Talent Maker City

Education Programming: In our educational programs, 1,311 students participated in laser engraving, ceramics, robotics, sewing, screenprinting, video production, coding, carpentry courses, and more! These in-school and summer programs help foster childrens creativity and a sense of self-esteem. We worked with youth impacted by the Almeda fire by building beds for families who lost their homes in the disaster. While our programs serve all youth from elementary to high school, we especially enjoyed our continued skill-building work with incarcerated youth and those in Phoenix-Talent Schools Migrant Education program. Through strong community partnerships, we added successful new programming for students experiencing disabilities and students facing homelessness, a great step towards our continued mission of a diverse and inclusive makerspace. In addition, we provided professional development opportunities for 254 educators, and presented at several statewide events.

Community Programs and Events: Our creative adult workshops grew 165% engaging community members in classes ranging from ceramics, to woodworking, 3D printing, watercolors, and more! We engaged meaningfully on 42 community partner projects increasing our reach from the year before. These projects ranged from screenprinting staff shirts to ceramics as a teambuilding activity with nonprofit partners. Our community reach extended further with our popular and highly attended Dia de los Muertos event where over 100 community members experienced cultural and traditional activities. Our Lights on Bikes event in December had over 300 attendees with families joining for holiday fun. We held a large community Groundbreaking event to kick off construction of our new building. We also hosted twelve local businesses that took advantage of our space to create marketing materials,signage, and merchandise including those working on rebuilding after the Almeda fire.