2019 was a year to remember
In this video, we take a look back at some highlights from the past year…
In 2019, The Clubhouse Network received The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM), the USA’s highest honor in STEM mentoring. This year, The Network was awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The Makerspace Training, Collaboration and Hiring (MaTCH) Pilot Competition, recently launched by the SBA, provides funding to expand programs with job-specific and soft-skills training within existing makerspaces.
Several Clubhouses won an all-expenses-paid trip to Facebook’s headquarters in California for the Engineer for the Week summit. Facebook’s Engineer for the Week Achievement summit brings teens together to use computer science and engineering to address social issues.
We conducted our third Youth Impact Survey. Each year, The Clubhouse Network serves an estimated 25,000 youth. Because of our work, 91% of members say they’re better at following a project through from start to finish, an essential skill for success in school and the workplace. See more results of our 2019 survey as well as the combined results of this year and two years prior.
We hosted our largest Annual Conference in organization history. This important yearly milestone is professional development for our member-serving staff. In addition to that touchpoint, professional development took place at an additional four regional gatherings. In February, The Sci-Bono Clubhouse in Johannesburg hosted the first South Africa Regional Clubhouse Conference. In October, Clubhouse staff from across Latin America gathered in Panamá City, Panamá to share experience, knowledge, and resources. In December, we held regional gatherings for our West Coast USA sites as well as our Midwest USA sites. We’re currently planning a regional conference in Europe to take place in 2020.
In 2019, we welcomed many new sites into the Clubhouse family including:
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), St. Paul, MN, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Promise South Salt Lake, South Salt Lake City, UT, USA
- Rincón Clubhouse at Explora – Centro de Ciencias y Arte, Panamá City, Panamá
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Wallace Community College Selma, AL, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ MLK Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ St. Paul Downtown YMCA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Morefield Boys & Girls Club, Houston, TX, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club, St. Louis, MO, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club, Milwaukee, WI, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Detroit, MI, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Kings Highway Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- The Best Buy Teen Tech Center @ Wilson-Gray YMCA, Hartford, CT, USA
- Kaga Clubhouse, Kaga City, Japan
- The Clubhouse @ Redwood City Boys & Girls Club, Redwood City, CA, USA
The RE@CH Media Festival had record participation. The Clubhouse Network’s signature media event received 524 submissions. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!
Thanks to everyone in our far-reaching community who help helped make 2019 such a successful year. We look forward to an incredible 2020.