Holiday Greetings from the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation and AMRoC Fab Lab!

In this season of gratitude, we want to let you know how grateful we are to you – our students, and their families, program participants, guests, volunteers, sponsors and donors!

Year at a Glance

Because of you, even during the time of COVID-19, we’ve been able to:

  • Continue teaching STEM education programs to over 50 youth directly via online and onsite programming, including the addition of four new youth STEM competition programs, VEX Advanced Manufacturing Challenge, VEX IQ, and VEX VRAD (virtual drones)
  • Facilitated over $25,000 in funding for the production of more than 40,000 protective face shields , in support of the MRG3D PPE Initiative.
  • Distributed over 300 personal PPE kits during the Protect Our People safe early voting effort, in partnership with Color of Change
  • Successfully launched our inaugural Equity in Entrepreneurship program with the support of over a dozen amazing local business leaders who contributed their time and expertise, and over $50,000 in sponsorship support from Truist, the Truist Foundation and Florida Blue , helping bring ten new and relaunched small businesses to fruition
  • Streamed over 45 hours of educational content from AMRoC Fab Lab as part of FCDI’s ROBOTICON youth robotics showcase event

With your support, FCDI was once again recognized as a Top-Rated Nonprofit at Great Nonprofits, and we were recently named a Tampa Bay Inno Blazer in the Equity Advocate category.

Enjoying a visit from Mayor Castor in November.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited about AMRoC Fab Lab in 2021, when we kick-off our 2nd Equity in Entrepreneurship cohort, bring a full-scale hobby and educational drone program to AMRoC, in partnership with Tampa Drones, and formally launch our AMRoC BattleBots team!

There are lots of ways to get involved at AMRoC Fab Lab, from volunteering to participating in programs , or becoming a member.  While for the foreseeable future, we’ll continue our appointment-only access and full COVID-19 health and safety protocols , we’ll be expanding our educational and training programs online, as well as onsite.

Get Involved

Keep your eye on our calendar  and look for regular livestream programs on everything from 3D printing to youth robotics, rocketry, product development, and automotive tech , as well as some onsite offerings to learn how to build or repair your own drone, work with 3D printer files, build your own computer and more.

Our eNewsletter is moving to a once a month publication, starting in January, with special features and program registration information, and you can continue to follow along on our website, and social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now YouTube.

Please Give if You Can

Click to Contribute

If you’re able to this year, we hope you’ll consider FCDI and AMRoC Fab Lab in your holiday giving.  Your contributions help us continue providing affordable inclusive programming to youth and adults in Tampa.

If you can’t give, we hope you’ll still join in – sign up for our next round of automotive repair certification training, or our next entrepreneurship cohort.  Hop online to enjoy our Consumer Car Care Chat with US Auto Training, or our First Friday talks, or enroll your children in our youth STEM education programs.

From all of us at the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation and AMRoC Fab Lab, we wish you and yours Happy, Healthy and Safe Holidays!