About

Our mission is "to provide benefit to the children, young people and adults of Church Crookham, Fleet, Farnborough, Aldershot, Farnham and the surrounding areas who have, or would like to develop, an active interest in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM), emphasising subject / topic areas including, but not limited to, Computing; Computer Science, Computer Systems Engineering, Cyber Security and Electronic / Electrical Engineering".

We achieve our mission through the pursuit of our aims and objectives, which are to:

• teach reusable STEM skills through instructor-led workshops / programmes,

  • • The community will benefit through the provision of no / low- cost structured, instructor-led, workshops that will relate to the subject areas of Computing; Computer Science, Computer Systems Engineering, Cyber Security and Electronic / Electrical Engineering.

    • Some of these will reinforce the national curriculum as an out-of-school setting (OOSS), whilst others will develop skills shortage areas such as information security management (Cyber Security). In all cases, workshops / programmes will be kept at no / low-cost to participants through community funding and sponsorship.

• facilitate the use of / experience with specialist equipment (such as Virtual Reality (VR) systems, mini computer development kits and electronic test / measurement instruments, etc.),

  • • The community will benefit through no / low-cost access to specialist equipment used within STEM (and related) industries. This could range from access to small computers designed for coding / engineering (such as the 'Raspberry Pi'), through electronic test / measurement instruments (such as oscilloscopes and signal generators, etc.) to vintage mainframe / minicomputer systems that are ideally suited to teaching the concepts of machine code and binary.

    • Access to these types of equipment will be kept at no / low- cost to participants through community funding, sponsorship and relationships with museums and local companies.

• provide a community space in which individuals can meet, socialise and collaborate with experienced STEM industry professionals.

  • • The community will benefit through no-cost access to and networking / collaboration opportunities with experienced professionals from STEM-related industries such as Cyber Security, Computer Systems Architecture and Software Engineering.

    • Such access will allow for advice / guidance on career paths / development, assistance with finding suitable internships and apprenticeships, etc. and a potential link between local employers in the technology / engineering spaces and current / future skills shortage candidates.

Crookham HackLAB is a Community Interest Company (CIC) limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales on 12th May 2022 under company number 14104085.

A Community Interest Company (CIC) is a special type of limited company which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. They are required to:

• have a ‘community interest statement’ - explaining how the organisation will provide benefit to the community, 

• have an ‘asset lock’ - ensuring that the organisation's assets will only be used for social objectives and setting limits upon the amount of money it can pay to shareholders,

• be approved by the CIC regulator.

More information on CICs can be found on the gov.uk website here.

Our policies cover a range of activities involved in the running of Crookham HackLAB. You may view or download them from here when available, however policies may be unavailable temporarily whilst in the process of being reviewed or updated.

• Child Protection Policy

• Complaints & Whistleblowing Policy

• Data Protection Policy

• Health & Safety Policy (PDF, Issue 1.2, October 2024)

• Cyber Security Policy

• Safeguarding Policy

• Staff Recruitment, Suitability & Behaviour Policy

For all enquiries, please e-mail us at info@crookhamhacklab.org for the most prompt response.

Registered Office Address:

Crookham HackLAB CIC

6 Grenham Court

Church Crookham

Fleet

Hampshire

England

GU52 8BE

E-mail: info@crookhamhacklab.org