For the first time, our maker-space is going to offer a complete educational program that consists of 4 different engineer and artistic disciplines. We want to transmit basic knowledge of fabrication and professional practices – aiming to empower local community and connect people. Learned techniques can be applied in our workshop and products can be taken home. All courses are interactive, integrative, professional and don’t expect any previous knowledge. We present: Maker-University.

village neighborhood Benimaclet, outdoor area of València, Spain.

In the surrounding neighborhoods and villages there is very a high rate of unemployment and immigration. Besides local students that come from rural areas of Spain there are also international students living around. Positively can be mentioned, that there are also many social movements arising which try to find grass-root movements to combat injustice. Lately also local businesses about local consume and plastic-free consume were opened.

First of all, our workshop and programs are open for everybody who is interested in participating. However, we want to build synergies with partner associations and diversify our educational program exclusively for distinct groups of people to raise accessibility for those who might feel vulnerable in big groups. Especially we want to offer courses for women only and encourage them to continues as member of our association as well. Another group of focus are migrants, that we are trying to animate to integrate by learning in a safe environment and listen also their skills. Also there is the idea to offer special programs for female migrants only.

Basically, we are already able to execute our project idea and have already gained experience in offering single workshops. Now it would be necessary to bring the whole concept to a next level. We want to develop a own website, thus the concept can be better shared with other interested and reach more people. Also we would like then to invest in some new tools and facilities, to be able to always guarantee the highest standard of quality and expertise.

In the first step, the success of the project can be rated by the number of participants in our workshops. Further, the growth of our community can be visualized by both, online - by follower in social networks and offline - by members of our association. We especially hope also, to raise the quote of our female members. Which lays at the moment around 25%. Last, but not least, we also hope to assure the solvency of the project, which always depends on local participation and can be measured by received donations. However, in the end it is our biggest success if we are able to raise the sensibility for social and environmental topics and promote the idea of a healthy circular economy.

Our association "Benimakers" and maker community believes that the ability to fabricate your own furniture, repair your own toaster or simply experiment with programming can facilitate independence, confront consumption and awaken humans’ vibrant curiosity. We share our concepts with other association and are frequently asked for our help. All shared knowledge is accumulated by our growing democratic multicultural maker community and based on social and environmental-friendly values. Besides education we organize open days, support local markets and are counting already with more than 30 members.

We are all motivated by the vibrant atmosphere we have already created together. We share environment ideas and want to do a positive impact on our local community. Besides technical projects or recycling ideas we want to feel social movement.

Collaborations with entities for usage of tools = 400€
Consumable = 300€
Publicity / Flyer / Website = 300€
New tools = 2000€
Improving facilities = 1000€

Not included are 2000€, which reflect the equivalent of our fixed costs (e.g. rent) for realizing maker-university. However, we accumulate those costs by subscriptions of members & donations.

In case of offering our program also to other associations, and do it more frequently, we would also like to ask for cost of transport & meals.

Anykind, Especially, in respect to Covid-19 crisis, we consider now to offer the Maker-University program online. Thus, it would be interesting, if other rural areas would be interested in participating.