April 29, 2025
Colorado is known for its iconic landscapes — vast plains and expansive skies, snowcapped peaks and rushing rivers, high deserts and red sandstone cliffs — and for its unparalleled outdoor access — from skiing and biking, camping and hiking, to rafting, horseback riding, hunting, and fishing.
While the state’s identity and economy are bolstered by its world-renowned outdoor recreation destinations, not every child and family shares equal access to these opportunities. Barriers like cost, transportation, and accessibility prevent many communities from enjoying wild spaces.
The Outdoor Equity Grant Program, established in 2021 and administered by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, stands to fill this critical gap, making it easier for youth to get into nature by funding outdoor education and recreation programs for those who may otherwise go without. In just three short years, the grant program has become wildly successful, supporting organizations that have served over 65,000 youth in 51 of the state’s 64 counties.
But demand for these funds far exceeds available dollars. The grant is capped at $3 million per year but received $21 million in grant requests in 2024 alone. That’s why WRA, alongside our partners, is supporting House Bill 25-1215 at the General Assembly this year, a bill designed to ensure more funding is available so more youth and families can enjoy Colorado’s stunning landscapes and access nature’s incomparable benefits.
Read firsthand accounts shared with WRA of the importance of this grant from organizations that have benefitted and youth who have experienced transformative programming.
Bodhi Cabeen
Eighth grade student and Spirit of the Sun program participant
Golden, Colorado
I am a 14-year-old eighth grader of Five Tribes, Ngabe-Bugle, Black, and Celtic descent.
I was able to participate with Spirit of the Sun this past summer and go camping with them a few times because of the Outdoor Equity Grant Program. In July, we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park. There we had many elders come and share stories. There was one botanist that shared many life stories that involved how we should grow up to be strong people. I found his stories interesting as he weaved together plant stories, star stories, medicine stories, and family stories. We showed we understood by caring for the elders during their visit by cooking, cleaning, and creating a safe physical space to listen to them.
The botany elder weaved traditional ecological knowledge in with his science learning. He fascinated the group by educating us more deeply. It was a good example of the work I am learning to do.
With Spirit of the Sun, I am also involved with the Mycelium Healing Project and the Foodways Science Program. I am gaining skills to talk with other environmentalists about traditional ecological knowledge and to teach others that we need to work together to ease the suffering of the planet, as it is a living relative. These programs help young people like me connect to their Indigenous history and culture while promoting lifelong stewardship of the environment.
We have to increase investment in the grant program to continue opening opportunities for Indigenous youth like me to enjoy our time outside as well as collaborate on solutions for how we better go forward together as collective people.
Sherry Schreiner
President of the board of directors, Colorado Discover Ability
Mesa County, Colorado
I am the Colorado Discover Ability Board of Directors president, based in Mesa County. Our mission is to provide quality, safe, and inclusive services to youth, and the Outdoor Equity Grant Program fundingwe received made a huge difference in our ability to invite those with any physical, developmental, cognitive, and behavioral challenges to enjoy the same outdoor activities as everyone else. This population is often overlooked in outdoor recreation, and this grant helped us serve 115 children ages 4-25 to ski, cycle, raft, and attend summer camps.
It is so much fun to see a child who was previously afraid of the water participate in a water fight with their peers, or a child who has never played in the snow zoom down the ski slope ahead of their coaches after the first day of lessons. The sense of freedom our program gives kids who have previously been left out is amazing. Not only do those children with disabilities benefit, but their families, friends, and peers in school benefit as well.
We frequently hear that involvement with Colorado Discover Ability helps participants develop important life skills, and that youth notice an increased sense of independence, self-esteem, and physical health. All our participants, including both youth and adults, experience reduced feelings of isolation, depression, and symptoms of mental and/or physical challenges.
Through this grant we have been able to make more of an effort to reach children whose families may not participate in skiing because of the high cost, or water sports because of fears or lack of access. It has been a wonderful journey, and we wouldn’t have made it through the last few years without this grant!
Aman Anderson
Founder, Beast Fingers Climbing
Denver, Colorado
I am not just a coach or community leader — I am someone who sees the full, untapped potential of Colorado youth every single day.
At Beast Fingers Climbing, we run competitive and recreational youth rock climbing programs in Denver. Climbing, for us, is a tool to teach grit, confidence, discipline, and resilience in a world that often strips young people of all four. When a child finds their grip on a climbing wall, they begin to believe in their ability to rise in life.
We’ve seen kids come through our doors struggling with confidence, dealing with trauma, battling poverty — and leave transformed. Not because of handouts, but because someone invested in their potential and held them to a higher standard. That is what sport, done right, does. It saves lives. It rewires young people to believe in the impossible.
This is not about medals; it is about cultivating the muscle of belief.
In 2024, only 14.2% of grant proposals received funding. No doubt, quality organizations are going unfunded, leaving potential grantees — groups like Beast Fingers Climbing who have not received a grant — to forgo or limit programming or struggle to make ends meet.
Over the past eight years, our work has led to extraordinary outcomes: two youth athletes on the Olympic path to Team USA, students accepted into Ivy League colleges — one who earned a Ph.D. — and another currently studying astrophysics at Swarthmore College. All these people were born and raised under socioeconomic stress in Colorado, all achieved incredible feats without government funding, and it was all made possible by community donations and committed corporate partners.
If we are serious about securing a stronger future, we must begin by recognizing that every child matters. Organizations like mine should not have to struggle to keep their doors open. When we invest in transforming these young lives, the one who benefits most — in every measurable way — is the state of Colorado. The Outdoor Equity Grant Program allows organizations to receive funding to do this critical work, that is why increased funding is so important.
It’s clear: this program is critical to preserving, and furthering, the Colorado way of life. The Outdoor Equity Grant Program is a key tool to promote connection to nature and a conservation ethic among the next generation, enhance and sustain the state’s outdoor recreation economy, and secure lasting mental and physical health improvements and educational outcomes for youth.
The Outdoor Equity Grant Program is poised to activate the untapped potential of getting youth into nature: creating the next generation of environmental advocates and helping the West reach its full potential.
All testimony shared with permission.
