University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources has awarded grants to four organizations for community-based media campaigns promoting equitable land access in Southern California.
Each of the following organizations will receive $90,000 from UC ANR’s Climate Action and Land Equity project, or CALE:
The selected organizations are:
Condor Visual Media – An Indigenous-led media group based on tribal lands in San Diego, focused on amplifying native voices through culturally grounded storytelling.
Asian Culture & Media Alliance – A nonprofit serving Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties with culturally relevant, language-accessible content.
Entravision – A bilingual media company based in Riverside County, known for its wide-reaching Spanish-language television and radio outreach to Latino audiences.
California Farmlink and San Diego Food System Alliance – A joint effort connecting food system advocates and land access organizers to reach diverse growers and land seekers in San Diego and Imperial counties.
“People interested in becoming land stewards and farmers often struggle to secure land to purchase or lease long-term,” said Chandra Richards, UC Cooperative Extension land equity academic coordinator for Southern California and principal investigator for the CALE project. “Younger people and historically underrepresented communities remain disproportionately excluded from land access opportunities.”
To engage these underrepresented groups on issues of land access, tenure and ownership, CALE invited applicants to propose creative outreach and media strategies.
A review committee selected the four organizations from nine strong submissions. Proposals were evaluated on criteria including organizational experience, community ties, team qualifications, and the quality of past media or outreach work.
CALE is funded by the California Department of Conservation through the Climate Smart Land Management Program and aligns with California’s 30x30 goals. The funding supports media and outreach efforts to address barriers to land access.
“With subawards finalized, projects are now moving into the planning and development phase,” said Sierra Reiss, CALE project manager. “Outreach efforts are set to begin in early 2026, featuring multilingual video campaigns, inclusive educational materials and targeted strategies to reduce systemic barriers to land access.”
For land access resources, please see the CALE page at bit.ly/UCANR-CALE.