A church program in Tarentum is working to provide people with a path to employment, among other services.
That could mean funneling people to free training programs at The Digital Foundry in New Kensington, which offers certification programs in entry-level manufacturing to advanced engineering.
“At the heart of what we do is ‘community,’” said Sally Jo Snyder of Freeport, head of the Alle-Kiski Valley Community of Transformation, headquartered at Central Presbyterian Church along East Fourth Avenue. “If we can help make some connection, we’d be all for it.”
The Foundry, an initiative of Penn State New Kensington, is hosting an open house at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at its Fifth Avenue site. Classes begin April 15.
The facility partners with educators and companies to drive economic growth. It offers hands-on experience and a state-of-the-art Digital Learning and Demonstration Lab where students can gain future-ready skills.
“There are people who don’t know these services exist,” said Sherri McCleary, executive director of the Foundry. “We want to take steps to better people’s lives.”
The introduction to Advanced Manufacturing program, for example, is a 12-hour workshop for people to learn the fundamentals, including automation and robotics.
New Kensington resident Justin Roher graduated from the Foundry’s Level 1 training in December and already has enrolled in a Computer-Aided Design program.
A construction worker by day, Roher, 30, is interested in expanding his career path with technology.
“The program helped me by showing there’s more to the future of construction with robotics,” said Roher, a 2012 Valley High School graduate. “There’s different paths you can take with advanced skills, and I would like to be at the forefront of that.”
Roher said his first program was free. His newest classes — which are Penn State accredited — cost less than $1,000, making them more affordable than even community college, Roher said.
The Foundry partners with local agencies like CareerLink to make workforce training grants available for eligible participants.
In February, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi announced some of the university’s branch campuses, including Penn State New Kensington, could be closed, but it remains unclear whether the Upper Burrell site will be impacted.
Bendapudi expects to make a final decision before summer.
McCleary said a potential closure would hurt in terms of collaboration with the campus — but operations at The Foundry would go on.
“The biggest impact for us would be that we get a lot of our interns there,” McCleary said.
Across the country, the manufacturing industry continues to enjoy demand.
It employs nearly 13 million people in the U.S., according to the federal Department of Commerce. Over the next 10 years, 4 million jobs in the sector are expected to need to be filled.
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the number of jobs recently rose 7% from 431,000 in December to 462,000 in January. Manufacturers contributed $2.93 trillion at the annual rate to the U.S. economy in the third quarter of 2024, according to the group’s website.
The average manufacturing salary in Pennsylvania is about $25 an hour, or $52,000 a year, according to ZipRecruiter.
“We’ve got the technology training covered but on the other end of the pipeline is the awareness,” McCleary said. “The faith community is great in letting them know the services are in our backyard. There’s a lot of crossover in our missions.”
Snyder, who helped launch the Alle-Kiski Valley Community of Transformation in March, said a partnership with the Foundry “makes total sense.”
Her initiative, hosted by the United Methodist Church, is only the second such program in the state. The goal is to support people in their search for a job, continuing education or social relationships, and to take them from surviving to thriving, Snyder said.
The Community of Transformation comprises 10 churches and agencies, including the Allegheny Intermediate Unit; Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Harrison; Trinity United Methodist Church in Brackenridge; New Kensington Presbyterian; First Baptist Church in Tarentum; and Bethel, Freeport, Leechburg and Vandergrift United Methodist churches.
McCleary said the Foundry works with more than 100 manufacturing companies. It recently started similar networking groups with churches and social service groups across New Kensington, Arnold and elsewhere.
Monthly meetings have drawn a crowd to find common threads of helping others, she said.
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“We want to be a catalyst for conversations,” McCleary said. “We’re working with employers to understand the hurdles of retention, and we want to get people support and training that leads to employment.”