Foundation Program LIFTs People Up for the Trades

BROOKFIELD, Ohio – Bethany Suntheimer always wanted to be a truck driver, but she was working two jobs and couldn’t afford to take time off for the required training.

Then she learned about the LIFT – Lifting Individuals for the Trades – at the Community Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.

“I was working a full-time job in order to do the schooling, but I couldn’t do the long [training] program … because I still had to work to pay my bills,” Suntheimer said.

She contacted trucking company Nick Strimbu Inc. and reached Thomas Banks, recruitment and retention manager. He told her about the LIFT program and put her in touch with Harrison Strimbu, company marketing director, who helped her get set up in the program.

With a grant from the LIFT program, Suntheimer took the training at Nick Strimbu, earned her CDL and got hired as a driver. About three years later she’s a driver trainer.  

The program, started in March 2020, was developed to help unemployed and underemployed people overcome financial barriers that prevent them from getting training in the trades.

That barrier may be a car payment or rent, for example. LIFT covers those types of costs so an individual can complete training and get a job that enables them to earn more money. Many of the jobs filled are those in need of employees too.

“Almost every board member on the entire foundation that’s involved with this program is out there looking for people to recruit [for the program] so we can help them to better their lives,” said Bill Strimbu, president of Nick Strimbu and a board member at the foundation. “We want to bring people up into a higher wage bracket so that they can pursue their life dreams, basically.”

To date, LIFT has granted more than $136,000 to 72 participants. The average grant amount is about $1,890, and the average age of participants is 31.

The idea came about seven years ago through Strimbu and another board member, Ron Anderson, owner of Universal Development in Girard.

A woman was training through the Hope Center for Arts and Technology Inc. in Sharon, Pa., to become a medical assistant. She had two young children and was dealing with marriage problems and subsequent financial hardship. Although she was nearing completion, she was going to quit due to finances.

After meeting with the woman to see if there was a way for them to help, they set up a grant and a budget to help pay her bills so she could finish the program and earn her license.

“She got a job right away at Sharon Regional Health System,” Strimbu said. 

They also helped her pay expenses while she returned to school to become a registered nurse. The grant helped the woman change her life and raise her family, Strimbu said. 

“Both of her sons are going to college now with full-ride scholarships,” Strimbu said. “So it didn’t only save her and put her in a higher wage bracket, it helped her whole family.”

That prompted the idea for LIFT at the foundation. It’s for people with a good work ethic who are underemployed, Strimbu said.

As LIFT developed, Strimbu attended a meeting with the whole foundation board and presented it.

“We had individual fund advisers like myself jump on board and throw in $20,000, $30,000 at a time to the bucket to build the fund up,” Strimbu said.

It’s now expanded to four counties with outreach in trade schools.

Strimbu said the foundation hopes employers who find good employees through LIFT will grant money back to the foundation so the program may become self-sustaining. 

Individuals and employers who want to learn more about LIFT can find information HERE.

“It’s really a good use of money because it takes a person and adds another good person into the workforce too,” he said.

Kyle English, executive director at the foundation, said one surprising thing was that such a relatively small amount of money could bring such significant results.

“We thought we would get a lot of scholarships and that type of thing, but it turned out the barrier was just everyday expenses,” he said.

Recipients have jobs and are making ends meet, but the barrier is time to complete training, English said. 

“We interview them and say, ‘How much are you making in one of these jobs that would free you up enough to be able to go and get the training that you need to get a better life?’” he said. 

They just need a little bit of help to pay some bills along the way, English said. The bills are paid directly.

Some of the trades covered so far include CDL, medical assisting, electrical technicians and cosmetologists. The largest number of recipients, 38%, needed the money for transportation, followed by housing and living expenses at 37%.

Strimbu said they want to reach out to other industries too. 

“It’s a way that we definitely want to look at providing that ready workforce for local employers,” English said. “If we can connect the dots with individuals that have a great work ethic and just want to get ahead, then the program’s working.”

Banks, the recruiting and retention manager at Strimbu, described Suntheimer as a “rock solid” employee. The manager has become a sort of ambassador for the program, telling people in other industries about its benefits.

“The biggest thing that I really enjoy about LIFT is seeing the look on people’s faces when $1,800 literally transformed their lives,” Banks said. “I mean, it’s an amazing thing.”

If Suntheimer hadn’t found the program, she believes she’d still be working two jobs, earning about $35,000 annually and struggling to make ends meet. She makes nearly triple that now, working at Nick Strimbu, and she loves it.

“It’s everything,” Suntheimer said. “I can actually pay my bills and help my mom and dad out and just do what I need to do instead of constantly worrying and stressing about everything.”

Since the program started, 15 LIFT participants have worked at Nick Strimbu, and the company has paid about $916,000 in wages since October 2021. The average first-year wage at the company is $69,500.

Seeing the changes LIFT makes in people’s lives is emotional for Strimbu.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “Our goal is to help people, and when you can see that people are being helped, it moves you.”

Pictured at top: From left are Thomas Banks, recruitment and retention manager at Nick Strimbu Inc.; Bethany Suntheimer, a driver and driver trainer at the company; Bill Strimbu, company president; and Kyle English, executive director for the Community Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.