Sawhorse Revolution

Mission

Sawhorse Revolution fosters confident, community-oriented youth through the power of carpentry and craft. Sawhorse Revolution seeks to provide trades, skills, career, arts and leadership training for Seattle's young people furthest from educational justice, offering free-of-cost carpentry and design education programs for students primarily in Central and South Seattle neighborhoods.

We are the only organization in our region offering free-of-cost, holistic carpentry and design programs to some of the most vulnerable and diverse youth in the city. Sawhorse Revolution is inspired to create equitable change within a framework of “feet-on-the-ground” education, empowerment, and leadership, in and for our community.

Why Give? 

Your contribution to Sawhorse Revolution will directly benefit a more equitable, intersectional vision of the future of architecture, design, and community engagement. We deeply value the opportunity to support our neighbors through unique build projects, and we see the effects ripple out with huge impact throughout our city.

Your donation supports:
+ Teens learning carpentry and architecture through the creation of a project that benefits the community
+ Long-term infrastructure for grassroots organizations
+ Youth collaborating on thoughtful, creative approaches to systemic issues
+ Early career exploration and meaningful mentorship from caring adults

Our Goal: 
Our goal is to raise $15,000 through GiveBIG to support our Resilient Environments Laboratory programs: a series of thoughtful, collaborative, community-centric carpentry and design programs that interrogate pressing concerns facing our region.

"RELab" is a free-of-cost, hands-on educational program that empowers majority BIPOC and/or low-income high-school aged youth to play a leading role in environmentally conscious community development efforts. Examples of past Re-Lab projects include a mobile Community Kitchen, a Mutual Aid Kiosk with a Seed Library, and currently under construction: a Rematriation Pavilion for a Yehaw Indigenous Creatives Collective  - check out photos below! 

$15,000 would cover half our budgeted funds currently under threat of withdrawal from the National Endowment for the Arts, in light of the new administration's calls for shuttering the agency and restructuring Arts funding priorities.  

Project History:
Since 2012, Sawhorse Revolution has offered free-of-cost, holistic, hands-on design and build programming for teens furthest from educational justice. In 2022, we expanded our year-long design build programs to include a deeper dive into sensitive, high level issues like homelessness, community wellness, mutual aid, and more.

Our ultimate goal is for young people participating in ReLab programs to be able to read, interpret, and act on data about their environment- and then develop skills in construction and architecture by designing and building projects for their communities. Our high school youth are more than ready to take on these issues with respect, creativity, and hope.