Hosted by Adam Nishimura, Sarah Smith, Kyle Nunes, Mia Palomo, May Ackerman, Micah Stanovsky

Find out more and get contact info at http://www.sawhorserevolution.org/

The Sawhorse Revolution builds upon the sturdy foundation of two youth construction Fortnight Camps held at the Rubicon Foundation’s rural Smoke Farm, and a successful after school pilot program. Over the past two years, King and Snohomish County youth have come to Fortnight at Smoke Farm to plan, design, and build a robust, safe and sustainably constructed nature observatory thirty feet up a Douglas fir. The students of Sawhorse Revolution, our after-school construction program have created a beautiful handcrafted workbench that they and other students will be able to use in future projects, and which will model the impact and place the youths’ work can have for others.

The focus of Sawhorse Revolution is on woodworking and construction skills, key areas of manual intelligence that are increasingly neglected or cut from recession-fraught school budgets. The need for an education inclusive of experiential learning opportunities grows as public schools continue to scale back spending on extra-curricular activities and vocational and life-skills courses. This is especially true of high schools in under-served neighborhoods, and for children from low-income backgrounds. These are the primary areas for Sawhorse student outreach and recruitment as we seek to enhance educative experiences where the need is greatest.

After two years of highly successful programming, Sawhorse Revolution is growing quickly. Our after school programming will expand during the 2012 – 2013 school year, as we invite more students to participate and build on solid partnerships. Sawhorse Revolution has strong relationships with a variety of organizations and schools that seek to provide students with hands-on education. We work closely with the shop teachers and counselors at West Seattle, Chief Sealth, Franklin, Nova, and Garfield public high schools to ensure our student recruitment extends to a diverse range of both young men and women. We have also been working with the Seattle Central Community College carpentry program, the Center for Wooden Boats, Coyote Central, and the West Seattle Tool Library to recruit knowledgeable and experienced builders and counselors. Our partnerships are reciprocal, thus we also encourage our students to learn about our partner organizations. By developing a strong citywide network of hands-on education, we hope to connect our students to additional programs and resources beyond our own.

Find out more and get contact info at http://www.sawhorserevolution.org/