Behind the Business: Second Chance Unlocks Opportunity

Driven is one way to describe Pursuit Aerospace machinist Sydni Damato. 

“I want to stay with this company and I want to move up the line here,” she says.

It may seem like it comes naturally to her, but Damato says her drive came partially from the opportunity that Pursuit Aerospace—formerly Whitcraft Group—provided when she was serving a prison sentence. 

“I don’t think that this was an outcome anybody really saw, but it’s not anything I would change now,” she said.

Second Chance

Damato’s experience with Manchester-based Pursuit began while she was at York Correctional Institute, where she enrolled in a second chance work-release program.

She had no advanced schooling or work training, but the Pursuit team taught her how to use various machines, and what it meant to be a good employee. 

“It’s really hard getting in companies like this with no experience,” Damato said. 

“The fact that they bring us in here, give us full training, and honestly give us the benefit of the doubt entirely—it’s amazing.”

Pursuit’s Sydni Damato

“The fact that they bring us in here, give us full training, and honestly give us the benefit of the doubt entirely—it’s amazing.”

Now she works as a machinist, dealing with complex brackets. She said the company’s devotion to continuous improvement is something she too believes in. 

“You see the whole process start to finish, and it’s just like I did that,” she said. “That’s cool.”

---

Have an employee who you would like to be featured? Contact Amanda Marlow.