I can only really speak for sprout; although, I suspect that the people from DINO would say something similar.
With that caveat, I think the way a community's demographics work out is in part about who starts the community, but I'm confident that with some effort, we can make sure to seed our community with enough diversity so that it doesn't narrow to just one group. So far, we've been pretty successful--I'd guess that the median age at our last event was around 35 or 40, even though we are in our early 20's.
Our first project as sprout is working with an organization called Green City Growers, and they install raised bed gardens in people's backyards (and optionally maintain them) so that people can grow their own produce. In that context, we'll be working with people across all ages--that's one of the most exciting aspects of the project. Beyond that, we've all had experience running afterschool programs and camps for people aged 5-18, and are excited to bring more people in that age range into our space. So far, we've got a puzzle-focused math class running here for that age range, and it's been going pretty swimmingly.
To put it shortly, we're not focusing on a general age group: we want to be working with people up for deep investigation of the world around us.
Hopefully, being aware of the potential for 20-somethings to only attract more 20-somethings, we can mitigate that. I would be excited to hear any suggestions or examples of organizations that do that successfully.
Re: What I'm not sure about...
With that caveat, I think the way a community's demographics work out is in part about who starts the community, but I'm confident that with some effort, we can make sure to seed our community with enough diversity so that it doesn't narrow to just one group. So far, we've been pretty successful--I'd guess that the median age at our last event was around 35 or 40, even though we are in our early 20's.
Our first project as sprout is working with an organization called Green City Growers, and they install raised bed gardens in people's backyards (and optionally maintain them) so that people can grow their own produce. In that context, we'll be working with people across all ages--that's one of the most exciting aspects of the project. Beyond that, we've all had experience running afterschool programs and camps for people aged 5-18, and are excited to bring more people in that age range into our space. So far, we've got a puzzle-focused math class running here for that age range, and it's been going pretty swimmingly.
To put it shortly, we're not focusing on a general age group: we want to be working with people up for deep investigation of the world around us.
Hopefully, being aware of the potential for 20-somethings to only attract more 20-somethings, we can mitigate that. I would be excited to hear any suggestions or examples of organizations that do that successfully.