Maker Education and Adventure Play For All

K-12 STEAM education

West LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Too many children ages 8-15 in Los Angeles lack access to safe spaces to play creatively and learn independently. Arts education in schools is underfunded, and few offer free or low-cost places for hands-on learning. This disproportionately affects youth from under-resourced communities, who miss opportunities to build skills, confidence, and social connections with their peers.
Childhood has become structured around constrictive curriculum, addictive media, transportation restrictions, and a stressful emphasis on “career-readiness”. STEAM education is largely about studying for a test or reproducing someone else's ideas. Rediscover aims to shift this paradigm. We create places where kids can explore ideas at their own paces with like-minded thinkers, makers, and doers. Where there are no rules beyond being safe, filled with creative reuse materials that they can turn into whatever they want, from a musical instrument, to a fantastic costume, to a robot sculpture.

This grant will support the first of two phases to create Southern California’s largest facility for creative play and making for youth ages 8-15.
In Phase I, Rediscover will launch a 6,000-square-foot public makerspace adjacent to Santa Monica Airport. This hub will provide free and low-cost programs in woodworking, crafting, and creative reuse, empowering 3,000+ youth to use real tools and materials to build imaginative projects. It will be a cornerstone for STEAM education and play on the Westside, with field trip accessibility for schools from across LA County.
This new facility will help launch Phase II of our long-term vision for play in Los Angeles: the creation of LA’s first Adventure Playground. This two acre Playground will border the makerspace on the former 200 acre Santa Monica Airport campus, scheduled to open in 2029 as Santa Monica's Great Park. The Playground will incorporate free play and loose parts in a safe, outdoor setting that appeals to youth and teens.
With experience in woodworking and community programming, we are uniquely suited to create and operate this Adventure Playground. Facilitated by our staff, youth will turn recycled materials into art, full scale structures, and innovative creations.
The makerspace and the Adventure Playground will complement one another to provide multiple modes of making, classes, and free play. With 20 years of experience facilitating similar activities at a smaller scale, we know youth will love these settings.

If we are successful, Los Angeles County will have the largest public youth makerspace in Southern California and its first permanent Adventure Playground. Thousands of children, including those from underserved communities, will have access to a year-round space to express themselves creatively while building skills in STEAM disciplines.
Our long-term goal is to create a replicable, self-sustaining LA Adventure Playground model that can work in communities across LA County. Every youth ages 8-15 should have the opportunity for hands-on creative play. Youth can spend less time on their screens and instead use real tools and materials to create at a level of sophistication that fits their skills.
We already operate two public youth makerspaces in Mid City and Venice. These Centers facilitate hands-on making for youth from underserved communities and Title I schools at low or no cost. A new makerspace in Santa Monica will add to this growing makerspace network across Los Angeles.