St. Louis BWorks has been offering both our Earn-A-Computer and Earn-A-Bike courses at partner sites around the St. Louis region since 2011, when we first moved to the Soulard neighborhood. Our team recognizes that no matter where our brick-and-mortar presence is located (and yes, we remain on the hunt for our next headquarters!), for many families and students in our region, the distance, time and energy required to attend our programs are significant factors — and sometimes outright barriers to participation. This is why, in addition to our year-round onsite offerings, we consistently bring our free bike and computer programs to multiple St. Louis-area communities each season, minimizing such barriers by providing options closer to where people live. 

As transportation becomes harder and schedules for families more hectic, BWorks remains more committed than ever to our goal of meeting St. Louis youth where they are — so that as many children in our region as possible have the opportunity to dream big, care for the world around them and explore new possibilities through experiential learning. The map here pinpoints the many places where BWorks staff and volunteers have and/or continue to provide free, multi-week programming, transporting everything from classroom learning materials to bikes and computers week to week to make sure participants get a full experience regardless of location.

Orange markers = Libraries
Blue markers = Schools
Purple markers = Nonprofits 
Green markers = Parks 

As we ride into summer, St. Louis BWorks is excited to announce the launch of our Youth Council for Street Safety, open to all St. Louis-area children and teens who have completed Earn-A-Bike and/or Learn-To-Ride! Join us at BWorks (2414 Menard) at 6:30 p.m. (until 7:30 p.m.) Thursday, July 13, for our first interest meeting. There will be ice cream!

Together, we will brainstorm an advocacy plan to make the streets of St. Louis safer for all people, and particularly young people, to explore and get where they need to go. Here are some guiding questions to start mulling:

• What are your experiences trying to get around St. Louis as a pedestrian, cyclist and/or transit rider?
• How can we make sure that these experiences improve so that kids can independently get places?
• How can we inspire action at the government level?
• What can BWorks do to empower young St. Louisans when it comes to advocacy and action around this issue?

Your voice is valued! We look forward to seeing you on July 13 and beginning this important work to improve the mobility experiences of St. Louis youth. 
Please RSVP to Julia, our summer intern, to let us know you plan to attend (julia@bworks.org). She’s also happy to answer any questions or concerns.

We get some amazing donations at BWorks! Some of these donations are pretty special and we work with various groups to find homes for these items: Adaptive bikes have gone to local hospitals, striders to other youth groups and even adult trikes head to local senior facilities. But what if some of these items were available to the greater community to access? 

BWorks is excited to announce our new loaner library starting on May 1st.  

Our hope is that by sharing with the greater St. Louis community some of these resources even more kids and adults will catch the cycling bug and join the cycling community — from striders for the little ones, to trikes for the older ones, or bikes for those that might need a little extra support. We are just getting started and hope to continue to build out our library to have something for everyone.   

Your annual $60/year donation to Bworks gets you access to all sorts of fun cycling products, and our library is always growing!  

What do you want to borrow? Check out the start of our lending library here!

How it works 

$60/ or more a year (donation) gets you an access code that allows you to reduce the cost of anything on our website under the loaner library to $0. You pick what you want to try, check yourself out through the website and then we will be in contact to arrange a time to pick up the item(s). All we ask is that you remember the timeline for returning so that the next person can try it out AND that you don’t abuse the item. 

Rules: 

-Donations can be made in person at our building, via paypal here or by mail.

-Membership starts from the date of a $60 or greater donation and is good for one year. 

-Members are asked to email info@bworks.org to get their discount code. This code is good for self checkout on our website or in person at our building in Soulard.

-Sharing of membership codes is not allowed. 

-Up to two items can be checked out at a time. 

-Most items will be available for 30 day check out.  

-Popular items might in the future be restricted for the length of loans so that more individuals can utilize them. Our hope is to add more items to prevent this. 

It’s high time we took a moment to celebrated another awesome BWorks volunteer! We’ve been so glad to have Judah Grupe helping out in some recent Earn-A-Computer classes. After first reaching out to us about getting involved several months ago, Judah happily agreed to help our staff teacher Mark Smith launch a pilot course at Julia Davis Library’s brand-new Creative Experience space in St. Louis’ Penrose neighborhood.

“I was looking for a program to spend my free time on when I stumbled on BWorks,” Judah explains. “When I saw it combined two of my favorite things — bicycles and computers — I knew I had to get involved.”

Judah says perhaps the thing he’s enjoyed most so far is all of the fantastic people he’s met through BWorks, from fellow volunteers and staff to the kids in the classes. He’s also been struck by moments where things really start to click for students when it comes to course concepts such as internet safety and basic coding.

“Seeing the kids start to understand the concepts we were teaching [in Earn-A-Computer] and be able to troubleshoot their Scratch programs … I can definitely see them developing these skills into fulfilling careers,” Judah says.

He encourages fellow St. Louis-area residents to stop by BWorks at an upcoming volunteer orientation (first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.!) to inquire about getting involved. Potential volunteers can also reach out to evie@bworks.org to learn more.