Made with Purpose

Red Bluff’s Main Street Productions Empowers Fresh Starts…

Nestled among the businesses of Red Bluff’s historic downtown is a storefront that takes the concept of local to an extreme. Each item of indoor and outdoor home décor is lovingly handcrafted by community members moving through a process of skill development and personal growth right there in the building. Behind a thoughtfully designed retail space is a training ground for woodworking and life skills that build the confidence and resumes of participants.

Main Street Productions is the second phase of a 10-year endeavor that started as a partnership with the Job Training Center and Tehama County Department of Social Services on Washington Street. Aptly called Washington Street Productions at the time, the collaboration was a smorgasbord of creative activity that emphasized the healing power of making with your hands, everything from friendship bracelets to paintings.

The location was limited, however, by its status as a warehouse without quality climate control. Summers had to be limited to half days due to extreme heat. Winters required heating to run all night to maintain comfort during the day.

In late 2024, the project moved to its current location at 724 Main St., right next door to the Job Training Center, and underwent a rebrand and slight structural reboot that allows it to operate as a retail establishment four days a week while maintaining the opportunity for skills development it was founded upon.

“Every year it’s become just a little bit more of helping them to have competitive job skills,” says Carrie Ferchaud, executive director of the Job Training Center. “It’s a safe place to learn new ways of living and developing healthy relationships.”

Participants are referred to Main Street Productions from Project Restore at the Probation Department via Empower Tehama and the Department of Social Services, where they are welcomed by Program Manager Melissa Pearce and Program Supervisor Mariah Griffiths. Both Pearce and Griffiths teach woodworking skills learned through a program at Red Bluff High School, as well as life and job-search skills.

A standard residency is three months for participants but can be extended to up to nine for those excelling. Those moving forward in the program become either retail or woodworking specialists and become leads for the newer production workers.

“When they do leave us, their ultimate goal is that they have a full- or part-time job,” says Pearce, who has a background at Probation. Griffiths comes from the retail world of Walmart, which Ferchaud says makes for a powerhouse of leadership. “The whole program exists because we have two amazing people who run it,” she adds.

While learning the basics of woodworking production using such tools as band and table saws, a glow forge and more to develop a wide range of home décor and gifts, participants also do mock interviews, resume development and learn about healthy relationships.

“By doing mock interviews with us and the Job Training Center, it builds their confidence,” says Pearce. “It actually builds up their confidence. They feel like they can hold down a job. It’s not scary anymore.”
Whereas Washington Street Productions was only able to sell to the public twice a month, the new space on Main Street is open four days a week, offering a more consistent ability to teach retail skills and interact with the public.

The production emphasis has shifted to things that will sell and are in favor in today’s market. The result is a retail space that stands up with any other boutique space in the shopping district. “When they come to me a lot of them don’t seem to have been exposed to art skills,” says Pearce. Yet through professional instruction and attention to detail, they are creating items such as birdhouses, signs, blanket ladders and more that have a value.

“When people sell their product for the first time and realize people want something they made, it changes their lives forever,” says Ferchaud, who says she is always asking herself, “Can we give just one more person an opportunity they wouldn’t have otherwise had?”

Underlying the process at Main Street Productions is a philosophy of second chances and healing. “There are a lot of barriers,” says Pearce, noting that people may be emerging from prison or lack transportation. “Some people just need a little extra guidance, and once they get that guidance, they can join
the workforce.”

“We want people to love work,” says Ferchaud. “It’s been really cool to see people want to go to work. We work to create a beautiful ecosystem where people can learn how to thrive.” •

Main Street Productions
www.mainstreetproductions.org
724 Main St., Red Bluff
Tuesday-Friday, 10am-4pm