Community Engagement
Our Fab Lab is a community space and our work community driven. We seek to work with partner sites and work with them to create engaging programming based upon the needs of the community the site is based in.
Our Engagement Mission
Our mission is to support and build youth-focused collaborative informal learning spaces that facilitate digital literacy and inclusion. We strive to build communities of fearless creators, problem solvers, and people who work within a fail-forward mindset. We hope to foster a drive to explore, tinker, and ultimately develop fluency and agency with design strategies.
Our work is community-driven. We believe that programming and research should grow out of the needs, passions, and interests of the community it is based in.
By developing long-term partnerships based in mutuality with community organizations, we build organizational capacity to foster richer learning opportunities, where youth can engage in project-based learning that is relevant to their experiences and interests.
Project Highlights
2024
MAKER-IN-RESIDENCE
TEEN ART
IN CU
BRADLEY STEM CONFERENCE
Our Community Partners
Relationships with our community partners serve as the bedrock to our engagement work, allowing long-term, sustainable and consistent programing and services.
2012 - Present
Since 2012, the Fab Lab has been working with UNCC to provide after-school and summer STEAM programming for middle and high-school students. The 2018 UC2B Community Benefit Fund grant allowed the Fab Lab and UNCC to build out a maker space and recording studio in their Digital Learning Garage.
2013 - Present
Through staff assistance and IT help, the Fab Lab supports the Urbana Free Library’s Teen Open Lab, an after-school space where teens can freely explore music, art, sewing, games, and many other forms of making.
2017 - Present
Since working together on Project Maple, the Fab Lab and Urbana Middle School teachers partner together to offer engaging hands-on maker curriculum in the classrooms. Fab Lab staff help interested teachers in curriculum development, as well as run workshops during class time.
2022 - Present
The Fab Lab has partnered with several instructors within the Champaign Unit 4 School District in the areas of curriculum development and support for middle school STEAM classes as well as professional development courses for STEAM instructors.
2022 - Present
The Fab Lab has been partnering with Mattoon Community Unit School District 2 to provide fun and enriching summer camps for elementary school students.
2021 - Present
Through funding grants and collaboration with the Urbana Arts and Culture program, the Fab Lab has been able to work with partner sites and develop a variety of different community based projects over the years such as Teen Art in CU - in which local teens created murals for their schools, hosted an art show showcasing their art work, and painted some awesome skateboard decks - and the CCC Maker-In-Residence Program.
Interested in becoming a community partner or learning more about out past community partners?
60+
YOUTH
PROGRAMS
IN SPRING
300+
TEEN PARTICIPATIONS
THIS YEAR
ROBUST
RELATIONSHIPS WITH
COMMUNITY PILLARS
