Mobile Makers creates programming that encourages Chicago youth to become advocates and change-makers in their own communities through design-focused skill-building workshops. Its objectives are threefold:
- Engage and empower youth through making and skill-building
- Train and support future public interest architects, designers, and makers
- Advocate for social, economic, gender, and racial diversity in the architecture and broader design fields.
Founded in 2017, Mobile Makers is an arts and culture nonprofit that offers design and problem solving workshops to youth in Chicago, focusing on BIPOC students in the South and West Sides, to encourage underrepresented youth to become advocates and change-makers in their own communities. Mobile Makers’ mission is to engage and empower youth through the power of creation and skill-building, to train and support future public interest architects, designers, and makers, and to advocate for equity and social, economic, gender, and racial diversity in the architecture and broader design fields. Mobile Makers design and STEAM education accessible to children in Chicago’s most dis-invested neighborhoods. In 2019, Mobile Makers engaged with more than 670 youth by hosting 150 design workshops in 11 different neighborhoods, including Englewood, Little Village, East Garfield Park, and Albany Park. In 2020, Mobile Makers unveiled the Mobile Makerspace: what was formerly a USPS delivery truck is now a solar-powered mobile classroom containing power tools, building materials, and digital fabrication tools. Staff take this truck to community events and conduct pop-up events in different locations. In 2021, Mobile Makers opened a permanent space in Humboldt Park in the Kimball Arts Center that hosts classes and workshops in addition to the mobile workshops.
To make a donation directly to Mobile Makers, visit their website: https://mobilemakers.org/donate.
