Matts Maker Space Inc

Western Psych Pine. Matt's Maker Space celebrated the opening of its 46th location at Western Behavioral Health in Pine Township. This new space is designed for outpatient children and youth who visit the facility for behavioral health support. With a strong emphasis on the arts, the space is carefully curated to ensure safety while encouraging creativity. The unique constraints have fostered an environment where innovation thrives, with many projects utilizing simple, everyday items like cardboard boxes, paper towel rolls, and shoe boxes. This is our third space at Western Behavioral Health, with one in the inpatient setting and another in an outpatient location. Since opening, participation in Matt's Maker Space sessions has more than doubled. The presence of a full-time staff member dedicated to supplying, maintaining, and facilitating the sessions has been crucial to this significant growth.

Autism Center. Founded in 2017, the Autism Caring Center is the area's first autism resource center located in the southwest region of Pittsburgh. Their mission is to enhance the lives of the autism community by providing training, resources, advocacy and support. Having an autistic child meant a lifetime of leaving places like the zoo, the library, or the movie theater. In their Matt's Maker Space, these families could just be together, sure that no one would ask them to leave, and be able to create, tinker or just be together in a judgement-free, creative space. This maker space is the first of its kind in such a place. We believe that it will bring families and the community together to learn from one another.

We opened one additional full Matt's Maker Space in 2024. We also paid additional funds to start planning future spaces and granted additional monies to existing spaces who needed supplies or equipment beyond their ability to pay for them.

paid for a board member and a few other teachers to train teachers at new maker spaces. Also held some training sessions for existing maker space teachers. Also sent some board member/teachers to conferences to learn about opportunities for our maker space teachers.