ADRIAN – A nearly perfect summer afternoon on Saturday, August 10, provided the backdrop for a community festival in East Adrian that served as a neighborhood back-to-school celebration and the official unveiling of plans for the new Align Center for Workforce Development.
Highlights along East Church Street in Adrian included backpacks filled with school supplies, free haircuts courtesy of Legacy Barber College, and activities and games for children. In addition, tours of a former school and church were offered, showing the public what to expect at the workforce development building at 440 E. Church St.
After completing the purchase of the former Restore World Church earlier this year, Align Lenawee representatives allowed congregation members to take a look inside and get a glimpse of what the Align Center is expected to open next year.
The Align Center for Workforce Development aims to meet the talent needs in Lenawee County while bridging the gap between the skills in demand and the abilities of residents. The center will provide training and consulting for small businesses and feature a makerspace to encourage the development of products and services for entrepreneurs, according to previous information from Align Lenawee and Lenawee Now, two of the organizations driving the development center effort.
During Saturday’s event, guests were able to view project renderings of the center. The renderings show cutting-edge plans for the building, which was the former St. John’s Lutheran School before Restore World Church.
“The community has waited a long time for this space to become what we said two years ago it should be,” said Ben Negron during the neighborhood meeting on Saturday.
Negron, a longtime Adrian resident, civil rights activist and founder of HOLA – Hispanics of Lenawee Alliance – said State Senator Joe Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe) was instrumental in securing a $10 million grant from the State of Michigan in 2022-23 that will be instrumental in advancing the vision of the workforce development center.
“Without the funding, we couldn’t have done the construction, it’s as simple as that,” Negron said. “The funding wasn’t just for operations; it was actually to help us purchase the building and help us do what needed to be done to make it functional for the workforce that was going to take place here.”
Negron, who represented Adrian Meijer’s team on Saturday alongside numerous other members of his community, said the open day and tours were a four-year-old dream come true.
“We want to be connected to what is happening here because we are the community and we represent the community,” he said.
The Align Center for Workforce Development will provide state-of-the-art training, equipment and services to people throughout Lenawee County.
According to Align Lenawee officials, a variety of agencies and groups will be represented at the center. Michigan Works, Adrian College, Siena Heights University and Jackson College, for example, have expressed interest in space at the Align Center.
Additionally, there will be opportunities for professional development, including medical training, hospitality training, a child care area, commercial driver’s license (CDL) and construction equipment simulators, virtual reality, and more.
The management is also applying for federal grants to build a second building behind the Align Center to house industrial concepts, rental offices and shared meeting spaces.
Lenawee Now recognized the need for workforce development in Lenawee County about six or seven years ago and began establishing the Align Center for Workforce Development at that time, said Pat Farver, executive director of Lenawee Now.
“We were fortunate to get a grant from the state for this building thanks to Senator Bellino,” Farver said Saturday. “We thought it was the perfect building. We wanted something on the east side (of Adrian) to enhance the neighborhood, and it’s actually right in the center of the district.”
On Saturday, the building was essentially an empty shell before renovations began. Visitors touring the building were required to wear hard hats. Farver said they hope to move into the building in May/June 2025. In the meantime, training is beginning at other locations to establish programming.
“The whole idea is a collaborative effort to use all the resources we currently have and fill in the gaps with new and innovative technology and things like that to educate people,” Farver said. “It could be something as simple as financial awareness; we just want to make it a friendly place to come to and we want to make it state-of-the-art.”
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Randy Yagiela, Lenawee Now’s director of development, coined the phrase “the Align Center has a porch atmosphere” where information can be shared, help can be provided, and conversations can be had.
It is a large and targeted investment in the community in eastern Adrian, Negron said.
“This is what we wanted to do,” he said. “…The people of the Eastside know each other and trust each other. We want to make the vision that Randy talked about a reality.”
— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman.
