History of Workshop Houston

Workshop Houston was founded by four long-time collaborators: Seth Capron, Katy Goodman, Benjamin Mason, and Zach Moser. We believe that the foundations of progressive change are in positive and engaged communities and that dynamic hands-on learning processes can create these communities. Our experience has grounded our work in certain methods: a trust in collaborative processes, the combining of skill-building and creative practice, self-directed learning in a supportive environment, and providing open access to resources.

We met while attending Oberlin College in rural Ohio. Despite a wide range of academic interests we quickly realized that we shared similar goals and values and began collaborating on projects from running a cooperative Bike Shop to planning and implementing arts education programs in local schools. Our work together culminated in organizing a town wide parade and picnic which drew in hundreds of participants and quickly became an annual town holiday.

The work we did together in school helped Zach, a Houston native, win the Compton Mentor Fellowship, a post graduate award given to students who show outstanding promise in community based work. While normally an individual award, the four of us decided to split the Fellowship so that we could continue our work together. Upon graduation we loaded our belongings into the back of a pick-up truck and headed to Houston. Our first project was the Third Ward Community Bike Shop, opened in October of 2003. We spent our first year, all living together off the fellowship money in a small two-bedroom apartment around the corner from the Shop and working furiously to get the Bike Shop off the ground.

The Bike Shop quickly became an important community resource for Third Ward by providing quality do-it-yourself bike repair and innovative youth programming. An exciting multigenerational community has grown around the Shop, with many people coming into fix their bikes and staying to become long term volunteers and even staff. In our work at the Bike Shop we began to see a pressing need for programs that could reach students in middle and high school. As our participants grew to be teenagers and began to assert their independence, they were also losing interest in school and turning to drugs or gangs as avenues to find success or combat boredom. This is not atypical behavior for teenagers, but with no safety net our participants were dropping out of school, or going to jail.

In January of 2006 we opened three new shops and started the Teen Clubs to provide teenagers with positive alternatives at this important time in their lives: the Chopper Shop, the Style Shop, and the Beat Shop. The Teen Clubs are based on a self directed project based learning model where students learn by doing hands-on work. This model, combined with the fact that we reach our to students through mediums that they are already interested in, has proven to be extremely effective in reaching out to students who are do not participate in any other structured activities.