Since voters legalized cannabis in 2016, California state and local governments have been collecting a growing amount of revenue from cannabis taxes. Proposition 64, and the legislation passed to implement the ballot measure, allocated part of state revenues to state agencies to support child and family services. Since 2018, Youth Forward has been working with the state agencies to develop grant programs funded by state cannabis tax revenues for local nonprofits, local governments and tribal communities. While Youth Forward itself does not apply for any of these funding streams, we do work to raise awareness in local communities of these opportunities through hosting webinars, through email, and through other forms of outreach. We advocate for cannabis revenue to be reinvested back into communities of color most harmed by the War on Drugs to support youth development, childcare, healing and health services and other forms of reinvestment. In 2022, we successfully activated our statewide coalition to protect these funding streams that were threatened by a lobbying campaign led by the cannabis industry to have its taxes reduced or eliminated.
