The Building Hero Project, Our Young Adult Design Leadership + Entrepreneurship Program.

GREAT PRODUCTS BY YOUNG BUILDING HEROES THAT GROW AND SUPPORT EVEN MORE.

The Building Hero Project is Public Workshop’s young adult community design leadership and entrepreneurship program. The Building Heroes are a growing army of empowered and skilled young adult leaders and change agents who want to make our neighborhoods and Philadelphia in general, better places to live through design. Most Building Heroes rise out of Public Workshop’s youth-led community design-build improvement projects wanting to do much, much more. The Building Hero Project serves as our mechanism to support and grow these young ‘Building Heroes’ in Philadelphia and Camden into a powerful, connected army of community change agents, leaders and civic entrepreneurs.

By designing, fabricating and selling products that improve not only public spaces but also homes and everyday lives, the Building Heroes—teenage women, union carpenters, young designers—hone their skills, grow as a team and put cash in their pockets, ultimately enabling them to have more impact in Philadelphia and beyond.

Purchase the great products that they are fabricating and creating on the team’s Etsy Store.  The work of the Building Heroes was described by Fast Company as a ‘World Changing Idea‘ and also received excellent press here.

EACH PRODUCT IS-

Available for purchase and created/fabricated by a Building Hero.

Available as a Building Hero-led class at The Department of Making + Doing in which you learn how to make the product, use the necessary tools and help our Building Heroes hone their teaching and leadership skills.

A Building Hero Certification: a product-based design, teaching, entrepreneurship and fabrication training curricula for our Heroes.

Every single product arises out of a personal or public need identified by a Building Hero. With the purchase of each product, Building Heroes develop the necessary skills, inspiration and support to create and teach others how to make their own great things. We are already seeing the benefits of this approach and can’t wait to share new products as they develop in the coming months. Products that are already in the midst of refined prototyping include a ‘community bag’, a side table, wooden bicycle handlebar grips, ‘city’ planning blocks, and a DIY pop-up thank you card for encouraging community service.

WHEN YOU PURCHASE A BUILDING HERO PRODUCT-

A third of the cost pays a Building Hero for design and fabrication.

A third of the cost covers materials, tools, Building Hero marketing, transportation, etc..

A third of the cost pays for programming to support the Building Heroes and grow even more.

The Building Hero Project is based out of Public Workshop’s maker space in Philadelphia, The Department of Making + Doing that it co-founded and shares with STEAM Initiatives, The Hacktory and NextFab Studio.

With a full wood shop, laser cutter, vinyl cutter, 3-D printer, soldering irons, sewing machines, and much more, people of all ages and backgrounds have the opportunity to make great things in our space. The Department of Making + Doing is particularly unique in the world of maker spaces because of the tremendous diversity of people who use and bump against one another in the space. The Building Heroes will be happy to give you a tour.

CHEERLEAD FOR OUR INCREDIBLE TEAM OF BUILDING HEROES!

Tiarra and Tamira Bell (17, high school students), Wynn Geary (18, high school student), Coby Unger (24, industrial designer + Autodesk Foundation Fellow), Akh Jones (30, union carpenter and builder), Ryan Burke (16, high school student), Zhi Zhang (16, high school student), Sam Wittchen (34, writer-harpist-engineer-illustrator), Will Soto (23, skateboarder), Tiffany Perez (18, high school student), Troy Taylor (16, high school student), Kate Zmich (27, playground manager), Kaycie Chute (24, Etsy Store manager, industrial designer), Danny Meservey (22, industrial design student), Keeley Flack (23, industrial designer), Lindsey Jones (17, high school student), Nick Nawa (22, industrial design student), Mike Darfler (29, Dept of Making + Doing Program Manager, builder), Leia Nightshade (17, high school student), Darnell Morris (19, college student and Community Connector at Peoples Emergency Center)