A San Diego nonprofit is tackling two problems at once: the manufacturing skills gap and the cycle of recidivism. Rise Up Industries, founded in 2013, offers an 18-month reentry program for formerly incarcerated individuals that boasts a 100% employment rate and an average post-graduation starting wage of $30 per hour.
The organization operates a 20,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility where 24 apprentices at a time work with 19 CNC machines. Demand is high, with 10 to 20 people applying every week, the San Diego Business Journal reported.
Only 3% of Rise Up graduates return to prison, compared to California’s overall recidivism rate of over 40%. Executive Director Jonathan Yackley attributes this success to providing genuine opportunity rather than just training.
‘That really demonstrates that our problem isn’t a plethora of ill-willed people. It’s a lack of opportunity for the people that have decided to turn their lives around,’ Yackley said. ‘When you give that opportunity, and they don’t have the second unofficial sentence of economic struggling for the rest of their life, that’s when these folks coming out of prison can do well.’
The program addresses a critical workforce need in San Diego’s $47 billion manufacturing industry. In April, Yackley pitched at a Sacramento session for Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Jobs First initiative, representing the San Diego and Imperial Valley region alongside UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation.
Rise Up began in 2016 in a 500-square-foot garage with one CNC machine. Today it employs 53 total people, many of whom are former graduates of the apprenticeship program. The organization was modeled after Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, which has served as a blueprint for over 250 reentry organizations globally.
Yackley proposed creating a replicable playbook for bringing formerly incarcerated people into the manufacturing workforce. ‘There are so many people that want to work,’ he said, countering the narrative that manufacturing cannot attract workers.
The organization’s approach combines technical training with comprehensive support, addressing the employment barriers that formerly incarcerated individuals face. Its success has drawn attention from policymakers looking for solutions to both workforce shortages and criminal justice reform.
