Advice/insight for a new stained glass education studio outreach center

I live in far East Arkansas in one of the most economically depressed areas in the state / country. In cooperation with several local nonprofit agencies we are adding a stained glass studio to our education hub to offer stained glass classes and access to tools and supplies to the people of Phillips County. Our area is rich in history and culture and the lack of skilled tradespeople to repair our local historic buildings and landmarks has lead to blight and the unrecoverable loss of much of our rich history. Most of the historical buildings in this area have antique stained glass windows, most of them are broken to some degree, and the lack of locally available skilled workers to repair or replace them means they will continue to fall into disrepair. Its up to us to do something about it.

If you have advice to give, I am listening. If you have surplus anything to offer or know of where surplus anything can be obtained we are a state and federally recognized 501 non profit ane we could use all the help we can get. We are setting up our classroom/studio from scratch from basically nothing on a budget of near zero. I have my glass hobby supplies; a few hand glass cutting wheels sitting in some two cycle oil, a wad of old came and scraps from some recycled curbside lamps, a stack of clear window glass, a Dremel, a couple of hand torches, a porta sol, a bunch of flux and solder of two or three varieties, an empty classroom filled with empty supply cabinets and a directive to develop a curriculum.

Thank you in advance for all your help 🙂

Cheers.