Who We Are
Our Mission
Dykes With Drills is a nonprofit that empowers people with the tools to build. By hosting skill-building workshops, retreats, volunteer events and meet-ups, we cultivate opportunities for individuals to connect with each other and to use power tools. In everything we do, we foster safe, inclusive, non-judgmental spaces for learning and teaching.
Our Name
We call ourselves Dykes With Drills. By using the word “dyke”, we reclaim it from its history of oppression and exclusion. By using drills and other tools, we build communities of diversity and inclusion. Our community includes people of all sexualities and genders, including those who are non-conforming, transgender, and allies.
Our Impact
Dykes with Drills has helped build tiny homes for the homeless in Oakland and Chico, an indoor skate park in Oakland, a garden rooftop in Santa Rosa, and more. In total we have impacted over 1500 people and have become an active member of our surrounding community.
In addition to collaborating on volunteer projects, we provide a monthly workshop called the Introduction to Tools workshop. This workshop has a unique approach to learning woodworking skills, in an exploratory and failure positive environment. We help our participants feel safe and confident around power tools in these workshops, and leave them with the ability to go home and use the skills they’ve learned. We also host a monthly welding workshop, and a variety of other skill building workshops throughout the year.
Our Goals
GIVING PEOPLE INDEPENDENCE AND CONFIDENCE USING TOOLS
Power tools are empowering! We engage people of every skill level in opportunities to use power tools which we believe helps build independence and confidence. We believe that using tools can have a huge impact and have all felt that transformation which comes with using tools.
BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH PROJECT-BASED COLLABORATION
Through project-based collaboration, volunteering and meet-ups, we connect with each other and establish a vibrant network of people who build. New handy persons to highly skilled tradespeople, homeowners to contractors, learners to teachers - we are all in this together.
LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES
We celebrate our failures and use our mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow. By learning from our mistakes we are able to constantly move forward and foster an environment where people are free to take risks.
ACCESSIBILITY BOTH FINANCIALLY AND PHYSICALLY
We are determined to make sure that our workshops are inclusive of people in a variety of financial and physical situations, offsetting workshop costs with donations, grants and sponsorships, and doing our best to make sure our workshops are accessible to people of all abilities.