Girls Garage

Girls Garage is a nonprofit design and construction school for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9-18 in the Bay Area. Founded in 2013, Girls Garage is the first-ever design and building workshop for female, non-binary, trans and gender-expansive youth in the United States. 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. Under the supervision of our highly skilled female and non-binary staff, our students acquire the tools to build the world they want to see through integrating technical skills, college and career guidance, and community leadership. We believe that the act of design and building expands our students’ sense of power and agency. To date, participants have built 190 projects ranging from a geodesic dome for the Eames Institute and furniture for a transitional housing shelter to a giant toolbox float for the San Francisco Pride Parade and a 500-square foot chicken pavilion for an urban farm. All projects are designed and built pro bono for our nonprofit clients to maximize our community impact.

Girls Garage is also recognized locally and nationally: we were nominated through Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a YBCA100 for our work in the community, and were awarded for the 2021 East Bay Innovation Awards in Education. Our iconic and rigorous programs have been highlighted by Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Mission Unstoppable, TIME magazine, CNN, and Pivotal Venture’s Annual Report. 

Girls Garage is committed to increasing the representation of women, gender-expansive people, and people of color in the trades, design, engineering and architecture industries. To support the next generation of fearless builders, we design our programs to include field trips, site visits, panel discussions, and skill sharing with professional women in these particular industries, allowing our students to witness potential career paths for themselves. Early exposure goes a long way—more than 60% of our graduates go on to college programs and careers in the trades (carpentry, welding, construction management), architecture, or engineering, and 96% say that they are more confident to enter any career they may choose.