2024 REX FOUNDATION GRANT RECIPIENT

Girls Garage is a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9-18 in the Bay Area. Founded in 2013, Girls Garage is the first-ever design and building workshop for female, non-binary, trans and gender-expansive youth in the United States.

Through after school and summer pathways, Girls Garage provides free and low-cost programs in carpentry, welding, architecture, engineering, and activist art to a diverse community of 200 students per year. Under the supervision of our highly skilled female and non-binary staff, our students acquire the tools to build the world they want to see through integrating technical skills, college and career guidance, and community leadership.In their 5,000-square-foot workshop in West Berkeley, Girls Garage invites participants to bring their creative voices and put their technical skills to work on real-world building projects that live in our community.

Beyond power tools, Girls Garage is a physical space that provides a supportive and safe environment for students to exercise voice and power. We provide 1:1 career and academic advising and workshops to develop the confidence and the communication skills to navigate the intersectional challenges facing students today.

To date, participants have built 190 projects ranging from a geodesic dome for the Eames Institute and furniture for a transitional housing shelter to a greenhouse for a community garden and a 500-square foot chicken pavilion for an urban farm.

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