SoLa Tech & Entrepreneurship Center for kids is buzzing with energy
SoLa I CAN Foundation’s iMac Lab
In July, we had the opportunity to visit the SoLa Impact Technology & Entrepreneurship Center’s 2021 Summer Camp and take a tour of the incredible SoLa Beehive with SoLa Impact’s Chief Impact Officer Sherri Francois.
SoLa Impact and it’s nonprofit affiliate, the SoLa I CAN Foundation, work to end homelessness and create access to bridge the opportunity gap in South Los Angeles. SoLa Impact is a family of social impact real estate funds with a double bottom line strategy focused on preserving, refreshing, and creating high-quality affordable housing in low-income communities. The SoLa I CAN Foundation (est. 2017) works to end intergenerational poverty in South LA through community development and opening access to economic opportunity.
The Beehive is an incredible 4.5 acre campus with 100,000 sq ft of rentable space that houses not only the Technology & Entrepreneurship Summer Camp for kids, but also the first Black-owned craft brewery in California, a Black-owned and designed art gallery for South LA emerging creatives, a health-conscious restaurant, an art walk, and the SoLa Impact HQ.
It’s still an under-development work-in-progress but the energy is already palpable. We were blown away by the truly inspiring community space.
But the main event with our visit was to see the incredible Tech & Entrepreneurship Summer camp for youth ages 10-14, which had 160 kids enrolled in the program since it first launched on June 14. There has been such high demand for the summer camp that the SoLa team has had to extend the camp by three more weeks to provide even more students access to the week-long interdisciplinary camps that offer learning and creative opportunities for art, marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership, community and more.
We were able to facilitate a donation of 100 desks from Cruise to the SoLa I CAN Foundation’s iMac Lab. Because of SoLa’s summer camp, 160 students are getting hands-on experience in animation, video game development, marketing, content creation, web design and more. The students have been able to tinker, play and learn in the retro gaming center, VR center and in the outdoor spaces at the Beehive.
But SoLa isn’t stopping there — phase two of construction begins in earnest in August. SoLa is expanding the tech center to include an eSports arena and video game design lab, audio recording and digital production studio, forty additional computers, a robust entrepreneurship program and much more.
The kids have been so excited to spend time in the space, even going so far as to ask their parents to drop them off earlier in the day so they could maximize the amount of time they could spend at the Center. Older kids return as “camp counselors” which keeps the cycle of good going by teaching them leadership skills and accountability as they give back to younger kids who benefit from their guidance.
It’s inspiring to see how the Beehive campus is serving the South LA community with SoLa’s youth initiatives and beyond. We at reWerk can’t wait to see what’s next and continue supporting them and their incredible mission.
“We believe that ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ We want this tech center to inspire and train the next generation of Black and brown tech professionals and leaders from South LA. We want to show them what is possible because we know our youth don’t lack the drive or intelligence to succeed — it is about access to opportunity. Thank you, reWerk, for your support. Our students love the desks! The response from the community to this Center has been enormous. And we’re just getting started. ”