Iowa City Bike Library’s Youth Garage: What It Is and How You Can Create One in Your Community!
At the heart of Iowa City’s cycling community is the Iowa City Bike Library (ICBL), a vibrant nonprofit whose mission is simple and powerful: to get more people on bicycles. Outride is excited to highlight how this incredible Community Impact Grant recipient listened to the needs of their community, and as a result recently built out a dedicated Youth Garage, creating a space for teens to come together after school for peer mentorship opportunities, building a sense of ownership, social connection, and self-sufficiency.
What Is the Youth Garage?
At its core, the Youth Garage is a new initiative designed for teens: a place to learn, connect, and grow through biking. It builds on ICBL’s successful OutSpoken Teens program where youth repair bikes, solve problems and ride in a supportive, skill-building environment, and elevates it into a dedicated, multi-purpose hub. This space is meant to be a safe, inclusive “third place” for teens. It’s somewhere to gather, build practical and life skills, find belonging, and embrace the cycling community.
How They Made It Happen
Bringing a space like this to life takes work. Here’s a blueprint of how ICBL made it happen so you might use it in your own community!
1. Laying the groundwork: The Bike Library started by defining a clear vision. The Youth Garage’s goals mirrored the youth programs’ purpose to get more kids on bikes and empower them to use bikes for transportation, recreation and sport. They partnered with local youth-serving organizations (United Action for Youth, Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County, Boys & Girls Club) to align schedules and integrate biking into what those organizations already offered. Then they publicly launched a “Bikes Create Community” capital campaign in September 2025 to raise $1 million for youth programming, facility upgrades, and more.
2. Physical space & program build-out: ICBL repurposed part of the 7,000 sq ft ICBL warehouse into the Youth Garage, taking what used to be just storage and turning it into a dedicated youth space. They stocked it with fully-equipped workbenches and new tools specifically to be used by youth, and secured funding to hire their first full-time Youth Bike Coordinator, making the program build-out possible
3. Outreach & youth involvement: Youth find their way into the garage via group rides, summer camps or by joining a parent in the adult salvage or wrenching program, not just via a single path. From day one, the message to young people is that this space belongs to them to explore and engage with. They’re offered opportunities to upgrade bikes, help with tune-ups, mentor peers, and just hang out! Many of the kids ICBL works with have a way of just appearing at random - especially while staff are having an afternoon espresso and sending emails, showing just how comfortable they are with coming into the space!
4. Monitoring, adjusting & scaling: The Bike Library tracks outputs like gear value and youth surveys on wellness, confidence and skills. With a dedicated space and coordinator, they’re now able to use those measurements to refine their offerings, deepen partnerships and gradually expand.
Tips for Other Organizations
Thinking about building something similar? The Iowa City Bike Library shares these considerations:
Start with one strong, hands-on program that builds real skill and has immediate appeal to youth (like bike repair + riding).
Align with school schedules and use community partners to maximize youth access and staffing.
Design the physical space intentionally: ask youth what they want, make sure tools/benches are youth-friendly and create a welcoming atmosphere
Invest in dedicated staffing: a youth coordinator anchors the space and sets the tone.
Tie your funding directly to youth programming so the case is clear.
Include tangible rewards and recognition (e.g., Earn-a-Bike) to motivate participation.
Provide multiple entry points into your space rather than a rigid one-path model, but once youth engage, have structure and meaningful tasks ready.
Track outcomes and highlight youth stories - impact is more than numbers!
Involve families and positive adult mentors - call families to bran on their kid and keep them in the loop of how impactful the space is
Ultimately, focus on belonging and community: teens thrive when they feel welcome, connected and part of something meaningful, not just focused on technical skills.
The Youth Garage at the Bike Library is a shining example of how space, program, and purpose can converge to create meaningful impact. If you’re working in youth programming, community development or nonprofit facility design, their blueprint to creating a space like this is worth your attention!
Check out the Iowa City Bike Library’s website for more program details and inspiration. And for more stories and impact from our community, follow Outride on Instagram to see how other organizations and schools are using cycling to drive change!