2020 BiCi Co. Do-It-Yourself Workshop and Community Hours

March 2020 Update - It's a wrap!  The IOBY crowdfunding campaign closed in early March, and with the help of almost 100 supporters we exceeded the fundraising goal.  You can still chip-in and help BiCi Co. weather the COVID crisis while supporting essential transportation in our community and the Hartford region - DONATION AND MEMBERSHIP INFO HERE.  BiCi Co. members and supporters are the lifeblood of our community bicycle workshop.

On February 5th this campaign was updated to include our stretch goal of getting 'Bikes for Jobs' funded for 2020. This critical program gets those most in need to work via sustainable and healthy transportation.  Think about how many jobs exist within a walkable two-mile radius of the corner of Park and Main Street in Hartford. That includes most of Downtown, but doesn’t reach the West End, East Hartford, West Hartford Center, Windsor, or Wethersfield. Now expand that radius to five miles, an easy biking distance in the same thirty minutes. The range of destinations, employers, programs, and opportunities increases as a function of the radius SQUARED.

This campaign is critical to carry the Do-It-Yourself repair hours into 2020, and we are looking to expand that concept to the new BiCi Co. location in West Hartford.  Your contribution will also fund a new school-based Earn-a-Bike project and a "Light the Night" safety campaign.  We can't do it without your help!

BiCi Co. is a terrific project at the Center for Latino Progress.  We are raising funds with this campaign to carry our Do-It-Yourself bicycle repair (and learning hours).  These DIY hours are critically important in our community for residents from Hartford and the metro region to maintain and accessorize their bicycle on a budget.  Aside from fixing their own bicycles the DIY hours are critical for volunteers that attend to tune up bicycles for the annual youth BIKELIFE and Bikes for Jobs programs.  With a staff member (or two) with master mechanic bicycle skills and several handy volunteers, we can up-cycle a whole lot of bicycles and get them under riders in the Hartford metro area.  

Teens attend during DIY hours, and this campaign includes twenty sponsored teen one-year memberships for young people who complete the Earn-a-Bike program.  These young people ride for both fun and transportation, and while in the shop they are building hand-on skills while also making social connections with volunteers and visitors from across the region that wouldn't happen outside the shop. Several teens have followed this path to become staff mechanics at BiCi Co.  The DIY hours support tuning up bicycles for the April BIKELIFE event where teens from across the city take bike safety courses and take home a tuned up used bicycle, lock, light, and helmets.  It takes a lot of volunteer hours to tune up 80 bicycles over the winter for this Spring Break week each year.

Volunteers tuning up adult bicycles at BiCi Co. for those that referred to the Bikes for Jobs program, connecting low-income adults to bicycles that connect them to interviews, workforce training programs, jobs, medical appointments, shopping, and more.  An upcycled bicycle converts a 1-mile walking job search radius to a 5-mile riding radius covering 25 times more area!  BiCi Co. would like to carry Do-It-Yourself hours forward into 2020 and test run DIY hours at the new BiCi Co. West location at our new shop that's currently under construction.  This project will also support Light the Night bike lights and a new 2020 offsite Earn-a-Bike Program at Hartford's Kinsella school.

CUSTOM DONATION LEVELS - Choose a donation level that works for your budget.  If you don't see a suggested donation level that works for you, set a unique value that you choose.  A few additional suggestions below:

• $1,000 - BiCi Co. Lifetime Membership and access to Do-It-Yourself Hours.  This donation level includes a BiCi Co. t-shirt.
• $5,000 - BiCi Co. Founders Circle for the BiCi Co. West location in West Hartford's Elmwoord neighborhood.  This donation level will put your name (or a name you want to honor) on the Founders Circle plaque at the new shop location.  This donation level includes a BiCi Co. t-shirt.
• $Custom - Or select a donation level that makes you happy!  Thank you for moving our bicycle and community mission forward.

1. (ADDED FEB 5TH) Fund the 2020 'Bikes for Jobs' program that connects those most in need of bicycle transportation to a bike, lock, lights, and helmet.
2. Purchase a trailer with the matched funds to support the new after school Earn-a-Bike project at Kinsella School in Hartford.
3. Schedule 2020 Do-It-Yourself bicycle repair hours at the 97 Park Street BiCi Co. location. 
4. Purchase tools, storage, and racks for the BiCi Co. West shop, to support Do-It-Yourself hours and BiCi Co. West shop operations and programming. Choose a time and day of the week for pilot Do-It-Yourself hours at 616 New Park Avenue in West Hartford's Elmwood neighborhood.
5. Organize volunteers to assist with bicycle tune ups for the 2020 April BIKELIFE event and the Bikes for Jobs referrals.
6. Purchase bicycle lights for the BiCi Co. 2020 Light the Night project to get bike lights on as many commuter bikes and youth bikes as possible in the Metro Hartford region.

Bicycle commuting is a critically important part of our city's transportation system.  Over 30% of Hartford's households don't have a car and the median household income of $33,000 means that many families are operating on a shoestring budget for transporation.  Beyond the equity benefits of BiCi Co's Do-It-Yourself bicycle repair hours and related projects, bicycle commuting must grow as a percentage of transportation trips if Hartford is going to help the state meet our important greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.  The largest contributor to Connecicut's greenhouse gas emissions is the transportation sector at 38% of the total.

The 'Light the Night' component of this crowdfunding campaign is all about bicycle commuter visibility and safety.  Even more important than a bicycle helmet (which can be obtained for free at BiCi Co.) is avoiding crashes in the first place.  Bicycle lights are hugely important during the short days of winter and for 2nd and 3rd shift employees that are out on bicycles in the dark.  Children riding their bikes to school in the dark shouldn't be invisible.  Light the Night will make sure that many, many more bicycle riders have lights on their bicycles in 2020.  

(ADDED FEB 5TH) The 'Bikes for Jobs' program has been very successful in the first two years of that pilot program, and we need your help to carry that project forward into the third year in 2020.  This program connects those in shelters, job training programs, transitional housing, and teen and young adult interns to an up-cycled bicycle for the low fee of $20 for the bicycle, lock, lights, and a helmet.  These 'Bikes for Jobs' provide critically important mobility that fills in the gaps in our regions transit system and schedule, particularly on evenings and weekends.