Create, Explore, IMAGINE with YMC
The Youth Maker Collective believes that through exploration, skill building, and mentored innovation, we can empower a community of youth to learn through the lens of their own vision and build the world they imagine.
INSPIRING YOUNG INNOVATORS
At Ithaca's YMC, kids learn to build, create, and explore, using real tools and recycled materials. Some classes will be for specific end products, while others will be more open-ended, providing space and time for simple tinkering, exploration, and innovation. Our programming is designed to inspire and build community around innovation.
WE BUILD 21ST CENTURY
THINKERS & DOERS.
Opportunity For Innovation
YMC will foster innovation through hands-on experimentation. Children will have the opportunity to be creative, collaborate with peers to problem solve and apply their personalized strategies to reimagine existing concepts as they imagine them, bringing their own ideas to life.
A Safe Space To Work Through Failure
All innovation involves a leap of faith, but taking that leap requires a feeling of safety. At the YMC, children will learn to support and uplift each other as well as themselves, as they take these leaps to develop , test, evaluate and modify their ideas and methods,. They will not only learn to work through their frustration and other big feelings that set in when things don’t go as planned, to embrace it as part of the process!
Access and Sustainability
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Diverse Collaboration
Research shows that children with a higher socio-economic status have greater access to makerspaces. Analysis also shows that youth who visited makerspaces are more likely to express interest in starting their own businesses. At the YMC, we are committed to equitable access to our program to fill this gap, and because we know the best ideas spark when people from diverse backgrounds come together in collaboration.
Building 21st century thinkers means providing opportunities for youth to exercise those executive functioning muscles. Simply put, we teach kids to think on their feet. At the YMC, youth will think critically, plan, problem solve, communicate and execute their ideas. More importantly, they will develop confidence and a sense of agency that they can carry with them into the future.
Get In Touch
Reach out to us for inquiries about classes, community events, or to learn more about YMC.