The Upskilling Labs
Structured peer learning for people navigating economic and technological change with real projects, mentors, and outcomes.
The Upskilling Labs is a new and growing civic institution for serious people — workers, builders, thinkers, and public contributors — who refuse to be passive recipients of change.
An alumni-lead spinout of a pilot program of DC Public Library and Levy Strategic Design—we are not simply a workforce training program dressed up in civic language. We are not a platform, a cohort, or a course catalog.
We are building something designed to last far beyond the current moment around a foundational model for how people practice innovation and learn to rapidly test and adopt new technologies, together, in real time, on real problems.
We start from a premise that is simple: people are not passive recipients of the future. We are all capable of shaping it. No one should feel they are just leftovers from a previous economy. We are all neighbors and citizens together — human beings in whom more is always possible.
Our model reflects that belief at every level.
We believe that history is bent, as it always has been, by human beings collectively making choices under pressure. By citizens deciding whether to withdraw or to participate. By institutions deciding whether to widen the circle of belonging or to leave more and more people standing at its edge.
The Upskilling Labs is our version of that decision.
It is a place where people can practice agency. Where they can learn new tools without surrendering their dignity. Where they can discover that their judgment carries weight, that their effort still counts, and that they are still capable of contributing to the common life of their time.
That matters not only for them — it matters for the republic.
Because a democracy in which too many people feel useless will not remain healthy for long. A country that allows more and more of its citizens to believe they are incidental to the future will surely come to pay for that belief — in cynicism, in fragmentation, in withdrawal, and eventually in the weakening of the democratic project itself.
But a country that builds places like this — seriously, ambitiously, and at scale — does something very different.
It tells people: you are still needed. You are still capable of growth. You are still capable of contribution. There is still more in you — come build.
Fundraisers
Official fundraiser
Help Build a More Equal Opportunity Future-of-Work
The workforce development system was not built for this moment. It was built for a world of relative stability—where patience was rewarded, credentials held their value, and the future arrived at a pace people could prepare for. That world is gone. What has replaced it is a period of acceleration so fast that entire categories of expertise are being reorganized before anyone can realistically respond. And underneath the disruption, a quieter crisis: millions of capable people beginning to conclude that the future is real—but not really for them. That is not only an economic problem. It is a democratic one. When people lose the belief that they can still learn, still contribute, still shape what comes next—they don't just fall behind economically. They withdraw. Civic confidence erodes. And a democracy that allows too many of its people to feel incidental to the future will not remain healthy for long. The Upskilling Labs exists because that outcome is not inevitable. We are a civic institution for serious people—workers, builders, thinkers, and public contributors who refuse to be passive recipients of change. We are building a foundational model for how people practice innovation and rapid technological adoption, starting in Greater Washington and expanding to metro regions across the country. This is not a workforce training program dressed up in civic language. It is a different kind of institution entirely. This is our first fundraiser—the first time we're asking you to financially support this work. If you believe the future should belong to more people, and that building institutions to make that true is work worth funding—we hope you think of The Upskilling Labs if and when you're ready to give.
- Raised
- $500
- Goal
- $15,000
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