The City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) is launching its 2025-26 Creative Youth Workforce Development Grants
Donor Name: City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture
State: California
City: Sacramento
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/10/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
OAC will provide grants for programs that provide youth workforce readiness, training, apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship opportunities, skills development, placement services and/or coaching and mentoring in the creative economy.
To provide support for organizations with different levels of experience and capacity, two different grant categories will be offered and funding awarded to Sacramento based nonprofit cultural organizations and for-profit creative businesses to create high impact training and work readiness experience for youth and young adults ages 16-24.
The Objectives of the Creative Youth Workforce Development program are to:
- Invest in the development and expansion of high-quality programs offered by organizations that can demonstrate significant experience, industry connections and student placement rates in high potential areas of the creative economy.
- Invest in the broader ecosystem of service providers who offer exposure to creative industries employment opportunities.
- Provide productive opportunities for youth engagement and create pathways to future employment opportunities in growing industries.
Grant Categories
- Creative Youth Workforce Pilot Grants Up to seven grants of $75,000 each will be awarded to organizations with some level of experience in youth workforce training who are piloting a more formal creative youth workforce program.
- Creative Youth Workforce Program Grants Up to three grants of $220,000 each will be awarded to organizations with a strong existing youth workforce development program that they are planning to scale and will be sustainable after the end of the grant period.
Priority Pathways
Creative businesses and organizations in the following creative fields that are piloting or growing youth workforce programs are encouraged to apply:
- Media Production – production of traditional, digital, and experiential media, including long and short form film/video content, video games, extended reality, and music production.
- Design – micro-customized design, including specialties in fashion, interior, sustainable, and industrial design and innovation.
- Experience Creation – creativity in the fields of hospitality/event technology and music festivals.
- Civic Innovation – innovation in civic life, including architecture, public service infrastructure, planning, health technology, and educational technology.
Professional pathways in these fields include:
- Motion picture & video production
- Fashion design and production
- Industrial and sustainable design
- Visual effects and animation
- AR/VR & immersive experiences
- Game design
- Web and UX design
- Sound, music, and new media production.
Funding Information
Applicants may be non-profit organizations or creative businesses that are ready to administer pathway internships, apprenticeships, preapprenticeships, and training for a minimum of five (5) youth and young adults for $75,000 pilot grants or a minimum of twelve (12) youth and young adults for $220,000 grants.
Grant Period
- Pilot Grant: 12 month
- Program Grant: 18 month
Participant Eligibility
Program participants must be individuals ages 16 – 24 years of age and residents of the City of Sacramento. Priority should be given to youth who:
- May have difficulty finding internship, apprentice, or employment opportunities.
- Reside in a low- or moderate-income household.
- Reside within a Qualified Census Tract.
Eligible Applicants
- An Applicant must be located and operate training facilities in the City of Sacramento, and primarily serve youth and young adults living in the City.
- An Applicant must be a nonprofit organization or a registered for-profit creative business. Government entities, schools, colleges, and universities are not eligible to apply.
- If an Applicant is a non-profit organization, it must be registered as a charitable trust with the California Attorney General: Registry of Charitable Trusts, and the California Secretary of State: Registry of Charitable Trusts. Registry verification search tool must show that the organization’s registry status is “current.”
- If an Applicant is a non-profit organization, the organization must provide evidence of tax-exempt status pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
- If an Applicant is a non-profit, the organization must have been in existence for at least one full year with non-profit status prior to June 30, 2024, and be able to provide budget and program information beginning July 1, 2023, if requested.
- If an Applicant is a for-profit business, the business must have been in existence for at least one full year prior to June 30, 2024 and be able to provide budget and program information beginning July 1, 2023, if requested.
- An applicant must maintain a business address in the City of Sacramento.
- An applicant must have professional staff devoted to training and mentoring youth.
- An applicant cannot discriminate in violation of any state or federal law, including laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, sex, creed, religion, age, marital status, ancestry, medical condition, disability (including HIV and AIDS), sexual orientation, or gender identity.
- An Applicant must meet the City’s requirements for general liability insurance ($1 million per occurrence). Proof of insurance must be provided prior to executing a grant agreement.
- An Applicant must be registered as a supplier with the City of Sacramento prior to executing a grant agreement. Please register as a supplier.
- An Applicant must have a Business Occupancy Tax Certificate or exemption prior to executing a grant agreement.
- An Applicant must disclose other Coronavirus Relief Funds received from the City (e.g. a loan through the City’s Small Business Loan Program), or other grant funds received from the City or other government agencies (e.g., PPP or EIDL).
- Grant recipients are required to work with the City staff throughout the grant process, and all grant funds must be expended by no later than October 31, 2026.
For Creative Youth Workforce Program Grants, applicants must additionally provide:
- Data-supported case demonstrating that the applicant’s industry represents a high potential area for creative economy growth.
- Minimum two-year history of providing classes, training, workshops, and/or internships to youth ages 16-24.
- Strength of organizational leadership including recognition in the field.
- Letters of support from industry contacts that demonstrate strong creative industry connections and pathways to future employment or growth opportunities
- Current programs that demonstrate breadth and depth of training opportunities for youth, including paid internships and apprenticeships.
- Detailed plan for scaling the work beyond the grant period.
- Ability to demonstrate that program meets industry standards for industry credentialing or certification (or other generally established benchmark for the field) and curriculum for learning.
For more information, visit OAC.
