Custom Image is a non-profit trade school in South Central Los Angeles that teaches people to make real products in America — printed, stitched, etched, and pressed. We raise money to turn life skills into manufacturing careers for the residents of 90008 and the blocks around it. This is workforce development and reshoring, taught on a shop floor in the neighborhood.
Every dollar raised moves a South Central resident along one line — from showing up, to a real credential, to a job making goods that are too often made anywhere but America.
Show up, work safely, finish what you start, build a portfolio — the habits a career is built on, taught alongside the craft.
A 12-week certificate in a real trade that makes a physical product — apparel, signage, awards, custom goods.
A worker who can make things here — feeding the reshoring of production into the neighborhood that needs the jobs.
Each of the six trades is domestic light manufacturing — taking raw goods and producing finished products on real equipment, the kind of work that builds a Made-in-America supply chain from the ground up.
Printing apparel and textiles at volume.
Decorating wearables by machine.
Producing signage and wide-format graphics.
Fabricating trophies, plaques, recognition goods.
Etching glass and acrylic products.
Printing full-color custom consumer products.
Underserved youth & adults in South Central LA, where opportunity is scarce.
In-demand, high-wage trades with a credential employers recognize.
Domestic manufacturing capacity, built by training local makers.
The exact intersection federal, state & private funders are resourcing in 2026.
These are active programs Custom Image's model aligns with. Eligibility and awards vary — we pursue them with grant partners — but the fit is direct: short-term training in domestic manufacturing for an underserved workforce.
Partner with Custom Image to train South Central Los Angeles for the jobs of a re-industrializing America — and put your support behind a school that can prove its outcomes.