The mission of The Brickyard Collaborative, Inc. is to create a sustainable makerspace in the Lynn community, with two additional facets – an entrepreneurship support network of shared business facilities, mentorship and resources, as well as facilities that augment the several academic STEAM programs in the area.
The Brickyard Collaborative serves primarily the city of Lynn and surrounding communities of Saugus, Nahant, Swampscott, Peabody, Danvers, Salem, Marblehead and Beverly and will build Lynn as a center of innovative thought, work, and economic strength for the North Shore.
The Brickyard Collaborative is founded on a philosophy based on the power of cooperation, collaboration, a positive and supporting community of diverse, creators, builders, designers, entrepreneurs and students of any age.
What is a Makerspace?
From Mad-Learn.com – “A makerspace is a place that provides creative time and space for people of all ages to build prototypes, explore questions, fail and retry, bounce ideas off one another and build something together. These spaces don’t always include technology, since some prototypes and designs can be built out of anything or may include various stages of design that move from analog to digital and back again. Kids gather in a common area to design and ideate on 3D printing projects. The makerspace becomes a safe area where creativity and risk-taking becomes common practice.”
From Techtarget.com – “A makerspace is a community center that provides technology, manufacturing equipment and educational opportunities to the public. Makerspaces allow community members to design, prototype and manufacture items using tools that would otherwise be inaccessible or affordable such as 3-D printers, digital fabrication machines and computer-aided design (CAD) software. The free exchange of ideas and resources is a central tenet of makerspaces. Often, members of different makerspaces will collaborate on projects and share knowledge at gatherings known as build nights or open-house days.”
From Library as Incubator – “Makerspaces are collaborative learning environments where people come together to share materials and learn new skills. Makerspaces are not necessarily born out of a specific set of materials or spaces, but rather a mindset of community partnership, collaboration, and creation. ”
Why a Makerspace?
Economic Development: “From Rust Belt cities like Pittsburgh to rugged outdoors towns like Burlington, Vermont, the maker movement has shown to have the potential to unlock growth, engage citizens and transform city landscapes.
“Perhaps the greatest potential for change comes from the way the maker movement may alter urban landscapes, in terms of both community and spatial relationships. Economic and productive activity obviously plays a large role in urban development.
“With the growth of the maker movement, which views the consumer as producer, the biggest shift may come in the form of co-location of manufacturing, engineering and design. The movement has the ability to draw production back into the cities where consumption occurs. This can have profound economic and social benefits.
“In addition to added jobs, proximity means more innovative potential for workers. The untapped skills and knowledge of out-of-work producers become part of the creative economy of the city.”
(The National League of Cities, How Cities Can Grow The Maker Movement: Appx1-CitiesGrowMakerMovementNRC)
From Smart Growth America – Small-scale manufacturing and neighborhood revitalization – “Technological and economic changes have created new opportunities in small-scale manufacturing and the “maker” economy, presenting a chance for communities to make progress on several important economic development issues. Small-scale manufacturing can grow local entrepreneurship and small business, develop or enhance new and existing economic sectors, and revitalize downtowns and business districts.
“Using tools and case studies, this whitepaper builds the case for why economic development practitioners should be thinking about working with small-scale manufacturers, how to grow the sector, and the particular synergies that are created when locating these businesses in downtowns and mixed use centers.”
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Education: “The learning that occurs through the experience of making and the learning that occurs through instruction in new media share an unexpected pedagogical kinship. As Groff (2013) points out, we are reaching a period where it is just as easy for young people to produce . . . multimodal, multimedia content as to consume it”.
“Similarly, the phenomenon that some have termed the “maker movement,”… reconfigures the learner as a producer rather than a consumer. Makers—operating in schools and museums, in libraries and community centers, in homes and specially designed makerspaces—contend that the process of imagining, creating, refining, and sharing a custom artifact offers a unique form of both collaborative and self-directed learning for youth and adults alike.” (Harvard Education Review)
From MakerCity: “Today the hardware part of the economy is starting to realize that they need to get kids excited about manufacturing earlier so that they can be more competitive. Kids are making a decision such as, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to sit in front of a computer all day. I actually want to be involved in making something tangible. And that’s really cool, and that’s how I want to spend my time.
“In many ways, creating a Maker mindset is probably one of the more important things that we can do in terms of building the pipeline.”
From the Haley Pilot School Boatbuilding program, (Grade 5): “Building boats develops a variety of skills and habits of mind transferable throughout life. Spatial thinking – nimbleness with three dimensional perception and recall – is a key to academic success. According to the National Academy of Sciences, “We suggest that spatial thinking is at the heart of many great discoveries in science, that it underpins many of the activities of the modern workforce, and that it pervades the everyday activities of modern life.”
“Our testing shows that students’ spatial thinking skills grew by 56%. In addition to spatial thinking, building boats is a real – world application of mathematics. It also requires hand – eye coordination, safety skills, and above all, teamwork.
“I love teaching boat building at the Haley because the students are so eager -they’ve been looking forward to building a boat since kindergarten. Students who do not love school will often lead their teams and ask for more. I overheard: “Why is it that you’re so good at math here but in class you stink at it?” The reply: “I don’t know. I just get it here!”
Workforce Development: “One underlying theme here is that in the Maker City, formal credentials like a college degree are starting to give way to faster and more lightweight micro-credentialing programs that prove mastery of a specific skill or set of equipment.
“Another underlying theme is the importance of training and apprenticeships to enable Makers to build portfolios that showcase skills and accomplishments in a concrete way. Building a strong portfolio is critical, enabling Makers to go after not just traditional work inside companies but also to create their own small businesses and/or hang out a shingle for freelance or gig work.
“This ability — to move fluidly from traditional work to a small business to freelance — is important to keep people productive across a lifetime of work.
“We believe that cities can use seven main mechanisms to create an environment where Maker talent can thrive:
- Embrace independent work and self-employment.
- Build skills by focusing on new forms of vocational education (VocEd).
- Enlist community colleges to train the next generation of Makers.
- Focus on “jobs in the middle” when matching Makers who are seeking traditional employment.
- Create new forms of apprenticeships and internships around Making.
- Look to Makerspaces as drivers in workforce development.
- Shift to new forms of credentials.
(Workforce & Economic Development How to Turn the Maker City into a Magnet for Talent)
Why Lynn, and why now? From Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities: Lessons Learned and an Agenda for Renewal (MassINC)
“Massachusetts’ “Gateway Cities”—its traditional mill towns—continue to lose ground as the state economy converges even more around Boston. The trend is stark. Notwithstanding the aggregate success of the Bay State economy, its increasing “unevenness” has left a significant number of the state’s major population centers struggling to move from an industrialized past to a knowledge-based future. … The Gateway Cities have continued to slip in importance in relation to Boston on key measures of economic performance such as job creation, knowledge-industry employment, educational attainment, and incomes. In sum, the Gateway Cities continue to struggle with deindustrialization, and have not yet found a niche in the specialized knowledge-oriented economy that has revitalized the Boston area in recent decades.
“The consequences of these trends are serious, and threaten the state’s economic competitiveness. Most notably, the sharpening unevenness of the state’s economic map is vexing the state’s housing markets, distorting land-use patterns, and likely complicating the state’s labor-force challenges. In the Boston area, the intense agglomeration of high-paying knowledge jobs in a relatively small patch of close-in towns has helped bid up home prices and harmed the state’s ability to retain and attract quality workers. More broadly, stark house-price differentials between Greater Boston and the rest of the state are helping to widen the vast ring of suburban sprawl that is sweeping across much of eastern Massachusetts, eroding the state’s quality of life. Finally, the disproportionate concentration of the state’s economic activity in the Hub may well be complicating firms’ efforts to hire sufficient workers, even as the isolation and demographic tilt of many Gateway Cities cuts employers off from the human capital they need to support business growth and economic development. The bottom line: The stark geographical uneven-ness of Massachusetts’ changing economy is a statewide problem, and may be placing a drag on the state’s economy as a whole.
“And yet, the Gateway Cities offer important potential assets to the state, even if daunting obstacles to their renewal persist. On the upside, these cities hold out to Massachusetts realistic hopes of responding to some of the Commonwealth’s most pressing growth and development challenges. To a state struggling with high housing prices, the Gateway Cities offer more reasonably priced middle-class housing. To a state concerned about sprawl and traffic congestion, Gateway Cities look like a natural place for pursuing “smart growth,” as they actually want to grow and are already served by roads, schools, and often rail links. And to a state facing anemic population growth and future worker shortages, the Gateway Cities hold out the possibilities of growing, energetic, and diverse immigrant and minority communities already contributing to the workforce, and already seeking the American Dream. However, these are still just potential opportunities. On the downside, serious problems hold the cities back. For all their potential, the cities’ shaky fiscal condition and spotty basic service delivery; their stressed education systems; and their sometimes weak links to state and global economic currents impede their reconnection to the state’s and nation’s economic mainstream.
“As for how to reconnect the Gateway Cities, this report concludes that Massachusetts needs to catalyze a major new state and local partnership to take advantage of the opportunities that these cities provide, and overcome the obstacles that hold them back. (…)There is a growing population of young engineers, entrepreneurs and artisans, located in the Lynn area and surrounding communities.”
From Why The Future of Massachusetts Lies Within Its’ Gateway Cities– “Cities across Massachusetts such as Brockton, Lowell and New Bedford were at one point centers of industry full of well-paying jobs that were a “gateway” to the American dream. However, as manufacturing declined nationally, gateway cities lost prominence accordingly. In 1970, 19.5 million jobs were in manufacturing nationally; today, about 12.4 million jobs remain in manufacturing according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is worth noting that the national population has simultaneously increased by over 120 million since 1970, according to US census data.
“As Massachusetts’ economy has shifted towards skill-centered knowledge sectors that have established their roots in the City of Boston and along the Route 128 corridor, many manufacturing jobs have been lost statewide. This has left Gateway Cities with difficult economies and lasting social challenges. Many once-significant properties remain vacant and underutilized, and crime in many Gateway Cities is notoriously rampant.
“In recent years, economic and social change has taken place throughout Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities. The national push towards urban environments, increased state support for investment and Massachusetts’ strong entrepreneurial culture have increased demand for Gateway Cities’ untapped infrastructure.”
The Brickyard Collaborative: Milestones
The earliest discussions about founding a makerspace in Lynn happened in the summer of 2017. Work started in mid-September of that year. Please note important milestones marked in bold:
- October 15, 2017: Domain name registered, website launched, Facebook page started.
- December 3, 2017: Work started on filing for 501(c)3 Non-Profit status
- December 30, 2017: “Meet and Greet” at Land of a Thousand Hills draws over 50 interested people.
- January 18, 2018: The Brickyard Stakeholders Meeting
The January 18th meeting at the Lynn Museum was a chance for us to pull together leaders from all over the North Shore to tell about our project and vision. It was attended by over 75 of the region’s government, educational, arts and workforce leaders, as well as interested makers and artists. Among others, here’s a short list of people who attended:
Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development: *Charles Gaeta, *Jeff Weeden, Mayor: *Tom McGee, Lynn EDIC: *Jim Cowdell, Lynn Department of Community Development: *James Marsh, EforAll: Kevin Moforte, Impact Lynn: *Norm Cole, Lynn Chamber of Commerce, St. Mary’s Board of Directors: Glenn Morris, Beyond Walls (Community Mural Project): Al Wilson, Amanda Hill, *Pedro Soto, Lynn Arts/Lynn Museum: *Drew Russo, MassDevelopment: Joe Mulligan, Lynn School Committee: *Michael A. Satterwhite, The Haven Project: Gini Mazman, North Shore Community College President Dr. Patricia Gentile ,Montserrat College of Art President Steve Immerman, KIPP Academy: Hugo Carvajal, Jay Galbraith, Representative *Brendan Crighton, Representative *Dan Cahill.
*Lynn residents
- March 9, 2018: The Brickyard joins the Northeast Massachusetts Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (NEM STEM) conference at North Shore Community College
- March 10, 2018: Pop-Up class registration at Land of a Thousand Hills: Meet, Greet and Sign Up! Over 60 people attended, with over 45 signups.
- March 25, 2018: We receive our EIN number from the IRS, appoint our Board, and join the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce Workforce and Economic Development Committee. Also this week was the HUD CDBG Community Advisory Committee hearing, where we presented supporting our application.
- April 5, 2018: “BrickStarter” drive launched, raising over $3500 in 30 days.
- April 6, 2018: We do an initial inventory and valuation of the equipment we have in storage, ready for use. The total valuation is over $16,000, at “used” pricing, including wood, metal, automotive, bicycle and motorcycle shops, along with imaging, sound and video studio equipment.
- April 18, 2018: The Brickyard Collaborative teams with the Lynn Public Library and their QuaranTEEN makerspace program.
- May 7, 2018: The Brickyard (FREE) Bike Project launched.
- May 10, 2018: Our Board is finalized with the addition of Karen Chacon.
- May 18, 2018: We reach out to potential members to build a list of space and needs requirements. Over a dozen potential full members respond.
- June 16, 2018: The Brickyard hosts BattleBots teams Overhaul and Brutus, from the Discovery Channel’s BattleBots series’ third season, in collaboration with the Lynn Public Library “Libraries Rock” summer reading launch. Over 150 people attend the event.
The Brickyard Collaborative: Current Status
- The Brickyard Collaborative has over 350 “fans and followers” on Facebook.
- We have a reach of roughly 400 people through our opt-in email lists, and are a member of the North Shore Creative Collaborative and the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, both organizations that promote events and activities of their members.
- We have approximately 75 people actively interested in our workshop and class offerings.
- We have approximately 25 people who’ve expressed interest in becoming paid monthly members, with modest space requirements.
- We’ve forged alliances with several organizations within the City of Lynn, most notably youth-oriented groups such as LaVida Scholoars, RAW Art Works, The Haven Project and the YMCA.
- We are active partners with the Lynn Public Library and their QuaranTEEN after school program, and lend them the support of our considerable network and equipment resources.
- We have been approved by the city for a grant request through the HUD CDBG program, and have several other grant applications submitted or in-process.
- We have received $3500 in donations through our “BrickStarter” campaign, and have over $5000 in donations of equipment in the last 2 months.
Our Immediate Objectives
Our most pressing goal is to secure a space to be able to offer classes and workshops, as well as offer paying members space and tools to work, establishing a base of support, as well as a reliable revenue stream.
Our business plan, based on considerable available data from currently operating makerspaces in similar communities, projects that we could become financially self-sufficient within 3-5 years.
Conclusion
Makerspaces have over 10 years of data supporting the conclusion that they are proven resources for teaching job skills to students, re-education of the existing workforce, sparking innovation, entrepreneurship and micro-manufacturing, in short, creating an economic foundation for long term, healthy growth across entire communities.
The Brickyard Collaborative team has proven that the community wants and needs this resource, in both the educational communities ranging from K – 12th grades, and the adult workforce.
The Brickyard Collaborative, as a makerspace that leverages the STEAM programs of the local schools, and the business and entrepreneurial mentorships of several active groups such as SCORE and EforALL, is poised to create opportunity in the City of Lynn that expands over decades of business, technological, creative and economic development.
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