ARC MAGAZINE

Hope in a Flash

Sometimes redemption starts with a single spark.

That’s the mission at ReIGNITE Hope, a training program based in Gardena, California, that teaches welding and welding-related skills to men and women struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, limited education, criminal history or other enormous challenges.

Founded in a church on Skid Row in Los Angeles in 2011, ReIGNITE Hope has trained more than 1,300 students in thirteen years. Many of the graduates are from the immediate area, but others have benefited from the organization’s small fleet of 18-wheeler trucks that have taken the program on the road – throughout California and into other parts of the country. To date, ReIGNITE Hope has trained welders as far afield as Dallas and Philadelphia. The wish list of destinations includes Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities around the U.S., according to Steve Bunyard, founder and president.

In a previous life, Bunyard owned a high performance automotive manufacturing and retail operation in Orange County, California. He sold the company in 2010 and became a pastor at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Los Angeles. The job brought him face to face with the homeless and other at-risk populations within the community, which motivated him to establish ReIGNITE Hope.

“Our church didn't do job training, but I started thinking and praying about that,” says Bunyard. “I had learned to weld when I was young, and that just kept going around in my head as something that could get some of these people out of their situations. That could get them out of Skid Row. We could have kept feeding them every day, and that would have been fine, but that wasn’t going to get them out of there.”

Bunyard is now a Certified Welding Educator and Certified Welding Inspector, and he teaches TIG welding to students in the program when he’s not otherwise busy with higher-level administrative duties.

ReIGNITE Hope’s curriculum covers TIG, MIG, flux-core and stick welding. Every student who has come through the program has earned AWS certification. But the support hasn’t ended there. Sherrie Newton, vice president of the organization, oversees job placement once the training is complete and the certification is in hand.

“Our job placement team works one-on one with each one of our students to help identify any employment barriers and determine the best way to support them in their transition to full-time employment after completing the training,” says Newton. “All students have access to services that we offer for transportation, GED, childcare, mental health, getting reentry.”

At the same time, ReIGNITE Hope is “continually working to establish our partnerships with local workforce boards, employers and unions,” she adds. “They just catch the vision, and they really want to help give the students a second chance.”

Bunyard says the transformation among students who enter the program is rapid and remarkable. “Each of them in their own way becomes a different person, even just in a month’s time,” he says. “They’re not used to somebody coming alongside them like we do, caring about them at no cost and with no strings attached. They just haven’t had that in their lives. They generally haven’t had great role models or people who believe in them. So to see what happens when they come here – the way they start acting differently, talking differently, making different choices in their lives – is extremely rewarding.”

The spark of redemption at ReIGNITE Hope isn’t a transaction, says Bunyard. It’s a gift.

“There’s no catch here. Just love.”