Green Foothills Foundation

Community Building Programs: Leadership, Tribal/Indigenous Partnerships, Healing in Nature. Our Leadership Program trains and invests in community members of all backgrounds in equitable, inclusive environmental activism in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito Counties. This year marked our 11th cohort and the second year we offered the program tuition-free and in Spanish and English, thanks to generous support from donors. The program builds community leader capacity that harnesses the power of collaboration within communities and mobilizes change agents to advance equitable, inclusive environmental activism locally. The Program aims to create pathways for people from all backgrounds to engage in and lead conservation work to help broaden representation in the local conservation movement. Leadership Program alumni 1) assume leadership roles where they apply a lens of environmental advocacy and cultural humility in their work; 2) initiate and join successful campaigns that advance Green Foothills mission and vision; and 3) are involved in the Green Foothills community. 2024 impact metrics: 19 local changemakers graduated (including 5 Spanish speakers) for a total of 278 alumni since 2014. 15 alumni took on new leadership roles for a total of 137 since 2014, and 11 initiatives were won by alumni for a total of 61 initiatives since 2014. Green Foothills' Tribal and Indigenous Partnership Project proactively adds resources to and supports the goals of local tribal land trusts and indigenous-serving nonprofit organizations. This project leverages Green Foothills long-standing relationships and trust with local tribes and Indigenous groups, cultivated over the past decade, to meet the requests of the local Indigenous community. This includes enhancing the capacity of their tribes and nonprofit organizations through leadership development, grant writing assistance, volunteer recruitment, and raising public awareness of their priorities. Our partnership aims to support their long-term goals of land ownership, environmental stewardship, and cultural tradition preservation. In 2024, we helped secure $450,000 in funding for a tribal partner, graduated a member of the Amah Mutsun Tribe from our 8-month Leadership Program cohort and provided a $500 honorarium for her effort, wrote blog posts for the Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation describing the work of two tribal members for their website, Green Foothills advocacy staff have supported and partnered with the Amah Mutsun to protect Juristac - the sacred heart of their ancestral territory - from a proposed open-pit sand and gravel mine, and provided $3,000 in sponsorships to Calpulli Tonalehqueh, an Aztec dance group, for their Mexica New Year event. Green Foothills Healing in Nature series offered public groups meditative, healing experiences in protected parks and open spaces in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. The program has included special outings for veterans, farmworkers, Spanish-speakers, families, seniors, and system-engaged youth. For many of them, these outings were the first time they had connected with nature this way. Special emphasis was placed on building an ethnically diverse community of docents with cultural mindfulness training and expertise. In 2024, we held 8 outings in Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority preserves that included serving 12 youth. Participant survey data demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with the outings. We also recruited 3 compensated docents of color, with one a Spanish-speaker. All docents received cultural mindfulness training lessons from The Cultural Mindfulness Institute, and all participants and partners received information on our cultural mindfulness training curriculum.