Who Runs Programs/Events?

We have no paid facilitators who are offering programs. All of our programs, workshops, and camps are run by:

Parents who are either offering programs/activities their children are interested in or offering programs/activities for other people while their children/youth are learning from other people
Volunteers who would really like to pass their knowledge on to others — retired engineers, stay-at-home parents, young people wanting to be involved in tech in their off-work hours, empty-nesters who want to be engaged in the energy of multiple-age learning.
Our Youth Empowerment HUB of 10 yo to college-age students who are gaining powerful leadership and entrepreneurship skills and who are mentored by… parents and volunteers!

The Forge’s Newly Developed Learning Model: D-ELL

We use our learning model, D-ELL (Discover, Explore, Learn, Lead), to describe the journey of learning in an informal STEAM environment. Discover often happens in moments — that exposure to a new idea or next technology. Explore is the stage of learning of those who have discovered an area that’s interesting, exciting and intriguing to them. Exploring is a critical step in understanding new technologies, new ways of doing things. It’s a step where people figure out the problem space they’re looking at; trying new things. Learn is the next step with more intentional purpose. And those who have explored and learned, cement those skills by leading — by showing others, by mentoring, by being role models, by teaching. It’s the place where great things can happen with the confidence and skills behind it.

The Forge Initiative is a 501(c)(3) community-based non-profit in Cary, NC fully supported through the generosity of members, sponsors and individual donors. EIN 27-3380977