Strengthening the Community

Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou; Stéphane Fadanka; Nana Diapa Yanick; Elisée Jafsia; Nkolo Ateba Marthe Francine

9 Strengthening the Community

Besides infrastructure, the main element of a makerspace is its community. Indeed, members can be a real asset to the success of your makerspace; that is why it is important to strengthen your community. This can happen at three levels:

Individual level through e.g. capacity building
Organisational level through e.g. collaborations and partnerships
Large Public level through e.g. outreach activities.

Level 1: Capacity building

Thanks to the group dynamics occurring in makerspaces, the capacity building of members is encouraged through collaborative dynamics such as: mutual aid, peer-learning, collaborative work and peer-production. Whether it’s the sharing of knowledge, information, equipment or space, or the sense of mutual support that emerges among members, these practices contribute favourably to capacity building of makerspace members on a daily basis. Through these activities, they can acquire highly technical and general skills. Below is a list of skills and attributes which are of benefit to anyone running a makerspace.

General skills and attributes (Staff)

Tech and Maker Skills (members)

● Drive to help people build skills and confidence

● Engage in own learning and exploration

● Enjoy meeting new people and sharing ideas

● Work with project groups to help them achieve their project visions.

● Help learners to acquire skills with tools, tool safety, and other aspects of hands-on fabrication.

● Track use of consumable materials, re-order as needed.

● Ability to run safety training for all who use the makerspace; monitor that safety is practised at all times.

● Ability to lead workshop session

● Good level of digital awareness

● 2D Design and software knowledge

● 3D Design

● Graphics design

● Web design

● Understanding of programming languages and principles.

● Knowledge of programming languages the ability to code

● Electronics

● Video Editing and software applications

● Sound production

● Good with hands, fault finding, and tackling problems

● Wood working

● Metal Working

Level 2: Collaborations and partnerships

One of the best ways to help make your makerspace sustainable is to build your reputation by forging links with your local community, local businesses and other organisations within the STEAM (science, technology, education, arts and mathematics) sector. Indeed, many of the established makerspace were founded with the help and support of national, international and local community partners. Partnerships allow you to explore-in directions in which you don’t have current expertise, give you built- in audiences through your partner organisations, and build on alternate strengths. Collaboration can take the form of:

Technical support for local universities
Collaboration between the informal sector and makerspaces
Collaboration with other makerspaces and startups
Collaboration with informal Sector
International collaborations

Level 3 : Outreach activities

Workshops: Workshops can be a great way to build up an appetite for digital making within your area and can last as little as one or two hours. They usually focus upon one skill or task that can be completed within the time frame. If you already run a successful makerspace, you might want to start thinking about running a workshop to help get more local people into digital making.

Conferences: Conferences work well when you have already built up a range of contacts with businesses, digital organisations and community partners within your area. They take place in one to three days and offer an opportunity to showcase the work that you are doing, to learn about the latest developments within the STEAM sector and to network. Organizing or attending a conference can be a significant time commitment, so it is often best to partner up with another organisation to deliver the conference.
Holiday events: School holidays are an ideal time to engage with children and young adults as you will find that they often have an abundance of time. Activities, events and workshops offer an opportunity to explore new things, learn new skills, and meet new people.