Last year, Jake Flagle, president and founder of 316 Product Development, realized that after 10 years of design and development work, there was a need for his company to expand into contract manufacturing.
Conversations between Pastor Hubert and Jake lead to the creation of 316 Contract Manufacturing, which now occupies 6,000 square feet of Hope Center Indy’s main campus building and provides job opportunities to sex trafficking survivors in the Take Heart Residential program.
These jobs include helping with the development and creation of products in a number of different markets including defense, automotive, consumer, electronic, and where 50 to 60% if its business comes from, medical devices.
316 Contract Manufacturing has four driving principles:
Provide world class products to customers
Provide a safe place for sex trafficking survivors to work
Provide upward mobility in a career to sex trafficking survivors
Provide a giving engine for Hope Center Indy
A handful of residents have been working with 316 Contract Manufacturing in the last year, receiving training in soldering, 3D printing, and a number of other skills. They also learn to do inspections, read drawings, and lead medical device builds.
“We just secured a large contract for a medical device that potentially is going to employ up to seven ladies here in the first year, and by the fourth year, we’d be building more than 100,000 units and have ten to twenty employees on board,” says Jake.
For some of the survivors, working in the Redefined Hope Boutique is a great fit. For others, interacting with customers can be very difficult, especially given the trauma they are working through. 316 Contract Manufacturing provides a different work environment that may be more suitable for some.
One resident working with 316 Contract Manufacturing said, “I just never thought I’d find a job that utilized my character traits.”
“She was very detailed oriented and she had never landed a job that utilized that,” said Jake. “It was just a really cool thing to see her grow and to know she can go out anywhere across the country and be employed with that kind of background and skillset.”
As the company grows, Jake hopes to see survivors with the right aptitude move into managerial roles, maybe even running the company.
“It’s not just hey, we want to knock out some product,” says Jake. “Just as important as building that quality product is really building and coming alongside these ladies in their transformation process.”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
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