raising awareness through youth-led community journalism. Youth will interview local leaders such as elected officials, urban planners, medical professionals, and residents pushing for land protection. Led by The Sanctuary, a BIPOC-centered healing garden at Crystal Lake, this initiative centers youth in climate action through education, awareness, and community journalism, inspiring action.
Project Location: Newburgh, Orange County
The Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley
Creating Climate Action Teams
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: The Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley will offer programming to two cohorts of 14-24 year olds during summer and fall 2025 via the YWCA of Ulster County in Kingston, NY. We will create Climate Education programs that empower young people to become agents of change in their communities, particularly addressing climate change and environmental injustice.
Project Location: Haines Falls, Ulster County
For the Many Education Fund
On-to-Off Campus Climate Organizing
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: This grant supports For the Many’s youth-led climate organizing on college and high school campuses. Its official student chapters (including New Paltz For the Many, Bard for the Many, Vassar For the Many, Marist For the Many, and more) educate their peers about climate issues, and help them get involved in local and state governance around the implementation of climate action.
Project Location: Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County
Strawtown Art & Garden Studio, Inc.
Creative Voices for the River: An Art & Science Approach to Community Education
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Description: Through interactive education, hands-on activities, and shared community experience, this project inspires a deeper connection with the Hudson River’s aquatic and aerial life and raises awareness about the migratory fish and birds, and the central role they play in maintaining the health of the Hudson River.
Project Location: Kingston, Ulster County
