One of the nicest strands of the sharing economy has been the facilitation of the so called maker movement.  Facilities such as BioSpace and TechShop are giving freelance professionals and budding enthusiasts alike access to cutting edge equipment in the fields of medical research and engineering.

It’s like a professional gym membership, where a relatively small monthly fee gives you access to both top notch gear and a community of like minded enthusiasts.

Whilst most of those ventures have been profit orientated, with many having a company as anchor tenant, the likes of Hatch offer similar services on a non-profit basis for local communities.

A project along similar lines has been recently launched in Philadelphia.  The venture, called the Building Hero Project is hoping to do a similar thing, but this time financing itself via the craft based platform Etsy.

The project is run by The Department of Making and Doing, which is itself a community maker space.  The aim is to empower young adults to learn the kind of design and manufacturing skills to fully utilize the equipment available via the workshop.

The platform launched its own shop on Etsy towards the back end of last year to provide members of the initiative with a place to sell any of the products they make.

The cash this process raises offers the members an income, whilst also financing the facility.  The hope is that members will begin to teach one another the skills that went into making the various lamps, jewellery and other items that are made at the facility.

It’s an interesting way both to support young people who want to improve their skills and test their talents in the marketplace.  With self-employment a growing trend, and many youngsters in western countries struggling to find work, this kind of facility could provide a helpful way of giving people the skills and confidence to get into the labor market.

Could you imagine a facility like this working in your own area?