Focus Area: Youth Development

Grant Amount: $9,000

Located in Minneapolis. CreateMpls brings quality, hands-on STEM programming to underserved inner-city Minneapolis students, helping these students gain experience in coding, robotics, and app development and preparing them to become successful leaders in Minnesota’s technology-driven workforce. It particularly focuses on economically vulnerable and underrepresented students in tech, especially females and BIPOC students. It works in a variety of charter and private schools and connects with afterschool programs in churches and community programs.

Grant supports createMpls’s learning labs for K-5th graders conducted before and after school and during summer enrichment programs. Students learn to read and write code, design and program robots, build mobile applications, 3D print, and build, code, and fly drones. createMpls’s tech learning opportunities build on one another, establishing a foundation of knowledge and confidence that empowers young people to succeed.