America’s Best Idea Grants

Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail

Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail will host three informal music events at three specific communities along the trail corridor bringing together the local Hawaiian community to foster and restore their connection with a sense of place through music and talk story.

Cape Cod National Seashore

Through a partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, 11 youth age 11-14 will build on their understanding of Cape Cod National Seashore from their participation in the First Bloom program via three day trips and one overnight trip to learn about the park's resources and recreational opportunities.

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

This project builds off a 2010 ABI grant to expand a multidisciplinary empowerment program from 11 young women to 50, which will bring back previous participants as mentors as all women build self-esteem while they connect to the natural world by spending time on the Delaware River.

De Soto National Memorial

In response to the recognition of the challenges the National Park Service has in attracting youth and diverse populations to visiting and supporting our National Park Service units, De Soto National Memorial has teamed up with a local Title 1 high school, Bayshore High to establish a Youth Advisory Council. Consisting of high schoolers of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, the park is relying on their Fresh Eyes to help us connect with other young people and their families who have yet to discover the wonders of our park system. The Youth Advisory Council will continue to connect with underserved audiences far beyon the life cycle of the grant. The park is committed to making this program a priority and see this grant opportunity as a way of expediting the growth of the program.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail

The project will produce two short (2-3 minute) podcasts highlighting the people who traveled the trail and relating how their experiences shapes New Mexicans today.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Through two different approaches, the park will engage both military families in various educational and recreational activities as well as high-school-aged youth through employment to participate in service-learning projects at area national parks.

Fort Sumter National Monument

The park will develop programs for public school teachers to enable them to teach African American youth about their ancestors contributions to the construction of Fort Sumter National Monument and other heritage brick masonry buildings in Charleston, SC.

Grand Teton National Park

A youth leadership academy will develop local high school students as leaders in the local Latino community with the goal of expanding understanding and support for the National Park Service and growth in park stewardship with this non-traditional park audience.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Conoce tu Parque (Get to Know Your Park) improves Latino awareness of the national park system, conservation, and the many educational opportunities offered at parks through the development of a 32-page bilingual coloring book for children and an accompanying brochure for adults, both of which describe how national parks function.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

This project will offer discovery daypacks filled with interpretive materials for use by youth groups who would not ordinarily have the opportunity for an outdoor camping experience.

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site

Three distinct groups of underserved youth will come together to examine and interpret Bethune's Legacy in a three day leadership workshop. Participants will also complete 20 hours of volunteer service in a national park.

National Park of American Samoa

This project will deliver much needed educational support materials for students, install an aquarium in the local elementary school, and procure books for each classroom and the local community center in this remote community vital to the park.

Petrified Forest National Park

Native American high school students from surrounding communities will be a bridge between reservation lands and the National Park Service by spending part of the summer living and working at Petrified Forest National Park. These native students will learn about the national park mission and National Park Service careers while becoming representatives of both the National Park Service and their tribe. After completing their appointment with Petrified Forest National Park, the students will share their experiences with their own community through video or other media presentations at schools, tribal chapter houses, and community centers. By providing training and experience to local native students the National Park Service will become more visible to a larger, under-engaged population that has just as much to offer as it has to gain by caring for our nation's heritage.

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

This project will mentor local underserved and under engaged Navajo Nation youth to become the next generation of conservationists, community leaders, and land stewards. Navajo Nation and NPS staff and volunteers will combine forces to develop and implement an ecological restoration project at Rainbow Bridge National Monument. In addition, this project will enable NPS staff to assist Navajo Nation leaders with the establishment and development of their first year youth corps program (Shiprock Youth Corps).

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway

The “In a New Light” program will expand upon the foundation laid through a 2010 ABI grant to engage 25 at-risk teens in the beauty of five national parks, as they embark on a photographic journey that will result in a traveling photo exhibit and feature-length documentary.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia National Park is partnering with City of Visalia Transit to provide transportation to the park for local low-income youth from our Rangers in the Classroom program to visit with their families.

Sitka National Historical Park

In 2010, Sitka National Historical Park received an ABI grant so Alutiiq elders and young people from Kodiak could journey to Sitka to learn lost elements of their culture from the Tlingit. This project will complete the circle by making it possible for elders and young people from Sitka's Tlingit tribe to journey to Kodiak to further the connection of the two tribal cultures.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

The Traditional Skills & Trades Mentor/Apprentice Project connects at-risk and adjudicated middle school and high school students from the local non-profit SEEDS/Northwest Michigan Youth Conservation Corps (NWMYCC) service learning programs with traditional artists and trades people who participate in the park's annual Port Oneida Rural Historic District Fair.

Wind Cave National Park

The focus of this project is to bring Native American students to Wind Cave National Park to hear from their tribal elders the cultural importance of Wind Cave and to introduce those students to the National Park Service stewardship concept including bison conservation, endangered species reintroduction, prescribed and wildland fire, and the local ecosystems.