Noah Swartz writes, “Parts and Crafts, a youth and community makerspace in Somerville, MA, is kickstarting a series of Creative Commons/Open Hardware licensed educational kits and projects for kids. The project is called ‘Monthly Make-It’ and it’s a maker-kit subscription service where you sign up to get a box of cool DIY buildable projects sent to your house every month.”
“Kit sales will support the ongoing operation of their open community makerspace in Somerville, their ‘One Lightsaber Per Child’ Project, funding sliding-scale and scholarship programs for kids, as well as running events with local partner community organizations.”
Affordability and accessibility are among our highest priorities at Parts and Crafts. We run all of our major programming on a sliding-scale with as many free slots as we can afford, and every Saturday we have free, drop-in open-shop hours for anyone who wants to use our tools and make something with us. We work regularly with local partners and area schools to bring our projects to as many kids as possible.
As we’ve grown and gotten better at outreach, we’ve learned that sliding-scale on its own cannot raise enough money to make our programs affordable and sustainable. Building off last year’s One Lightsaber Per Child Project, The Monthly Make-It is another way that we can support our outreach and accessibility efforts.
Parts and Crafts Monthly Make-It!
[Parts and Crafts/Kickstarter]