Career Pathways

GRANTS PROGRAM

It’s never too early or too late to kick-start an environmental career

Parks California’s Career Pathways program offers career training and mentorship for people interested in parks and public land careers. We launched the Career Pathways Grant Program in 2021 to support workforce development between State Parks and local organizations. Parks California plays a unique role in bringing diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and Indigenous knowledge into stewardship of our state’s parks.

This program is made possible through a public private partnership, supported by private fundraising by Parks California, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s Waterway Connections Initiative.

The goals for this grant program are:

Expand career pathways to jobs in California State Parks and public lands.
Address key access barriers faced by underrepresented communities.
Build and strengthen partnerships between communities, organizations, and California State Parks.
Connect participants to mentors and professional networks to support them in their career journey.
Help participants navigate the state hiring processes.

Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance

Spotlight On Grantees

GRANTEE

Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance

Pathways Home: A Tribal Natural Resource Program

The Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance is a cross-cultural, multi-organizational collaborative that works to revitalize ecology, economy, and culture through indigenous-led stewardship. Pathways Home: A Tribal Natural Resource Program in Clear Lake State Park (Pathways Home) is a career development program for intertribal participants from the Lake County area, the ancestral territory of Eastern Pomo, Southeastern Pomo, Wappo, and Lake Miwok people who have inhabited and stewarded the land since time immemorial. Clear Lake State Park (CLSP) is the ancestral village home for the Eastern Pomo people of Big Valley. Through a partnership between the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians and Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance (TERA), an intertribal nonprofit based in Lake County dedicated to building capacity for Tribal members to steward their ancestral lands, the Pathways Home project offered unique tribally oriented natural resource management career training to Tribal participants in 2023 in support of Big Valley’s co-management agreement with CLSP.

Tribal EcoRestoration at Clear Lake State Park

Crystal Cove Conservancy at Crystal Cove State Park

GRANTEE

Crystal Cove Conservancy

Natural Resource Summer Internship Program

The Natural Resource Summer Internship Program is in partnership with California State Parks’ Orange Coast District. This program will provide aspiring graduate and undergraduate students underrepresented in the sciences an opportunity to gain hands-on experiences in natural resource management at Crystal Cove State Park. The internship program aims to create new pathways for nontraditional students passionate about natural resources to gain hands-on and practical experience, equipping them for future careers within State Parks. Tailored training sessions focus on developing interns’ technical skills, professional demeanor, and confidence for future careers. The program tackles pressing natural resource challenges in the Orange Coast District. Through hands-on projects like habitat restoration and environmental monitoring, we address issues like habitat degradation and biodiversity loss.

GRANTEE

Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods

Natural Resource Summer Internship Program

Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve

Sierra Institute for Community & Environment at Plumas-Eureka State Park

GRANTEE

Sierra Institute

P-CREW

Sierra Institute’s P-CREW youth corps program is designed to serve as a pathway to the profession for young adults, providing them with the technical and social skills needed to advance their educational and career pursuits. P-CREW empowers future leaders and resource stewards through the “E’s “of it all (Exposure, Exploration, Education, Experience, and Employment), a process that embraces comfort zone expansion through an intensive five-week program completing an array of stewardship projects. Participants receive training in Leave No Trace, tool use and maintenance, ecology, basic first aid, teamwork, and more. Through this project, the partnership between California State Parks and Sierra Institute will engage P-CREW on an array of projects with direct ecosystem and community benefits. It will also allow both entities to leverage resources to identify, develop, and deploy solutions to overcome the multifaceted barriers to accessing careers within State Parks and other public land management entities.

We celebrate our grantees for their local and authentic approaches to creating lasting experiences in nature.

The next application cycle will launch in 2025. To receive updates on the 2025 Career Pathways and other Parks California grants, sign up for our newsletter. If you have any other questions or inquiries, please contact the Career Pathways Grants Manager at grants@parkscalifornia.org.

CAREER PATHWAYS

GRANTS PROGRAM

It’s never too early or too late to kick-start an environmental career

Spotlight On Grantees

GRANTEE

Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance

Pathways Home: A Tribal Natural Resource Program

GRANTEE

Crystal Cove Conservancy

Natural Resource Summer Internship Program

GRANTEE

Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods

Natural Resource Summer Internship Program

GRANTEE

Sierra Institute

P-CREW

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