Staff photos / R. Michael Semple Jeffery M. Magada, Flying HIGH founder and executive director, center, cuts the ceremonial ribbon as guests attending the event celebrate.

YOUNGSTOWN — Flying HIGH Inc.’s investment in the city’s North Side grew with the opening of a training facility and a transitional recovery house.

The $800,000, 7,400-square-foot Professional Development Center Molina Training Facility will provide pre-apprenticeship skills training in carpentry and blueprint reading / fitting, as well as job readiness and placement services.

The $650,000, 2,500-square-foot Eagles Nest II is a transitional recovery house for those working and being trained at Flying HIGH’s North Side campus.

Flying HIGH is a workforce development organization that assists and trains people, largely those who have employment barriers, so they can find jobs.

“If you’re going to help individuals who’ve been underutilized or under-served, then you need to put them through a process where you can house them safely, you can acclimate them to job training and work, and allow them to be part of the community solution,” Jeffrey M. Magada, Flying HIGH’s executive director and founder, said Tuesday at the ribbon cutting for the two buildings.

“We accelerate training so they can get into the workforce in the fastest amount of time as possible — not just in jobs, but in careers,” Magada said. “That’s what Flying HIGH has been innovative in doing. It’s an integrated approach that involves job readiness and training with behavioral health.”

He added: “What we’re looking for are productive, self-sufficient taxpaying individuals at the end of the day. They are contributing to society.”

The Eagles Nest II can house 10 and is near the first Eagles Nest, which is 2,200-square-feet and houses eight.

The second Eagles Nest had fallen into disrepair and sat idle for about a decade before Flying HIGH purchased it.

The training facility, purchased with the assistance of the Mahoning County Land Bank, is on the site of the former McKinley Elementary School, which closed about 15 years ago.

“It’s rejuvenating from our perspective to see what has developed” with the training facility site, said Debora Flora, the land bank’s executive director.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown thanked Flying HIGH for cleaning up and improving the Kensington neighborhood on the North Side.

“We are pleased to be expanding our vocational opportunities for more Mahoning Valley residents to become skilled in the trades,” Magada said.

The training facility received its funding from the state’s capital budget, the Appalachian Regional Commission and Molina Healthcare Inc.

The Eagles Nest II’s funding came from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Mahoning County Mental Health Recovery Board and the Youngstown Foundation.

The pre-apprentice carpentry program is 12 weeks. The blueprint reading / fitting program is eight weeks.

“We’re making sure these individuals have driver’s licenses, reliable transportation and the ability to pass a drug screening, and they have a work ethic so they can maintain a job,” Magada said.

About 100 to 120 students will be taught in the next year, he said.

Since 2017, Flying HIGH has helped more than 500 people obtain skilled credentials and 895 have obtained employment, Magada said.