Workshop Houston

By: Page

Need to build a custom low rider, produce an album, or start your own fashion label all in one place? Head to Houston, Texas . . .

Workshop Houston is a non-profit located in the Third Ward, a Houston neighborhood known for its extreme poverty. In 2003 Seth Capron, Katy Goodman, Benjy Mason and Zach Moser founded the Third Ward Bike Shop to provide quality do-it-yourself bike repair. It has become an important community resource for the Third Ward. Building on its success, the Bike Shop expanded to become Workshop Houston, a hands-on project space that supplies artistic, technical, and academic resources for the youth of the Third Ward. Workshop Houston now has four shops. The Chopper Shop – where students learn to design and build their own high quality and custom choppers and low riders. The Style Shop – where students create a fashion line and learn to market and sell their products. And the Beat Shop – where students create and produce a hip-hop album. The founders of Workshop Houston gave us some insight on what makes effective youth programming and how educators can utilize the design process to empower students.

Why did you choose bikes as your initial medium?
We all learned to fix bikes in the Bike Co-op in college, where there wasn’t anyone to teach us so we pretty much taught each other and ourselves. It was a real process of discovery and was very empowering. We realized the power of working like that and began to extend those ideas outside of fixing bikes. It tied in really well with our interests in community organizing and public art projects. We began to create new projects that had the same elements of self-empowerment, learning, and collaboration built into the process.

When we finished school we wanted to continue working together and we thought that bikes, as the place that we started, could be a good way to reach other people. The underlying principle in all of our work is to ground theory in concrete activities that people can get involved with on their own terms. We knew that the process of learning to fix a bike had this power embedded in it. From the start we were thinking of other activities that had the same power.

So what do you think are the most important things participants get out of the programs?
We are trying to create situations that encourage self-empowerment and collaboration. As we began to focus more on programming for teenagers we started to refine these goals further. Our programs, though they teach practical skills, are not vocational. We plan the Clubs so that the benefits students can get out of participating are much broader than just learning welding or screen-printing. Our first goal in this process is to help students with their self-esteem and learning motivation, as well as encouraging the formation of positive peer groups. With these areas of focus, we think the most important thing students gain in our programs is a sense of control over their own lives. We want our students to know that they have options.

Tell me a bit about the chopper club and all the clubs?
We started the Chopper Club our first winter in Houston. It was our first after-school program specifically aimed at junior high and high school students. It was based on a program that we had been doing in Ohio, where we were teaching kids how to weld, and how to design and build their own custom bikes. It went really well, but there were a lot of kids, especially girls, who weren’t that interested in the subject matter. We tried to do things to reach out more – we had a girls-only chopper club that was actually really fun – but we really weren’t about trying to make everyone like building bikes.



How do the students respond to working in a different process--welding isn't really taught in middle school?
We’ve been so impressed at how well they respond to the structure and material we are offering and the quality of the work they are producing. It isn’t just that we are offering new processes. We are also working in an environment that is totally different from school, and offering a totally different learning model. It’s shocking to see how many of the kids who are extremely smart and motivated and do great work with us are failing most of their classes at school when they first come to the shop.

When initially designing their choppers, do students sketch ideas that make sense? How much control do they have over their designs?
We get a wide range of ideas that range from the totally impossible to the designs ready to build. In general it is really important to all of us that the students have as much control over and stake in their designs as possible. On the flip side, a lot of the kids we work with have very few places in their lives where they can be successful. As instructors we do everything we can to make sure that they feel really in control of an idea, but that the idea can also work.

Where do you get your materials?
Wherever we can. Kind souls and sponsors donate lots of it. Some of it we scavenge. Some of it we buy. We don’t steal materials, but everything short of that.



What has been your favorite student built chopper/low rider?
There have been so many good ones. This summer one of our students built a really awesome speaker trike. He planned the project and we helped him with the wiring and the carpentry. He then salvaged parts from friends’ car stereos and electric scooters and built a beautiful speaker box with a 300 watt sound system that mounted on the back of an adult tricycle: all for maybe $25. But there have been a lot of really cool projects in all the shops.

Tell more about the other programs?
We started seeing the 12 and 13 year olds who we had met through the bike shop get into gangs and drugs and some were starting to go to jail. We saw a real need to provide a way for these kids to get through this time in their lives with positive opportunities rather than a criminal record. There were programs in the neighborhood for little kids, and programs for adults, but no one was focusing on working with middle and high school students. It seemed like one of the most pressing needs to us.

We decided to start two new shops, each of which hosts a Teen Club: The Beat Shop, which is a hip hop production studio, and the Style Shop, which is a fashion design and screen printing studio. We wanted to take things that kids were already interested in and build programs around them. Built into the new programs from the start was an idea that as kids progress they would get to learn more technical skills and produce more exciting stuff. Also, because so many of the students we work with are under real pressure to be out making money, we added an entrepreneurial component to the programs.



What types of students are most attracted to the Clubs?
The students that are attracted to shop are the ones cruising around the neighborhood looking for something constructive to do. We get the most awesome kids through this. We’re so consistently amazed at how cool they all are and the quality of the work they are producing.

Do you find that students are more creative/experimental when they are familiar with the material or when they are just beginning to learn the process?
We’ve had students that work in both ways. Sometimes awesome ideas come from kids who have no idea what is and isn’t possible. Their projects are representative of them trying to create their vision any way they can. Sometimes it takes a while to get comfortable, and work through the potential of the materials, and for people to be comfortable with their ideas. We have set up the shops to deal with both approaches.


What is in store for the future of Workshop Houston?
In the immediate future we are moving into the new buildings that we are in the process of buying. We’re really excited to have our own space and we are about to start renovating the new spots. We are expanding the Shops to be community resources like the Bike Shop. Some day we’ll have after school programs for teenagers in every shop on every day and classes and open studio time for everyone else at night and on weekends.

How do you want the Workshop Houston's programming/classes to affect a larger educational system?
We see our programs as building a new educational model. But we don’t think we are ready to apply it as a franchiseable model or to make vast changes in the educational system yet. But as our programs continue to work and as we continue to improve them, we would love to be able to share our thoughts and processes on a larger scale.

How can people support Workshop Houston?
We are always looking for new corporate sponsors for all the shops. We are also interested in talking to people in the music/fashion/design/custom bike/car industries who might be willing to help with any of the programs. We also always need money. You can go to our website and become a member. Or if you know anyone who has $220,000 to put towards our new buildings that would be really great too.

See Also

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