STEM LAB Concept paper
New life movement historical background |
New Life Movement (NLM) was founded by Bendrick Foster, a Richmond native and current resident who grew up in the Park Plaza neighborhood on the city's Southside. After dropping out of school completely in the 9th grade, Bendrick began dealing drugs, carrying guns, and hustling on the streets of Richmond, where he earned a great deal of respect and authority from others involved in similar activities. In 2014, however, Bendrick decided to turn his life around and share the lessons of his own challenging experiences growing up in Richmond with younger generations of at-risk youth, guiding them toward positive, fulfilling lives through intentional outreach and mentorship.
Since its inception in 2014, NLM's youth development programming has been almost entirely funded through the personal finances of Bendrick, his wife Chanae Foster-Delgado, and NLM board president William Zeier. By taking out loans, the core NLM team was able to purchase three commercial spaces in the heart of downtown Richmond's Iron Triangle neighborhood - one of the most under-resourced areas in the city. One space serves as NLM's Resource Hub, where vulnerable youth from local schools come to participate in programs geared toward life-skill development, violence prevention, and conflict resolution. The second space is the New Life Café, which sells fresh, healthy food (a rarity in the Iron Triangle's “food desert”) to the local community. Proceeds from New Life Café's food sales are used to support NLM's programming, and the café itself is also used as a vocational training space for high school-age Richmond youth.
The third commercial space, and the focus of this concept note, is the New Life Movement STEM Lab. NLM is actively seeking funds to purchase state-of-the-art laptops, 3D printing materials, screen printing materials, digital design software, and more in order to get the STEM lab up and running. While the technology is being secured, NLM will also be raising funds to hire graphic design, web design, manufacturing, and financial literacy instructors to guide our students through STEM programs aimed at developing interest in and providing access to the tools and skills needed to become productive members of the modern workplace. The New Life Movement STEM Lab will be the first in the Iron Triangle neighborhood, and one of only a select few in the entire Richmond area to focus solely on our community's most vulnerable youth.
Since its inception in 2014, NLM's youth development programming has been almost entirely funded through the personal finances of Bendrick, his wife Chanae Foster-Delgado, and NLM board president William Zeier. By taking out loans, the core NLM team was able to purchase three commercial spaces in the heart of downtown Richmond's Iron Triangle neighborhood - one of the most under-resourced areas in the city. One space serves as NLM's Resource Hub, where vulnerable youth from local schools come to participate in programs geared toward life-skill development, violence prevention, and conflict resolution. The second space is the New Life Café, which sells fresh, healthy food (a rarity in the Iron Triangle's “food desert”) to the local community. Proceeds from New Life Café's food sales are used to support NLM's programming, and the café itself is also used as a vocational training space for high school-age Richmond youth.
The third commercial space, and the focus of this concept note, is the New Life Movement STEM Lab. NLM is actively seeking funds to purchase state-of-the-art laptops, 3D printing materials, screen printing materials, digital design software, and more in order to get the STEM lab up and running. While the technology is being secured, NLM will also be raising funds to hire graphic design, web design, manufacturing, and financial literacy instructors to guide our students through STEM programs aimed at developing interest in and providing access to the tools and skills needed to become productive members of the modern workplace. The New Life Movement STEM Lab will be the first in the Iron Triangle neighborhood, and one of only a select few in the entire Richmond area to focus solely on our community's most vulnerable youth.
Why a STEM Lab in the Iron Triangle?
The New Life Movement STEM Lab is committed to providing Richmond's low-income, vulnerable youth with an outlet for their creative energy. The lab's focus is to make education and entrepreneurship fun by teaching accountability and ownership through programs based around the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The location of the lab is crucial to engaging at-risk young people in our community: when our students enter the secure, modern, Iron Triangle-based STEM lab, our aim is to create a sense of belonging (given that STEM labs are uncommon in low-income neighborhoods), and for our students to begin to show signs of increased self-confidence and competency as our mentors and instructors guide them through activities that lift up their inherent strengths. Through these activities, students will develop positive life skills, growth-minded behaviors, and the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to become positive assets in the workforce and in the community as a whole. Our mentors and instructors are also trained in person-in-environment practices, which increase their ability to identify and respond mindfully to environmental factors that maybe affecting participants' behavior and/or level of engagement with program activities.
NLM STEM Lab at our Open House Kickoff Event
Designer of the Year:
A New Life Movement stem lab signature program
One of our STEM lab's signature programs that we hope to grow with the funds raised for this project is called Designer of the Year (DOTY). New Life Movement's Designer of the Year program engages students ages 12-17 in the design, manufacture, and sale of their own clothing, with the goal of cultivating skills necessary for healthy social development and successful entrepreneurship. Students in the DOTY program increase both their self-esteem and self-efficacy, as well as skills related to leadership, time management, and negotiation by learning how to manage the realities of running a small business (i.e. working with diverse groups of people, tracking projects, meeting deadlines, creating budgets, marketing, etc).
Each session of the DOTY program runs for 12 weeks, with 1-2 meeting times per week in New Life Movement's STEM lab in the heart of downtown Richmond. Students learn the basics of digital graphic design, web design, screen printing, apparel manufacturing, marketing, and financial literacy from 4 dedicated instructors, culminating in an end-of-session event/career fair where students are able to show off and sell their new products, as well as engage with other businesses/organizations around potential career opportunities and initiatives seeking to create positive change in the community. Upon completion of the program, students will have cultivated a foundational set of socio-emotional and entrepreneurial skills needed to create positive interpersonal and professional life outcomes, and will also have their own bank accounts and websites set up to continue growing their businesses on their own if they so choose.
As our STEM Lab grows, we plan to add additional programs focused on solar energy and coding.
Our vision for the New Life Movement STEM Lab is that it becomes a premier location for the vulnerable youth of Richmond and greater Contra Costa County to learn the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to create wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities in our rapidly modernizing world. By becoming versed in STEM-related skills and learning the socio-emotional tools needed to create authentic personal and professional connections, students in our STEM programs will be well positioned to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and lift up the inherent beauty and potential of the communities in which they live.
Each session of the DOTY program runs for 12 weeks, with 1-2 meeting times per week in New Life Movement's STEM lab in the heart of downtown Richmond. Students learn the basics of digital graphic design, web design, screen printing, apparel manufacturing, marketing, and financial literacy from 4 dedicated instructors, culminating in an end-of-session event/career fair where students are able to show off and sell their new products, as well as engage with other businesses/organizations around potential career opportunities and initiatives seeking to create positive change in the community. Upon completion of the program, students will have cultivated a foundational set of socio-emotional and entrepreneurial skills needed to create positive interpersonal and professional life outcomes, and will also have their own bank accounts and websites set up to continue growing their businesses on their own if they so choose.
As our STEM Lab grows, we plan to add additional programs focused on solar energy and coding.
Our vision for the New Life Movement STEM Lab is that it becomes a premier location for the vulnerable youth of Richmond and greater Contra Costa County to learn the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to create wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities in our rapidly modernizing world. By becoming versed in STEM-related skills and learning the socio-emotional tools needed to create authentic personal and professional connections, students in our STEM programs will be well positioned to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and lift up the inherent beauty and potential of the communities in which they live.
What the New Life Movement STEM Lab Needs
Generous investments from the greater Bay Area community will allow us to achieve our dream of providing vulnerable Richmond youth (who have historically had very limited access to community assets that help their wealthier counterparts to thrive in the modern economy) with a state-of-the-art STEM lab in the heart of downtown Richmond. Below is a list of the equipment, personnel, and costs for each needed to kickstart our STEM programming. We graciously receive any support the community is able to provide toward securing funding for this exciting and impactful project!
*NLM Mentor (15 minutes of mentoring per student, one-on-one in Resource Center next door to STEM lab. Sessions focus on social-emotional/life skill development that supports path to entrepreneurship;
12 hours per week total mentoring time for 48 students)
12 hours per week total mentoring time for 48 students)
Our Vision for the New Life Movement
(Side Hustlez) STEM Lab
Below you will find a picture of the empty STEM lab Space, followed by a series of mock-ups illustrating how we envision it to look once we have secured the necessary equipment to begin running our programs:
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All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. For more information about how you can support our STEM programming, please contact Bendrick Foster at [email protected]
Tax ID: 47-4137233
Tax ID: 47-4137233