In order to support emerging California mediamakers, California Humanities is offering a new grant of up to $15,000 for youth media organizations focused on youth 18 years old and under.

California Humanities is an independent nonprofit organization and a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1975, this organization has been promoting the humanities as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect each other in order to help strengthen California. This nonprofit produces, funds, creates and supports humanities-based projects and programs, eye-opening cultural experiences and meaningful conversations.

During the past 40 years, California Humanities has awarded over $29 million in grants across the state, reaching every Congressional district.

The California Documentary Project (CDP) is a competitive grant program that supports the research and development and production stages of film, audio, and digital media projects that seek to document California in all its complexity. Projects should uses the humanities to provide context, depth, and perspective and reach and engage broad audiences through multiple means, including but not limited to radio and television broadcasts, podcasts, online distribution and interactive media, community screenings and discussions, in classrooms and libraries, at cultural centers, film festivals, and beyond. Funding is available in three categories including CDP Next Gen grants, Research and Development Grants and Production Grants.

The California Documentary Project Next Gen (CDP Next Gen) grants are available now, and eligible applicants may request up to $15,000.

Presented in alignment with CA 2020: Youth Perspective and the Future of California, a new statewide initiative that focuses on the lives and experiences of young Californians, CDP Next Gen invites applications from California-based nonprofit organizations and public agencies with established track records in youth media programming to provide training and support to emerging mediamakers in the creation of short, insightful nonfiction films and/or podcasts that tell original stories about life in California today.

If California is at times seen as an indicator of where the United States is headed, then the state’s 9.2 million young people under the age of 18 will play an increasingly significant role in shaping who the nation is and the issues that people care about both regionally and nationally in coming years. With an eye toward the next national election and the goal of amplifying youth voices, California Humanities wants to hear the insights and perspectives of soon-to-be-voting-age Californians on the subjects and issues that both divide and unite people. CDP Next Gen intends to support short documentary films or podcasts that shed light on not only problems but also on the solutions that youth are proposing and the futures they envision.

The CDP Next Gen grant deadline is Friday, September 14 at 5 p.m. To register people can visit www.calhum.org.