Brick City Robotics League Expansion

K-12 STEAM education

Central LA South LA Gateway Cities South Bay County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) LAUSD (select only if you have a district-wide partnership)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

In many LA neighborhoods, especially South LA, students crave tech opportunities, but face barriers to accessing consistent, enriching after-school programs. Too often, they return to unsupervised environments without access to coaches, equipment, or transportation. Our Brick City League offers a powerful alternative: a structured robotics team experience that builds technical skills, nurtures leadership, and fosters belonging. Students report that being part of a team helped them avoid street pressure, rethink their futures, and discover STEM careers for the first time. Many have never been told they’re needed or counted on, until now. Yet demand for this kind of transformative, identity-affirming program far exceeds our reach. We aim to close that gap, especially for Black, Brown, and low-income youth who deserve more than survival, they deserve to build, code, and thrive.

We will expand the Brick City Robotics League across Los Angeles. Students ages 9–18 form teams at their schools, parks, or community centers and work together to build and program robots for quarterly challenges. With each season, their skills and confidence grow, culminating in our high-energy championship event.
This grant will fund:
Launching new teams at underserved school and community sites
Training and mentoring youth coaches, educators, and interns
Hosting local “scrimmages” to foster connection and competition
Providing robotics tools, devices, and transportation support to remove barriers
Brick City is more than a robotics league, it’s a leadership incubator. Students sharpen tech skills, learn teamwork, and gain a sense of identity as builders and innovators. They’re cheered on by families, mentored by alumni, and inspired by the community that shows up to watch them rise.
This expansion meets students where they are, and builds a city where every kid has a team, a toolkit, and a future in STEM.

Upon success, this expansion will transform Los Angeles into a city where every young person, regardless of zip code, has access to a robotics team, a mentor who believes in them, and a pathway into STEM. Hundreds of students will gain consistent after-school opportunities that are safe, structured, and culturally grounded. We’ll activate community sites as innovation hubs, elevate youth voice, and ignite intergenerational mentorship as alumni return to lead. Schools will become launchpads for creativity and collaboration. Over time, the Brick City League will be recognized as a regional force for equity in education, anchoring 100+ teams citywide and cultivating a new generation of engineers, designers, and builders who trace their success back to a gym in South LA, where they first learned they belonged.