Check out some of the work that Kafumba Bility and other young people in Providence, Rhode Island are doing in the AS220 Labs, the public technology studio and hacker space at AS220, a community arts organization in Providence.

Kafumba is a member of AS220's Broad Street Studio youth program, which offers arts and technology workshops to at-risk and under-served youth at AS220's building in downtown Providence and inside Rhode Island's juvenile prison.

This holiday season, Kafumba and about 30 other youth are taking a product design class at AS220 Labs, taught by AS220 Labs staff and a designer from Providence-based medical device product development firm Ximedica. The young people have been making and selling handcrafted merchandise in AS220's Fab Lab - a suite of personal fabrication equipment and software created at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms that includes a laser cutter, milling machine and vinyl cutter.

AS220's Fab Lab was launched last year with support from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, the City of Providence and numerous individual donors.

"I get a simple drawing of theirs and try to get them on the laser cutter within five minutes," says Jeremy Radtke, the arts, media & technology coordinator in AS220's youth program. "I really quickly show them the process of scanning their images, bringing it into GIMP and tweaking the contrast. The idea is, once they understand the process we can begin making all kinds of great things."

The photo below is Kafumba's first, five-minute work - a simple drawing from his sketchbook. He and others have designed and laser cut jewelry, birch plywood holiday cards and other products that are being sold at Craftland, a retail store in Providence for local artists and artisans.

Kafumba, a freshman at Community College of Rhode Island, is picking up his ESL credits there and plans to transfer to a four-year art school next year. He is working in AS220's Fab Lab to improve his college portfolio.

This work is being done on a shoestring budget - the young people at AS220 Labs have accomplished all this in the Fab Lab with a $500 supply budget that is quickly dwindling. AS220 is currently in the middle of its 25th Anniversary Annual Fund Drive. Any size donation will help us meet our annual budget. Donations can be earmarked specifically to support the work of our youth in the lab. Please help us! Donate today at www.as220.org.

Thank you!