Outdoor lighting design and manufacturing firm Penn Globe, based in New Haven, Connecticut, since the 1870s, has provided light for places as diverse as Harvard, corporate campuses and Main Street at Disney, living by the motto “Lighting for the Greater Good.” Nothing embodies that mission more than the company’s pioneering Manufacturing and Technical Community Hub (MATCH), a bilingual, inclusive, non-profit training program in a repurposed warehouse in Fair Haven that helps light the way to a future.
MATCH, launched in 2022, manufactures its own branded LED industrial task lights and offers contract manufacturing services. Its aim is to create a skilled work force that knows how to make things — whether for Penn Globe or other fortunate employers. Along the way it has the potential to not only boost livelihoods but transform lives. Talking to Penn Globe CEO and MATCH Board Chair Marcia LaFemina, her husband David Feinberg (executive director of MATCH) or individuals who have gone through the program is, in a word, illuminating.
“We have taken a common-sense approach to workforce development which has turned out to be both unique and effective,” says LaFemina.
Penn Globe says MATCH provides contract manufacturing services as a vehicle for commercially relevant manufacturing job training and paid manufacturing experience. “As an inclusive and predominantly self-funded public-private non-profit manufacturing facility, MATCH coordinates comprehensive training, mentorship, wrap-around support and jobs to the New Haven community,” the company says. “Operating as a revenue-driven contract manufacturer to support other local manufacturing companies, students and team members learn relevant manufacturing skills, machinery and concepts while also being exposed to business and entrepreneurial opportunities. Re-invested proceeds from contract manufactured items as well as sales of finished goods to national firms provides revenue to support the diversity of the community, to offer flex-schedule training, job placement and community support services.”
It’s working for Edwyn Rooks, 32, who grew up in New Haven and attended Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden, the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System school named for the inventor whose work gave birth to New Haven industry. Rooks focused on carpentry but had a lingering interest in manufacturing, thanks to the school model that had students spend 30 days apiece in each shop.
Rooks found out about MATCH, interviewed and was accepted, beginning a couple months of training in October 2025 that’s seen him learn about welding, soldering and painting as well as earn certificates in OSHA compliance and forklift work and an upcoming pre-apprenticeship certificate upon completion. MATCH is recognized by the state as a pre-apprenticeship facility in a number of areas, including welding, MIG welding, soldering, forklift operation and blueprint reading. It’s also the first program in the state to offer that pre-apprenticeship certificate that’s not discipline-specific.
Feinberg says the official from the Connecticut Department of Labor who made the determination “came in, looked at the program, saw what was happening and said, ‘I don’t care what it takes, but we’re going to do this. Nobody can deny that this works.’ ” Feinberg calls that the proudest of many proud moments at MATCH.
There’s more than pride involved, however. There’s money. Participants get a $100 weekly stipend for the first two weeks and are paid minimum wage after that.
Long History, But Thinking of Tomorrow
Community and service are part and parcel of Penn Globe’s business. Six years ago the company launched Lighting for the Greater Good, whereby, on placement of an order, Penn Globe sends a significant donation to a food pantry in the customer’s metro area.
How has a company that goes back to 1877 and has 100-plus years of molds and patterns on hand that it still uses today remained relevant? “To stay competitive, we introduced data collection, wifi and cameras discreetly into our outdoor lighting products,” says Marcia LaFemina. “A big part of our business is renovation work.” A recent project for Harvard Business School involved the school sending 300 fixtures that were refurbished and given new LED bulbs. Another project involves new LED packages and new globes for fixtures at a New Jersey Transit station.
“We try to do everything we can within the United States,” she says. “We are a custom manufacturer at a competitive price. I’ve been working here since I was 16. The business is Main Street Disney, Harvard University, lots of places with low volume and high margin. Instead of stocking 6,000 Chinese things on the floor, we’re actually making things here.”
Penn Globe itself has 10 people on the payroll and does anywhere from $2.5 million to $3 million in business annually. Staff work 36 hours a week, LaFemina pays everyone’s medical benefits, and “just about everybody here owns a house,” she says. Meanwhile, five full-time staff work at MATCH, generating a lot of work in a 26,000-sq.-ft. factory, “and we don’t have enough room,” she says. “Inside of a year we’ll be out of space. The goal is to have Penn Globe and MATCH collocate and have more room. Part of our model was to be self-sufficient. That means taking on contract manufacturing, and it’s here. So we need space.”
LaFemina gives credit to AdvanceCT and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) for support. “I used to say I was the poster child for everything and anything the state had to offer to support manufacturers in the way of training, funding and opportunities.”
The MATCH program launched by Penn Globe seeks to manufacture a future for trainees and for the New Haven region. Here Nicole Zabski learns soldering techniques under the guidance of Shirell Bolding.
That includes a five-figure grant for cybersecurity compliance training last year from DECD’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund’s Cybersecurity Adoption Program at Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), as well as incumbent worker training dollars. LaFemina is also proud to be a part of the Connecticut Manufacturers’ Collaborative, composed of over 1,200 manufacturers in the state, which drove momentum for Connecticut to become the only state in the country to appoint a chief manufacturing officer in September 2025.
How This Got Started
LaFemina has been increasingly devoted to workforce development ever since Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro visited Penn Globe a decade ago with Nancy Pelosi in tow. “The Secret Service was here. If you were a woman in the state, you were here. All of a sudden people in the state knew who we were,” she says.
She and Feinberg kept discussing how to connect people needing jobs with manufacturers needing people. “It was frustrating to have all these good-intentioned people wasting money, only bringing people so far with training, but they weren’t making the connection with the employer,” she says. “We take it from the beginning to the end. Knowing other manufacturers, we speak their language, we know what they need. We teach the shop math for a whole host of reasons. They can build on that and do precision measurements. They don’t have to do algebra and trigonometry.”
A mechanic in his youth, Feinberg brings to the MATCH program his blue-collar, gearhead nature combined with business acumen acquired from 25 years in corporate America running retail stores for Verizon Wireless.
Around half of the program participants are people re-entering the job market after “life happened” to them, Feinberg says. Matriculating at nearby Housatonic College is not a good fit. “In a short period of time, we’re able to take people who otherwise would put their heads down and beg for a job and send them credentialed into a job interview with their head high and saying, ‘Here’s how I can add value to your organization.’ ”
High school engagement is important too. In November, all of the high school guidance counselors from the City of New Haven were scheduled to visit MATCH for their in-service day “so we can grab those young folks who didn’t know if they wanted to go to college before we lose them to the wind,” says LaFemina. “We let them know we have a spot for them, 12 weeks, we don’t test for math, we don’t wait for cohorts and we pay minimum wage. There’s value in earning. A young person can’t live on 28 hours at minimum wage, but they can do something. You punch in, you get paid. It also allows us to say to employers, ‘Yes, they show up. And if they don’t have a car, this is their plan to get to work.’ ”
Sometimes that learning curve is steep and the need for wrap-around services is high. In addition to career-building services, MATCH provides financial literacy guidance on banking, retirement savings, budgeting and fiscal preparedness, and offers assistance with housing and energy. The program has a 77% placement rate.
Penn Globe has been making lighting products for 148 years. But that pales in comparison to lighting up lives, one worthy human at a time. Which explains the MATCH motto: “Manufacture our future, together.”
