High school students at FIRST robotics event

STEM for Everyone: FIRST® Initiatives and Grants

A vital part of our strategic intent is to serve an all members of our global community. FIRST® is actively engaged in developing strategies, collaborations, grants, and initiatives that ensure opportunities for any young person who participates in FIRST programs.

STEM Community Innovation Grant

The STEM Community Innovation grants supports communities to help them develop new FIRST teams.

FIRST launched its STEM Community Innovation Grants program in 2016 to provide students across the globe with hands-on learning and creative problem-solving opportunities. From 2016-2022 grants ranged from $5,000 to $50,000, with an average of $45,000.  In 2023, grants increased to an award range of $30,000 to $70,000, with an average of $58,000. To date, FIRST has awarded 83 grants totaling $3M to grantees around the world.​

Team Support and Training Grants ​

We have supported school districts by providing small grants for establishing and expanding their FIRST programs.
 
Youth Advisory Council

The FIRST Youth Advisory Council (YAC) was established in December 2018.
The Youth Advisory Council developed outreach initiatives. The committee was designed to uplift youth leadership and youth voice at FIRST. The YAC played an instrumental role in creating a STEM for Everyone Youth Training that consists of an animated video and three youth training modules. The last cohort of members served through June 2022.

 

Girls in STEM

At FIRST, we are actively developing ways to address the overall issues and barriers, particularly in managing and allocating resources, programs, and educational opportunities for girls.

We are committed to creating a unified community for all participants. Girls and women play a critical role in the advancement of STEM – but a significant gender gap remains within STEM careers. This initiative focuses on the participation and advancement of girls and women in STEM, without being exclusionary of the contributions of boys, men, and those that may identify differently. To enhance the contributions of girls, as well as those of other youth in STEM, we must support all students throughout their participation in FIRST programs and experiences on teams.

Impact FIRST has on female participants

Additional resources can be found on our training page. 

Disability Inclusion

As part of our commitment to removing barriers to access and participation so that any student, anywhere can participate we have partnered with Kids Included Together (KIT) to better understand the needs of persons with disabilities when participating in FIRST programs.
FIRST is committed to ensuring that coaches, mentors, volunteers, students and parents all have access to resources that provide a better understanding of challenges and needs for students with disabilities, and how to create a more welcoming and inclusive team environment. 
Project THRIVE Partnership

We have partnered with the Human Rights Campaign’s Project THRIVE in order to reinforce our commitment to ED&I at FIRST and the importance of allyship to support LGBTQ+ colleagues, mentors, volunteers, and student participants, and to celebrate our differences.

Our commitment to embodying inclusion is to ensure that all members of the FIRST community feel a sense of belonging. Achieving this means our organization must be supportive and vocal about welcoming all people in the FIRST community and using our platform to raise awareness and highlight voices.

As a youth-serving organization, our commitment to inclusion is in service of helping all young people find belonging and thrive as part of our robotics teams and community. In June 2021, FIRST joined Project THRIVE, a multi-year, collaborative effort of many national organizations led by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation to create more equitable, inclusive support systems and communities for LGBTQ youth. Each supporting organization is committed to identifying opportunities within their own sphere of influence to increase awareness about and provide resources to address the unmet needs of LGBTQ youth and to highlight best practices and success stories from our respective fields. Project THRIVE will build the skills and capacities of all youth-serving professionals to better meet the needs of LGBTQ young people.

To enhance the contributions of underrepresented and underserved youth in STEM, we must invest in them at all stages of their development, including their access to FIRST programs and experiences on teams.

STEM for Everyone Statement

FIRST is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of unity. We embrace and celebrate our global community. Exploring, developing and implementing strategies to ensure opportunities for any young person who engages in our programs is critical for FIRST to fulfill its mission. ALL young people should have the opportunity to become science and technology leaders who have the skills, confidence and resilience to build a better world.

Non-Discrimination Policy