West Side center's manufacturing training boosts economic mobility among participants

Delshun Rutledge is a welder at Freedman Seating in Austin, making seats for ferries, buses, trucks and subways used across the U.S. by countless people. But his job “doesn’t feel like work. It’s more fun than work.”

Three years ago, Rutledge didn’t know how to weld. The Humboldt Park native had spent a decade in prison and was released in 2022. A month after his release, he started working at Freedman.

Rutledge first assembled component kits and earned $15.50 an hour at Freedman, a company that dates back to the 1893 World’s Fair. A year later, he began operating a co-bot — a robot welding arm. His pay rose to $17.60 an hour.

Then his manager asked about his career goals and told him about Jane Addams Resource Corp.’s workforce training program. Signing up for JARC’s free course to learn to be a certified welder was a “no brainer,” Rutledge said, especially because one of its centers is at Freedman.

In Chicago, 174 trainees took JARC’s manufacturing program for job seekers in fiscal year 2025. The nonprofit also had 311 people enroll in skills classes who were already working at manufacturers that often hire its graduates, such as Freedman and S&C Electric.

“By bridging the skills gap and creating pathways into high-demand careers, JARC’s programs play a critical role in boosting social mobility, breaking the cycle of poverty and fostering generational wealth on the West Side,” Regan Brewer, JARC’s president, said. Many graduates double their salaries in the first year, according to JARC.

Careers in unionized skilled trades offer upward economic mobility, according to a report last year from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Project for Middle Class Renewal.

At JARC, about one-third of trainees hailed from the South and West sides, where poverty levels are high. In fiscal year 2024, 83% of JARC students lived below the poverty line.

Over the last five years, JARC’s graduates have had an 85% job placement rate, including in many well-paid union roles. In 2024, graduates from JARC’s welding and software-controlled manufacturing programs had an average starting wage of $20.79 per hour.

Trainees can earn national credentials from the National Institute of Metalworking Skills, American Welding Society, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and other organizations.

JARC was founded in 1985 in Ravenswood. It started working on the West Side in 2017 and moved into Freedman Seating’s site in 2020. JARC also has a training center in Ravenswood and at the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, which launched in Austin in summer 2025.

Freedman Seating has hired hundreds of JARC graduates over decades. “We have worked with JARC for 30-plus years and their focus not only on the trainee but demand-driven programs have been invaluable to our success,” said Craig Freedman, former CEO of Freedman Seating and now business adviser.

Getting to where he would have been

In 2023, Rutledge took six hours of JARC classes four days a week, after his eight-hour shift at Freedman.

He graduated from high school in 2000 so his math skills were rusty and needed refreshing, he said. But his teacher “was very smart with math. He knew a lot of tricks that I never knew growing up,” Rutledge said.

His six months of classes were followed by six months of hands-on welding training at JARC. He passed a welding certification test in summer 2024 and then made $18.60 per hour. Last year, he made $23 as a welder.

Although taking classes after work was challenging, Rutledge was motivated and wanted to make up for time lost while incarcerated. “I wanted to get to where I know I would have been,” he said.

JARC enrollees learn skills such as welding, press-brake operation, mechanical assembly, blueprint reading and computer numerical control machining, along with skills like work readiness and basic digital literacy. Wraparound services include employment coaching, such as job interviewing and resume writing, transportation assistance and public benefits consultations.

It supported Rutledge with welding gear, gas cards and financial assistance, as he set up his first apartment.

“This holistic approach helps trainees overcome barriers to employment,” Brewer said.

JARC also offers classes about personal finance, including banking, saving and building credit.

Those lessons paid off for Rutledge. In July 2024, he bought a house west of Chicago. When he went to prison, his son and daughter were one and four years old. Thirteen years later, the teenagers live with Rutledge in his new home. “It wouldn’t happen without JARC,” he said.

Britt Bartholmew, senior financial coach at JARC, remembers Rutledge in her personal finance classes. “He was very goal-oriented,” Bartholomew said. He wanted to fix his credit, save and prepare for retirement, she recalled.

Personal finance is an important part of JARC’s focus on economic mobility.

“Understanding your financial circumstances helps people stay afloat and stay employed,” Bartholomew said. Personal finance classes help people “figure out how to work with what you have.” But “you can’t budget your way out of poverty,” she said.

To join JARC’s free manufacturing programs, trainees need to be 18 or older, have 9th grade math and reading skills, no sexual offenses and work authorization in the U.S. The program is flexible, allowing students to complete the program at their own pace, and then earn certifications or land a job. About 10 weeks is the fastest timeline to completing the course.

Ninety percent of trainees faced at least one barrier to employment in fiscal year 2024, JARC said. That included insufficient income, recent layoffs and limited job opportunities, due to gaps in skills or experience. Unemployment among clients was 69% before the program.

Luther Ware, 33, has worked at Freedman since April 2024, after being incarcerated for nearly a decade. He started as a co-bot operator and works as a welder making $18.60 per hour, after he completed training at JARC.

Fellow trainees had different levels of education, but his instructors were “very patient,” recalled Ware. They “got the job done.”

Without JARC’s free classes, he wouldn’t have had access to welding and CNC machining classes, he said.

‘I found a knack here’

Adrian Romo, a JARC welding instructor, graduated from the program in 2021. It was a complete career change for Romo, who was a Starbucks barista and manager for 10 years. He saw more opportunity in manufacturing, especially because of the pay increases.

After finishing the JARC program, Romo worked at Chicago Metal Fabricators. Then an instructor position opened up at JARC and he got the job.

“I never saw myself as a skilled, hands-on trades guy. But I found a knack here,” Romo said. “There are a fair share of people who have been through the justice system. But it’s no different than anything else. I meet people where they are.”

Romo works with trainees of all ages and backgrounds. Cori O’Connor, a bartender with a bachelor of fine arts in ceramic sculpture, enrolled in JARC’s welding course last August.

O’Connor, 43, said bartending is a difficult industry, especially as she gets older. Trade jobs like welding offer security and stability and could also help with her artistic pursuits.

At JARC, O’Connor works alongside 18-year-olds who just graduated high school, but the atmosphere is congenial and collaborative. “Everyone in the group is super willing to share knowledge,” she said.

JARC has been mostly unaffected by new federal regulations under President Donald Trump. But hiring at Freedman and other companies paused last year, due to higher costs and uncertainty from tariffs and other policies.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty, but given some new market opportunities, we hope to be on track to restart hiring in early 2026,” Freedman said.

When asked about the possibility of pausing hiring or even layoffs, Ware said the seating manufacturer gives people opportunities.

“It plays a big part in the community,” he said. “If they were to lose that, they would be struck out.”