MakeHaven equips people with tools to design, invent and create. Everything we do sits under three focus areas. Programs are the things you can sign up for; initiatives are ongoing efforts with their own equipment, badges and community; and the standing services are open to every member every day.
Exploration & Empowerment
Access to tools, knowledge and a creative community, so that anyone can start making and keep going.
- Community workshop: 24/7 member access to the woodshop, textile lab, prototyping equipment, digital fabrication tools and machine shop. Membership · Book a tour
- Facilitators and badging: more than 20 volunteer experts who provide tool training, safety checks and project guidance. Badges · Facilitator schedules
- Public meetups: recurring groups around shared interests, open to members and the public. Upcoming events · Calendar
- Workshops and classes: ticketed sessions to learn a tool or make a thing in an evening. Workshops · Private classes · Team-building
- Precious Plastic (initiative): shredders, injection molders and a compression oven for turning plastic waste into new things; badges, a monthly clinic, and a place in the global Precious Plastic network.
- Amateur radio: the HAM station and the Level 1 Technician licence class.
- Hosting: university classes, veterans' groups and a high-school competitive robotics team use MakeHaven as their build and learning space. See our partners.
Employment Skills & Certification
Cohort programs and certificates that build tangible skills for careers in fabrication and the trades.
- GEMS: a guided, ten-week introduction to the tools, technology and skills in the makerspace, then GEMS Alumni to keep going.
- Foundations of Fabrication: an 18-week, instructor-led cohort across 15+ skill areas, ending with a portfolio.
- Pathway to Trades: a 12-week pre-apprentice program in woodworking and metalworking, with badges and a starter portfolio.
- The Art of Sewing: a multi-week clothing-creation course, run publicly or with a partner organization for its own participants.
- WCA Sawblade Certification: a credential from the Woodworking Career Alliance, offered when there is an instructor to run it.
See all programs and what is open now →
Business Incubation
Resources, mentorship and space for entrepreneurs and small ventures to grow.
- Workspace rental: low-cost, month-to-month studios and co-working desks.
- Startup coaching: guidance from volunteers trained by the Small Business Administration.
- Prototype-to-product pipeline: resources to take an idea from concept to production.
- Seminars and networking: sessions on intellectual property, marketing and design for manufacturing, and a broad network of entrepreneurs, fabricators and support services. Making a business at MakeHaven
Working with organizations
Schools, colleges, agencies and companies host their classes here, run our programs for their own people, or build something new with us. How that works, and who we work with today, is on the Partners page.