Workshops For Warriors
Rebuilding a nonprofit website into a clean, modern home for a mission that trains veterans for advanced manufacturing careers.
A site carrying a decade of content.
By 2024 the Workshops for Warriors website was in need of some help. Over a hundred pages and posts; scattered across a structure that was hard to naigate. The site had stopped doing the one thing a nonprofit site has to do: tell people clearly who you are and what to do next. The rebuild had to preserve all of that content and its search value while giving the organization a modern, reliable home.
Rebuilding American manufacturing, one veteran at a time.
Workshops for Warriors is a San Diego nonprofit school that trains veterans, transitioning service members and wounded warriors for careers in advanced manufacturing — welding, CNC machining, fabrication — with nationally recognized credentials and job placement on the other side. Its founder, Navy veteran Hernan Luis y Prado, has taken the story to Forbes, Fox Business, CBS, TEDx and the halls of Congress.
It’s an organization with a story or many stories to tell: student testiomies, press coverage, program details, donor and employer information, events. The website had to carry all of it clearly — for a veteran deciding to enroll, a company looking to hire graduates, and a donor deciding to give.
The site, as it is today.
This is the live site, not a screenshot — scroll and tap around.
A clean rebuild that keeps every story and every ranking.
Two tracks ran in parallel: a fresh design that illustrates who Workshops for Warriors is, and a careful technical migration so a decade of content and search equity came along intact.
Redesign that tells the story
A modern, mission-first design built around the people the organization serves.
- New homepage that leads with the mission, the numbers and a clear path for veterans, employers and donors
- Program pages for welding, CNC machining and credentials that make enrolling the obvious next step
- Student stories and press coverage brought forward as proof instead of buried in a feed
- Consistent templates so the marketing team can add stories, news and events on their own
- Fully responsive build with clear apply, hire and donate calls to action on every page
Migration & technical SEO
100+ pages and posts moved, cleaned and re-mapped without losing rankings.
- Every page, post, image and document audited and migrated to the new WordPress build
- Broken pages, duplicate content and outdated layouts repaired or retired
- URL structure re-mapped with redirects so existing links, press mentions and rankings kept working
- Titles, meta descriptions, headings and internal links rebuilt across the migrated content
- Performance and security tuned for a nonprofit team that needs the site to just work
What the project included.
A full redesign and content migration on WordPress, delivered with a nonprofit marketing team that had a lot riding on it.
Complete redesign
A modern design system that reflects the seriousness of the mission and the pride of the people in it.
Content migration
100+ pages and blog posts moved, repaired and reorganized onto the new site.
Information architecture
Clear paths for the three audiences that matter: veterans, employers and donors.
Technical SEO
Redirects, metadata and internal linking so years of press and rankings carried over.
Team-ready templates
Story, news, event and program templates the marketing team updates without a developer.
Performance & reliability
A stable, fast build replacing a site that was breaking down.
A site that finally matches the mission.
Workshops for Warriors went from a website that was breaking down to one that clearly illustrates who they are: the mission up front, programs and student stories easy to find, and obvious next steps whether you’re a veteran ready to enroll, a company ready to hire, or a donor ready to give. Every one of the 100+ migrated pages and posts kept its place in search, and the marketing team now runs the site day to day on their own.
Not just a vendor — part of the team.
A website like this gets built in person as much as on a screen. Visiting the Workshops for Warriors campus meant seeing the shop floor, meeting the people in the student stories, and understanding the mission well enough to design for it.
“I had the opportunity to collaborate with Drew on a website redesign project in 2024. Having been involved in numerous similar initiatives over the years, I’m well aware of just how demanding and intricate these kinds of projects can be. From the very beginning, Drew brought a level of creativity and innovation that elevated the entire project. His eye for design, coupled with attention to detail, ensured that nothing was overlooked. Drew’s clear and consistent communication kept everyone aligned throughout the process, which made what could have been a stressful experience feel smooth and well-orchestrated.
Thanks to his contributions, the final product exceeded expectations and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. It was truly a pleasure to work alongside someone so dedicated and professional.”
“Working with Vachal Design was a breeze from start to finish. Super responsive, easy to collaborate with, and always willing to listen to feedback. On top of that, he’s just a genuinely nice person—professional, friendly, and dependable. Highly recommend if you’re looking for someone who knows what they’re doing and makes the experience enjoyable.”
“We had the pleasure of working with Drew Vachal from Vachal Design to redesign the Workshops for Warriors website, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Drew brought not only exceptional design skills but also a deep understanding of user experience and functionality. He was responsive, detail-oriented, and incredibly easy to work with throughout the entire process. The new site is clean, modern, and effectively tells our story—exactly what we needed to support our mission.”
“Vachal Web Design has been an integral member of my marketing team. With a small team at a mid-sized nonprofit, Vachal Web Design has provided timely assistance, expert direction, and technical expertise. Vachal Web Design provides regular, consistent review of our website, ensuring it is performing at the highest levels of cybersecurity and SEO. I could not be more happy with their service and web acumen.”
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