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Youth Outreach Chess Program matching grant: $16,150
We need your help to raise the final $16,150 of a second $20,000 challenge grant from the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation. The money will support our new Youth Outreach Chess Program.  Contact Executive Director Jim Flack at jflack@milibrary.org or (415) 393-0117 to learn more.

About the Youth Outreach Chess Program

The Mechanics’ Institute chess club has been serving Bay Area chess players since 1854.  The chess rooms in downtown San Francisco host many tournaments, youth chess camps, women’s classes, and beginner classes.  Participants' ages range from 4 years old to 96.

In March 2012 we hired an outreach director, chess grandmaster Nick de Firmian, to expand our program of free chess instruction to kids in schools.  This public service is currently provided to ten San Francisco schools/community centers, and we plan to expand to ten more Bay Area schools by the Summer of 2013.

The main focus is on inner-city youth:  the target group that has been shown to significantly benefit from chess classes.  The educational value of this fun way for kids to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills has been confirmed by many studies in the U.S.

Our program includes some children who already know the basics of chess, but many will be starting at the very beginning to learn the rules.  Our chess instructors teach the basics on a large demonstration board in simple child-friendly terms.  Later on, elements of strategy and strategic thinking are introduced with the help of printed chess puzzles and pamphlets.  Classes are usually an hour long and usually held after school on the school campus.

The Youth Outreach program will be augmented by the in-house Saturday Beginners Class at the Mechanics' Institute, summer chess camps and many chess tournaments held at our club downtown.

The current program provides classes in the Mission district to Marshall Elementary School, Buena Vista-Horace Mann K-8 school and 7 Teepees Youth Center;  in the Tenderloin to the Tenderloin Elementary School;  in the Castro to Everett Middle School;  in the Portola district to Alta Vista Elementary;  in the Merced district to Lowell High School;  in North Beach to Francisco Middle School;  in downtown San Francisco to Notre Dame de Victoire Elementary School;  in the Excelsior to Cleveland Elementary.  The classes average 10-15 kids for each of the fall and spring semesters, thus currently serving about 250 kids per year.  Expanding to 20 schools by Summer would double this number to 500.

Funding for the first year of this program (March 2012-March 2013) has come from the operating budget of the Mechanics' Institute itself.  To expand the program in the next year 2013-2014 and beyond, additional funding is sought from foundations and corporate sources.

Mechanics’ Institute is a member-supported nonprofit Library and Chess Room founded in 1854 to provide educational resources and chess play to the rapidly expanding Gold Rush city.  Today the Mechanics' chess room is world renowned and has become the oldest continuously operating chess room in the United States.  Mechanics’ has a prodigious record of developing young chess talent and is uniquely positioned to provide the proven educational benefits of chess to Bay Area youth.