Village STEAM Collective of Central Puget Sound

Centering black and indigenous scholars in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) – from early learning to postsecondary career pathways.

Village STEAM Collective of Central Puget Sound

Centering black and indigenous scholars in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) – from early learning to postsecondary career pathways.

Meet the Council

We are a group of Black and Indigenous community organizations, community leaders, STEAM practitioners, and local businesses working in partnership with Washington STEM to advance culturally-responsive practices in STEAM and Career Pathways.


The Village STEAM Collective of Central Puget Sound was founded in 2021 and is led by an eight-member Council. Our goal is to introduce math into early learning across Pierce and King Counties, so students are ready for STEM career pathways.

Partners

Join us as we journey together to make systems change, so all children in the Central Puget Sound know they belong in STEAM.

Our partners include:

  • Zeno Math
  • Tacoma STEAM Network
  • Tacoma Public Library
  • Black Child Development Institute
  • Rainier Scholars
  • Community Center for Education Results (CCER)
  • Technology Access Foundation

Our Work

 
“We are already doing STEM, but we didn’t ‘name’ it.”
 

A member of our Village STEAM collective said, “We are already doing STEM, but we didn’t ‘name’ it.” at our first meeting. And it’s true: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics are—and have always been—present in our everyday lives. The Central Puget Sound STEAM Collective recognizes that in order to do “systems change” and attract more young people of color to careers in STEM, we first need to acknowledge the strengths and talents we bring to the table.

With our current partners we are developing programs focused on:

  • cultivating positive math identity for early learners (link to Ren-Etta Sullivan book),
  • convening an Early Learning & STEM Un-conference to share resources and build community(?),
  • exploring available data and identifying what is missing in order to set long-term goals and measure progress
  • Drafting the first State of the Black Child Report in (year) to share regional data and actionable plans to increase equity in STEM education and careers.

 

Resources in the Central Puget Sound

Below are Early Learning resources, many centering black and indigenous young learners and their families, located in Pierce and King Counties.

NOTE: They have turned off our preview account and I am unable to show you a live view of our example. the above screenshot is a test we built using a Google sheet. Please see other examples of their maps on their website.

Event Calendar

This is an example of the style of calendar I’m thinking might work. It would be best to not have the entire calendar month here (to save on space and to ensure that the calendar doesn’t look empty).

Contact the Central Puget Sound Collective


    The map below is an example of what the resources could look like using the free Google Maps API.