Learn about Girls Garage, a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth. See the projects built by the students and gain insight into the classes that empower students to build the world they want to see.

This event is open to the public!

Members, look for the Evite in your email and please RSVP by January 15

Guest Speaker, Kristy Higares of Girls Garage, will share background and detailed information about this extraordinary, first of its kind organization. She will wow us with descriptions of the great design projects their students have built at their local site where the girls learn to “Fear Less. Build More.”

Through after-school and summer pathways, Girls Garage provides free and low-cost programs in carpentry, welding, architecture, engineering, and activist art to a diverse community of 200 students per year. Their programs equip youth with tools to build the world they want to see through integrating technical skills, college and career guidance, and community leadership.

To date, participants have built 184 projects ranging from a geodesic dome for the Eames Institute, book benches, shelves, and displays for a transitional housing shelter, furniture for a domestic abuse shelter to a greenhouse for a community garden and 500 square foot chicken pavilion for an urban farm. Learn more about Girls Garage here: https://girlsgarage.org/

Kristy is an educator, writer, and arts administrator who has worked for over 20 years serving schools and communities in Oakland. She is inspired by the intersection of arts, education, community, and impact. Her passion and vision have been motivated by her work with Bay Area teens at The Crucible, an industrial art school in West Oakland, where she worked for 12 years.

In 2010, Kristy was honored with a Jefferson Award in Public Service for her work at The Crucible, which included managing educational programs, teambuilding, volunteer and workforce development programs, studio operations, public art, and events.

She was an YBCA Equity Fellow in 2016 and created a photojournalism exhibit, interviewing and documenting residents in Oakland along International Boulevard.