Welding for all

insPYRE is a new nonprofit school for welding and metalwork in Knoxville, teaching marginalized and at-risk individuals about transformation through metalwork and empowering them with real life skills.

Students who complete insPYRE’s 15-week program will be prepared for a job as a welder in an industry that currently holds 300,000 unfilled welding jobs across the U.S.

There is no ‘typical’ student: we welcome everyone, from young adults ageing out of foster programs to women who have been abused and sheltered to recovering alcoholics, addicts, and also the formerly incarcerated.

Our premise is simple: in metalwork, nothing is irreconcilable. You can make mistakes and you can find solutions.

We believe that, regardless of the past, our lives are enriched by the stories that we live, and healing occurs when we, as a community, hold space for the underserved to tell their own stories and to begin their respective transformations.

What we do