California Arts Council seeking Applications for the JUMP StArts Program

Deadline: 11-Feb-21

The California Arts Council is seeking applications for the JUMP StArts Program.

The JUMP StArts program supports arts and culture education, apprenticeship and or mentorship via artists-in-residence programs for at-promise youth and young people through the age of 24. Activities may take place during or outside of traditional school hours in state- or county-operated correctional facilities; public settings; online; and in arts and culture venues, community centers, school sites, youth centers, and intergenerational settings.

Projects should prioritize system-engaged youth or youth who are especially vulnerable to being engaged in or by the justice system and the project should be tailored specifically to respond to their needs.

The California Arts Council (CAC), a state agency, was established in January 1976 to encourage artistic awareness, participation, and expression; to help independent local groups develop their own arts programs; to promote employment of artists and those skilled in crafts in the public and private sector; and to enlist the aid of all state agencies in the task of ensuring the fullest expression of artistic potential.

Project Goals

Proposed projects should address the following goals:

Establish partnership between an arts organization and a juvenile justice and/or social service entity to create arts learning opportunities that foster positive socio emotional, behavioral, academic, and developmental outcomes for these priority youth.
Demonstrate significant planning and reflect a collaborative relationship between the partnering organizations.
Provide opportunities for arts participation and arts education to youth and young people who have been impacted by or whose lives are especially vulnerable to interruption by the justice system.
Increase opportunities for California teaching artists and cultural practitioners to engage with at-promise youth and young people in a variety of settings, including state- or county-operated correctional facilities, or in community settings.
Support the professional development of teaching artists and facility staff in order to grow the capacity of the field of arts for priority youth and young people.
Center culturally and linguistically responsive learning through the arts and project activities. Project leaders should access and use cultural knowledge to support the cultural assets of the local community.
Facilitate participants’ development of positive self-identification, and respect and understanding of their intersectional identities, inclusive of community, culture and race.
Measure impact and communicate the value of arts education and arts participation for these youth to juvenile justice and social service entities.
Facilitate positive relationships between and among arts organizations, staff at the partner juvenile justice or social service entity, and probation departments through increased collaboration and ongoing communication.

Funding Information

Applicant organizations can request:

$2,500 for a planning grant
Up to $50,000 for a full project grant
Up to $52,500 for a planning and project grant if each request is in different funding strand: Community Spaces and/or County Facilities and State Facilities

Project Requirements

Applicant organization must develop and complete a project addressing the program’s goals to be completed by the end of the Grant Activity Period. The project description must include an anticipated timeline for completion within the Grant Activity Period.
Project planning and completion must reflect a commitment to include and represent the communities to be served; this includes youth and young adult input.
The project plan must describe activities, partnership responsibilities, intended artistic and youth development outcomes, evaluation approach and documentation strategies.
The project design must provide safe, healthy, and appropriate learning environments for youth and young people.
The project must include professional development training for teaching staff in both facility protocols and trauma-informed practice.
Project team members to be compensated and supported by this grant must show relevant experience based in California.
Rates of compensation for individual California teaching artists and cultural practitioners to be supported by this grant must be appropriate to experience and comparable to fees for other local skilled workers.
Individuals to be compensated by this grant may not be full-time students in a degree program directly related to any type of compensation/credit for this project.
If proposing therapeutic outcomes, applicants must relay the qualifications of service providers, such as but not limited to: curandero/a/xs, medicine elders, shaman, monks, therapists, and/or social workers; and how their histories and modalities are appropriate to the clinical and/or community arts setting, as well as culturally responsive to participants.
All CAC-funded programs, services, information, and facilities where funded activities take place must be accessible for individuals with disabilities, including but not limited to individuals who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Deaf Blind, have difficulty speaking, have a physical disability, visual disability, developmental disability, learning disability, mental illness or chronic illness.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must comply with the requirements below. All applications must include the listed items at the time of submission in order to be reviewed, ranked, and considered for funding.

California-based – Documentation as being a California-based nonprofit arts/cultural organization; an arts-based unit of municipal or county government; or a tribal government, or nonprofit social service organization with regular ongoing arts programming and/or services and a principal place of business in California.
Arts programming – Applicants must have a minimum two-year history of consistent engagement in arts programming and/or services prior to the application deadline.
501(c)(3) organization as applicant or fiscal sponsor – Non-governmental applicant organizations must demonstrate proof of nonprofit status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or section 23701d of the California Revenue and Taxation Code.
Fiscal sponsors: An applicant organization without nonprofit status must use a California-based fiscal sponsor with a federal 501(c)(3) designation to apply for funding.
- The fiscal sponsor will provide the fiscal oversight and administrative services needed to complete the grant.
- A Letter of Agreement between the fiscal sponsor and the applicant organization must be signed and submitted with the application. A blank signature field will not be accepted. If a grant is awarded, the fiscal sponsor becomes the legal contract holder with the California Arts Council.
- The fiscal sponsor cannot be changed during the Grant Activity Period.
- Fiscal sponsors must have a minimum two-year history of consistent engagement in arts programming and/or services prior to the application deadline. (Acting as a fiscal sponsor to arts and cultural organizations is considered an arts service.)
Racial equity statement – In January 2020, the CAC approved its Strategic Framework which articulated their commitment to racial equity. As the agency has been evolving their own race and equity practices, they invite applicants to start, continue, or strengthen their racial equity practices with us. Applicants are required to submit a racial equity statement as part of the application.
- The racial equity statement should explain the applicant’s commitment and tangible efforts (if applicable) to advancing the leadership of and service to indigenous people, communities of color, racially and ethnically diverse individuals, tribal communities, immigrant and refugee communities, and communities whose principal languages are not English.
- They recognize that organizations/projects led by people of color, or other systematically marginalized community members, may already do the labor of weaving racial equity into their work; this is not a moment for the CAC to validate but rather to honor that work.
- The CAC is committed to providing a webinar and other technical assistance in order to support organizations prior to their submission of a racial equity statement.
Certificate of good standing – Nonprofit organizations and fiscal sponsors (if applicable) must have “active status” with the California Secretary of State (SOS) showing evidence of “good standing” at the time of application. You can verify your organization’s status by conducting a search using the SOS online Business Search tool. An indication of “active” (versus “suspended,” “dissolved,” “cancelled,” etc.) confirms that your nonprofit corporation exists, is authorized to conduct business in the State of California, has met all licensing and corporation requirements, and has not received a suspension from the Franchise Tax Board.