Connecting FIRST teams to community-built support.
The Ripples Initiative is a student-led effort to make FIRST more accessible, with the focus on community teams, new teams, and students who don’t know where to start.
As a community-based FTC team ourselves, we understand how difficult it can be to build and sustain a team without school infrastructure, funding pipelines, or built-in mentorship. Ripples exists to bridge that gap by connecting students to teams, mentors, and resources—locally, nationally, and globally.
At the heart of Ripples is one idea: No team should feel like they’re building alone.
Through our interactive Ripples Map, shared resources, and team-to-team guidance, we help:
Students who want to start their first FIRST team
Teams that are new, rebuilding, or struggling
Community teams navigating operations outside of schools
FIRST Teams who want to give back by helping others get started
Like ripples in water, support spreads when teams help teams, and together, we build something stronger.