| Savannah Morning News
Founded in 2012, Xcel Strategies Inc. aims to provide young men with purpose and passion through a network of trained mentors. The organization also provides training in life skills, career advising and job placement.
Xcel founder Jay Thompson said he had the idea to care for young men who have lost parents, specifically dads, and then to equip them to find success in their dreams.
“One of our taglines is, ‘fueling young men with purpose.’ We believe if they live life with purpose they can find success in their dreams,” he said.
Thompson created a curriculum that focuses on goal setting, time management, health and fitness, financial stewardship and relational intelligence. After they complete the curriculum, the organization works to transition the young men into the workforce.
Now they’re taking their mission to the streets.
A new HVAC, electrical and plumbing trailer, which includes work stations to demonstrate real-world tasks and duties in the various industries, will launch this month and join the organization’s construction and automobile repair trailer.
“It’ll be what we call an MEP trailer, mechanical, electrical and plumbing trailer and it’ll be attached to the construction trailer, so it’ll be like four trades in one trailer,” said Xcel founder Jay Thompson.
More: Xcel Strategies honors success of mentoring program
In February, Thompson was reading “Up from Slavery” — the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington — and was inspired by how Washington would identify a need in the community and then start a training program for his students to meet that demand.
“I was thinking, we’ve got tremendous demand here in the workforce specifically in the trades, and I thought let’s take the trades mobile,” he said.
“Let’s outfit mobile training units, where we could put tools on it, we could build stuff on them. Teach construction, automotive, electrical work, plumbing work, HVAC work.”
The organization also has plans to launch a welding trailer in March and a logistics trailer later in 2021, Thompson said.
The new MEP trailer, which is a 24-foot enclosed car hauler, is outfitted with vertical platforms which can accommodate different types of processes to teach the different trades.
“We can build (everything) on these platforms,” Thompson said.
More: Roto-Rooter of Savannah supports Xcel Strategies mentoring program
The trailer will also include various tools and materials and was made possible by several sponsors including Sandpiper Supply, Roto-Rooter of Savannah, Ocean Electric Contracting Inc. and Bolton Air.
Chat Howard, who owns Sandpiper Supply, said the company has been involved with Xcel for years. What Thompson is doing for the community and next generation through Xcel is needed, he said.
“I own a plumbing supply company and I have watched for years as the skilled labor, the skilled trades have become in high demand and it’s because fewer and fewer people seem to be going into them,” Howard said.
“… The young people who aren’t necessarily college material or who maybe are college material, but don’t know what field they want to go into, need to know that there are opportunities out there for them. That there are some fantastic careers out there for them and they’re waiting for people to jump into them.”
Sandpiper has donated money for Xcel to purchase materials, donated tools and helped with events to collect materials and other tools.
“I try and do as much as I can, but always wish I could do more,” Howard said.
Kyle Hagemes, Operation Manager at Roto-Rooter of Savannah, said the dedication and commitment owner Sherry Daniel’s has for the plumbing industry made partnering with Xcel an easy choice.
“We are proud to be a part of this endeavor, from supporting the trailer’s funding to the long-term investment of teaching young people about plumbing,” Hagemes said.
Like Howard, Hagemes said there is a shortage of plumbers in the industry and Roto-Rooter tries to combat that by offering their own Career Pathway Program.
“When I met Jay and learned about the mentoring program he was starting with the trade trailers, his enthusiasm won me over immediately,” he said.
“I could see the vision he was bringing to life and knew it aligned beautifully with our dream of building and leaving a Roto-Rooter Plumbing School as our legacy.”
Roto-Rooter will also be holding workshop classes for those involved in the Xcel program.
“Eventually, we want to build a plumbing-only trailer for a more intensive plumbing experience and further support this program,” Hagemes said.
Thompson said Xcel couldn’t do what they do without their sponsors who play a tremendous role in outfitting the trailers, along with a grant received by the Kiwanis Club of Skidaway Island.
“We’re not selling a product, we’re not charging anybody to be on the trailer, this is all out of the non-profit spirit to where we want to care for the community and impact the lives of young people.
Katie Nussbaum is the business reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at [email protected]. Twitter: KmartSMN
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