J.Rich Atlanta believes in elevating influential voices in our community. Today, we hear from Larry Witherspoon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Automotive Training Center!

Q&A with Larry

1) Where did the idea for the Automotive Training Center come from? 

The story of the Automotive Training Center is closely tied to my personal story. My father grew up in the inner-city and was the first person in my family to graduate college. He became an inner-city high school teacher and sent my sister and I to private school. He did this because he saw the difference in the level of education and the distractions that were present at the impoverished public schools that hindered learning. 

I was able to go to college on a football scholarship and had many opportunities, but I ended up making some poor decisions and got wrapped up in dealing drugs. I was arrested for assault and had nobody to blame but myself. I was able to see my life before me, and my two choices were jail or death. I was terrified and decided to turn my life around. 

I came to Atlanta to join a community development effort in Atlanta and started meeting lots of young men who reminded me of my younger self. Most of them were angry and came from fatherless homes. I knew, at that moment, I needed to be a part of the solution. The memories of the mentoring my father did as an educator and coach came flooding back to me. I knew that I could help people just like he did. 

Initially, I wanted to start a for-profit business and hire these young men. Then, the idea for the Automotive Training Center was born and morphed into a non-profit organization. Six years later, ATC has trained over 100+ alumni all at no cost to the students and have alumni employed all around the city of Atlanta. 

2) What is the lasting impact that you hope to have? 

The lasting impact that the Automotive Training Center hopes to have is embodied in our mission statement. ATC’s mission is to equip its graduates with the necessary skills to pursue their dreams of an automotive career path, college graduation, and business ownership. Our mission is to support our students so that they may pursue their dreams. We have many students who would like to own their own automotive business in the future or become a master-certified automotive technician. 

Currently, we have several students operating mobile repair businesses that we have offered assistance to. Also, we are in the process of launching an Advanced-Level Technician course. The Advanced-Level course will accelerate the amount of training our graduates receive, and the time it takes for them to become master-level certified. This new program and the growth of our current programs will ensure that the Automotive Training Center will leave a lasting impact on the city of Atlanta and its young people. 

3) What is most rewarding about the work you do? 

The most rewarding part of what I do is watching the “light bulb” turn on for our students. We only help our students realize the gifts and talents they already possess. For one reason or another, they may not have honed these skills before coming to our program. Our training challenges them to think critically by solving complex problems. I love seeing a student feel a sense of accomplishment when they solve problems by making a complicated repair. The confidence they display in themselves is tangible, and we look forward to what their futures hold because they can attain whatever their dreams hold. 

4) What excites you most about the future/potential of Atlanta? 

Atlanta is a very progressive city for its location in a conservative part of the country. I don’t think the Automotive Training Center would be as successful so quickly if we were in another city. We have big dreams about the expansion of our programs, and there is a synergy with other like-minded non-profit organizations and partners that are unique to Atlanta. 

I get excited because we would eventually love to be able to offer our training programs inside of the detention centers in the city and throughout the state. Atlanta’s mayor has proposed closing the city jail and turning it into a rehabilitation facility. There are not many other cities that are thinking as deeply about the impact of mass incarceration and how it is hindering so many people. ATC is proud to be a part of the story of Atlanta, and we look forward to how we can impact more people and make the city stronger. 

5) How have you been able to impact the community? 

The impact on the city of Atlanta can be measured by the success of the graduates from the Automotive Training Center. We have intentionally geared our program towards 15-25-year-olds because they are statistically most likely to commit crimes. Our mission is to combat the cycle of mass incarceration, which is fueled by a lack of education and viable employment opportunities. ATC’s programs give our students education, purpose, and careers, not just jobs. 

We currently have alumni working at Marietta Toyota, Curry Honda, multiple Hennessy dealerships, and other independent repair shops around the city. Our Entry-Level Technician program has over an 80% employment rate. Only two recent graduates have returned to jail. The average offender in the state or local system has nearly a 70% chance of returning to jail or prison within two years of release. ATC’s re-offense rate is more than ten times lower than the average offender. Our programs are immensely successful because of the success of our graduates. We look forward to what the future will bring as we are able to train more students. 

6) What are you most proud of? 

I am the proudest of our now 100+ alumni who have attended or graduated from the training programs at the Automotive Training Center in the last five years. ATC operated on a part-time basis for its first three years. But since transitioning to full-time operations in 2017, we have seen exponential growth in the number of students trained. We have students working at dealerships and independent repair shops all over the city of Atlanta. I love taking the time to surprise some of our alumni while they are at work. I get a chance to see the results of the hard work our staff and volunteer instructors put into training our students. I’m also able to network with their supervisors to open the door to more of our students being hired at these locations. 

7) What is the spirit of the people you have to pleasure to educate and work with? 

I am very fortunate to be able to work with our students. Many of them have a steep learning curve to overcome when they enter our training programs because we try to make them as challenging as possible. Most of them have very little or no automotive repair experience. Literally, in a matter of weeks, we can help them embody our core values of confidence, work ethic, and a passion for learning.

These values help them overcome the challenges in our training programs and set them up for success for work after they graduate. I love to see timidness turn into confidence, and students who weren't great high school students become excited about learning a technical trade. It is a great pleasure to work with the students and staff at the Automotive Training Center. 

8) In a perfect world, what does the future look like for Automotive Training Center? 

In a perfect world, the Automotive Training Center will have a main campus that will offer even more courses than general automotive repair. We will provide collision and diesel programs to meet the ever-growing need for skilled technicians in Atlanta. We would also like to expand beyond Atlanta, to offer training in other states, to meet the needs of the South East region and beyond. 

9) How can people help? 

There are many ways people can help out at the Automotive Training Center. Automotive training is very capital intensive, so we are always in need of new financial donors. You can also bring your car in for repair service. We have 60-80 customer appointment slots to fill per month for student training. Additionally, you could refer a young person who may be a good candidate for our training programs. Both donations and program applications are available on our website. We are always in need of more students and cars to grow our programs and for them to be more impactful. 

Continue learning more about the Automotive Training Center by watching the video below!