Side Street Projects operates highly successful mobile woodworking shop for Los Angeles youth.
John W. Lewman Toy Designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
Side Street says: Since 1997, over 15,000 kids in LA County have thrived aboard our Woodworking Buses — mobile wood shops aboard renovated transit buses where kids age 5-11 learn about art, design, and engineering using only hand tools, raw materials, and their imagination. Each Woodworking Bus has 10 height-adjustable workstations custom made for children. Each station is equipped with saws, hand drills, screwdrivers, supplies and materials: everything needed to create a multitude of projects using white pine as the primary material. There are two artist-teachers per bus, providing a 5:1 student/teacher ratio at all times.
We created this program in response to the lack of visual arts (and manual arts) programs in LA County public schools. Our goal is to teach children how to use tools safely, effectively and (ultimately) independent of adult assistance. Kids make a variety of projects that increase in complexity as they progress through the program. They accumulate a working knowledge of techniques like as sanding, sawing, shaping, drilling, setting screws, using clamps, hammering, and incising. After only a few sessions on the bus, kids are confident and competent enough to create projects of their own unique design. This is the program’s ultimate goal.
http://sidestreet.org/woodbus/
