Overview

The Build-A-Bike Program is our signature educational course developed to provide youth with a unique opportunity to build and design a bike from scratch. The course uses STEAM-based curriculum and a positive development approach to provide youth with the opportunity to learn and master the technical skills of building a bike and riding competently. Instructors also use this time to teach life skills such as leadership, responsibility and relationship-building. In the end, youth know they’ve earned their new bike through hard work, perseverance and follow-through. We take participants from tool safety, to planning and mapping, from art & design to processing and testing. This fun, experiential program offers excellent instruction plus an exciting goal for every kid—to earn the bike they work on.

Overview

Through a combination of direct instruction, bike mechanic education, daily hands-on training, and regular performance feedback, youth have a chance to get real-world, work experience. During their internship, they’ll be tasked to fix bikes, work with customers and help maintain the bike shop. In addition to the technical training, the program teaches youth social and emotional skills (SEL curriculum) i.e. self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Ultimately, our goal is to help youth build a strong foundation for their future success. Participants in our Youth Works program gain valuable, on-the-job retail and service training at our bike shop. The program specifically targets at-risk and under-served high school-aged youth.

Overview

The DC Bike Academy’s Beyond Bars, is much more than a traditional Build-A-Bike program - This program offers young people hands-on experience that combines the process required for life altering decisions with the fundamentals of bicycle maintenance. We believe that building life skills while learning bike repair – as an introduction to optional career choices, open the world up to new opportunities and possibilities. Leadership development will be ingrained in the DC Bike Academy’s Beyond Bars program through guest speakers, opportunities for youth to serve as a peer mentors, lead mechanic and opportunities to provide bike mechanic support to other participants of the program. Upon completion of the program youth will be fully prepared to take their newly earned, built and designed bikes home.

Overview

Participation in this after-school program offers Scholars the chance to learn the fundamentals of bicycle maintenance through supervised, hands-on assembly of their very own bike. The program includes road safety instruction in addition to assembly and maintenance education. Graduates are fully prepared to take their newly earned bikes home and operate them safely and responsibly. After completing the course, Build-A-Bike Scholars become eligible to volunteer at future sessions of the program.

Overview

Our Recipe for this program is simple – We take a traditional earn-a-bike program, and teach young people how to restore old bikes, and then donate the rescued bikes back into the community, finally, we add-in credit for community service hours, workforce development and job readiness skills. Upon completion, youth will have earned a Basic Bike Mechanic Certification, a New Bike, a Lock and a Helmet. This is our recipe for a stronger community.

Our Community Bike Rescue Project works to identify community members in need of transportation, providing them with a voucher that they can redeem  for a rescued bike. Along with a bike, community members also receive a helmet, lock, and other accessories to meet their needs.

Overview

We provide adventure-filled, day-long and after school mountain and road bike outings for small groups of youth, ages 10 and up. Trips are led by our experienced Team Leaders who, with the help of skilled adult volunteers, provide positive encouragement throughout the challenging day on the trail. Youth learn basic mountain and road bike skills, bike safety, and riding techniques.

Our rides are ideal teachable moments that help demonstrate the benefits of healthy living and adventure. Instruction is woven into each ride challenging youth to re-assess their own personal limitations, trust in others, and stretch their comfort zone.