The Clubhouse Network, often shortened to "The Clubhouse," is an American nonprofit organization that provides a free out-of-school learning program where children (ages 10–19) from lower-income communities can work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop new skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology.
Its motto is "Where Technology Meets Imagination."
Initially founded in 1993 as the Computer Clubhouse, The Clubhouse is the brainchild of
Mitchel Resnick
Mitchel Resnick (born June 12, 1956) is an American computer scientist. He is the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, and is the founder of Scratch. , Resnick serves as head ...
and
Natalie Rusk of the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, and Stina Cooke of
Boston's Computer Museum.
[1998, Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Cooke, S. "The Computer Clubhouse: Technological Fluency in the Inner City", published in: ''High Technology and Low-Income Communities''edited by D. Schon, B. Sanyal, and W. Mitchell, ]MIT Press
The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
.
Online version
retrieved on October 18, 2007.
From 2000 - 2015, with an investment of over $50 million from
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
, ''The Clubhouse Network'' grew to support nearly 100 community-based Clubhouses in 18 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, Palestine, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, South Africa, and the United States.
[Locations](_blank)
at theclubhousenetwork.org, retrieved on March 8, 2016.
In 2012,
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...
partnered with The Clubhouse Network to launch multiple learning sites throughout the U.S., operating under the name "Best Buy Teen Tech Centers." The Clubhouse Network provides access to resources, skills, and experience to 25,000 youth per year.
[Mission & Vision](_blank)
at theclubhousenetwork.org, retrieved on March 8, 2016.
From 2000 to 2017, led by longtime Executive Director Gail Breslow,
The Clubhouse Network was part of the
Museum of Science, Boston
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a nature and science museum and indoor zoological establishment located in Science Park, a plot of land in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, ...
. In 2018, it was separated from the Museum and relocated to
Dudley Square
Nubian Square (formerly Dudley Square) is the primary commercial center of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located at the intersection of Dudley Street and Washington Street. It has long been the center of African America ...
in the heart of
Roxbury. The Board of Directors selected Lisa Cook to assume the role of Executive Director in 2022. Under Cook's leadership, The Clubhouse portfolio has expanded from 110 program sites to 160 Clubhouses in 21 countries.
In 1997, The Clubhouse won the
Peter F. Drucker Award for Non-Profit Innovation.
In 2016, The Clubhouse partnered with the MIT Media Lab and
Maker Media to publish ''Start Making! A Guide To Engaging Young People in Maker Activities.''
Clubhouses have been utilized as the proving ground for a number of projects of the MIT Media Lab's "Lifelong Kindergarten" research group. Notable examples include:
*
Lego Mindstorms
Lego Mindstorms (sometimes stylized as ''LEGO MINDSTORMS'') is a discontinued line of educational kits for building programmable robots based on Lego bricks. It was introduced on 1 September 1998 and discontinued on 31 December 2022.
Mindstor ...
programmable bricks, a late 20th-century robotic construction toy.
* PICO
programmable Crickets, early 21st-century programmable toys for art construction projects
*
Scratch
Scratch or scratching may refer to:
Science and technology
* Scratch (programming language), an educational programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab
* Scratch space, space on the hard disk drive that is dedicated for only temporary ...
, a 21st-century multimedia programming language for young people.
[
2004, Maloney, J., Burd, L., Kafai, Y., Rusk, N., Silverman, B. and Resnick, M., "Scratch: A Sneak Preview. Second International Conference on Creating, Connecting, and Collaborating through Computing, Kyoto, Japan, pp. 104-109.]
Online version
retrieved on October 18, 2007.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://theclubhousenetwork.org
The Clubhouse VillageGlobal RE@CH Media Festival
Youth development organizations
After school programs
International educational charities
United States educational programs
Project-based learning
Educational charities based in the United States
Youth organizations based in Massachusetts