Impact Institute Kendallville: One READI Grant, Three Programs Expanding

Impact Institute, the CTE center serving 13 county school corporations across Allen, DeKalb, and Noble counties, will receive a $765,000 READI 2.0 grant toward a $4.7 million expansion of welding and precision machining programs at Fairview Plaza in Kendallville. Welding booths go from 38 to 50. Machining capacity (currently serving roughly 20 students) will triple. Construction started in December 2025 and is expected to complete in early September 2026.

The buried multiplier: when welding and machining vacate the Dowling Street location, the HVAC program moves in and triples or quadruples its footprint. One grant. Three programs expanding simultaneously.

The unresolved constraint is instructor capacity. Adding 12 welding booths and tripling machining space immediately demands qualified CTE instructors in disciplines where production wages run $30 or more per hour, a rate that routinely outcompetes what school systems can offer. The physical expansion could outrun the human capital to fill it. If you operate in Northeast Indiana and are not already engaged with Impact Institute as an employer partner, competitors in your region are watching this pipeline.