The name Textron has been synonymous with mechanized golf equipment since it acquired the E-Z-GO golf car line in 1960 and Jacobsen mowers 15 years later. For most of the past decade, the Textron Specialized Vehicles division also has made a name for itself in helping uplift at-risk children and young adults in E-Z-GO/Cushman's hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
Since 2016, TSV has partnered with the Richmond County School System in a partnership that supports at-risk high school students who need an alternative path to earning a high-school diploma.
The program, known as Reaching Potential Through Manufacturing, combines four hours of classroom instruction with a four-hour shift on a plant floor at a campus that is part school and part manufacturing facility. Students receive academic instruction, produce components and subassemblies for E-Z-GO golf cars and Cushman utility vehicles and learn the soft skills necessary to succeed in business.
RPM is open to at-risk students age 16 or older from all 10 high schools in Richmond County. Since its inception in 2016, RPM has helped about 400 students earn a high school diploma who otherwise might not have had a chance to graduate, including 11 graduates this spring.
Instead of seeking out students with the best grades, RPM seeks to help those whose path to high school graduation and a productive adult life is less certain.
"One of the things that we do look at, we use the upside-down model to what most people are most familiar with magnet programs," said RPM Principal Kierstin Johnson, Ph.D. "So instead of looking for kids with the highest grades and the best behavior and the best attendance, we look for students who are, to qualify, you must be at a credit deficit."
Modeled after a similar program in west-central Georgia, the RPM program was approved in January 2016 and welcomed its inaugural class eight months later for the 2016-17 school year.
"The genesis of the program goes back to a time when we were expanding our operations here in Augusta, and spending a pretty good amount, several million dollars in capital, to expand our operations," said Phillip Bowman, director of operations for Textron Specialized Vehicles in Augusta. "As we did that, we realized that commensurate with that investment, we were going to have to make sure that we had a workforce available to us in Augusta."
RPM students work directly with Willie Powell, senior operations manager, and other Textron employees who serve as supervisors to build a variety of components, such as controllers, brake cables and many other parts for golf cars and utility vehicles.
Textron has made offers of employment to six of this year's 11 graduates, and has hired 40 percent of all graduates since the program was launched. Since 2016, every E-Z-GO golf car and Cushman utility vehicle features components that were built by RPM students, Powell said.
For Johnson, the payoff is seeing RPM students trade what almost certainly was a future with questionable prospects for a life of promise.
"As far as the students are concerned, it's an awesome opportunity to get the chance to reset, the chance to leave behind some of the baggage and reputation they had garnered for themselves and start fresh with us and be your own brand new person," Johnson said.
"When they get an opportunity to come here, they start fresh with a brand new life."
The program allows TSV to play a key role in helping prepare the Augusta community's most at-risk population to become productive and successful, while also providing a channel to train potential future employees.
As far as the students are concerned, it's an awesome opportunity to get the chance to reset, the chance to leave behind some of the baggage and reputation they had garnered for themselves and start fresh with us and be your own brand new person.
"You hear about some of the incredibly tough situations that some of these kids come from, whether they're homeless, they're teen parents, they're coming out of poverty; just incredibly difficult circumstances that they have had to manage in their young lives," said Brandon Haddock, director of communications for Textron Specialized Vehicles.
"To be able to help them overcome those circumstances and get on track and become productive members of society, but also get their own lives on track.
"It's special when you see the impact the program has on kids, and we have the pleasure of doing a graduation dinner to celebrate our latest graduates last week, and you see those kids and their families and the impact that the program makes on their lives."
Johnson was a principal at the middle and high school levels before she took on the same role at RPM. She says RPM's small class size contributes to student success.
"Our largest class, even in the summer semester, is 18," she said. "That small class size gives students the opportunity to feel seen. And for kids of this particular generation, that is a big selling point that they can ask the question in class and not feel like they're the only one who doesn't understand. The teachers know them very well. It's just a wonderful opportunity for students to reset, get a second chance."
RPM conducts tours of the facility, and students enjoy talking with visitors about the parts they manufactured and their function. Students can earn quarterly incentive pay based on factors such as attendance and quality of work, giving them further insight into what awaits them in the workplace after completing high school.
As word of RPM spreads, acceptance of the program by students has been such that there is a waiting list to get in, and feedback from parents has been positive, Johnson said.
"Kids do lose their way," Johnson said. "And parents don't know why, don't know how. But they become a person that parents really don't know. They remember the sweet young girl and sweet young boy when they were 7, 8 and early elementary. And then somewhere along the way, they lose that person.
"And to have a program that you really feel like brings you that person back is, again for even the whole family unit, very life changing as well."
RPM is modeled after 12 for Life, a similar program between Carroll County Schools in west-central Georgia and Southwire, a maker of electrical wire and cable based in Carrollton, Bowman said.
"You have to have a committed business partner," Johnson said. "The commitment of the business partner will completely drive everything."
Such public-private partnerships do not have to be unique to Georgia, Haddock said.
"We certainly believe that RPM is a model that other communities can follow," Haddock said. "I know Dr. Johnson, Philip and Willie spend a lot of their time showing off RPM to people who want to come see it from all over the country."