Birmingham officials on Monday announced that the city was awarded a $20 million federal grant aimed at making workforce investments in the economically distressed communities of North Birmingham, Northside, Smithfield and Pratt.

“I was born in the Northside community, at the once-thriving Carraway Hospital,” Mayor Randall Woodfin was quoted as saying in a release. “It has long since been a dream to see intentional reinvestment into this community that is home to men, women and children who deserve an opportunity to fully participate in Birmingham’s prosperous and promising economy.”

The grant money comes from the Economic Development Administration’s Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program. Out of 22 finalists for the grant, Birmingham was one of six applicants chosen.

The program invests in communities where employment among those aged 25 to 54 significantly trails the national average.

The four communities chosen for the grant have the highest such employment gap in Birmingham, according to the city’s project narrative for the grant. The area also has the lowest median income, with “glaring disparities compared with the city center,” the narrative states.

Birmingham officials say the area covered by the grant has suffered from “a legacy of disinvestment, racism and industrial pollution.” As examples, they pointed to white flight, industrial land use decisions that have fractured neighborhoods and the 35th Avenue Superfund site.

The city’s plan for the grant identifies four major barriers for residents in this area who are seeking employment: lack of child care, lack of transportation, few resources for potential entrepreneurs and a mismatch of employment skills needed by employers.

Birmingham officials hope to address these barriers through four major strategies:

Strategy 1: Leveraging existing workforce training assets in centrally located sites including the Pratt City Library, the North Birmingham Library, the Smithfield Library, Salvation Army’s Education and Workforce Development Center, Alabama Industrial Development Training’s 16 mobile training units and AIDT’s Alabama Workforce Training Center. Area businesses have also committed to providing 4,880 good jobs near the grant’s service area. Budget estimate: $5 million.

Strategy 2: Expanding the city’s existing rideshare program, Birmingham On Demand, to include 13,000 residents in the four communities covered in the grant. Budget estimate: $2 million.

Strategy 3: Establishing several centers that will help residents in the grant area find transportation and child care services. The centers will also provide financial assistance for residents seeking childcare.

Project officials also plan to expand child care services in the area by providing technical assistance to businesses looking to establish a childcare center or move an existing one to the grant area. Budget estimate: $6 million.

Strategy 4: Establishing a Black Business Entrepreneurship Center. According to the city’s project narrative, the center will leverage existing small business training programs offered at the Birmingham Public Library. It will also include a satellite one-stop shop for the city’s licensing and permitting processes and an access point to capital and procurement opportunities. Budget  estimate: $7 million.

Birmingham leaders hope that the Black Business Entrepreneurship Center as well as service and job training centers mentioned in the plan will ultimately be housed in the Smithfield Social Innovation Center, planned for 2026. That project comes from a $50 million Choice Neighborhoods Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Birmingham officials laid out several benchmarks for the Recompete grant project:

• At least 2,500 service area residents completing job training.
• Over the next five years, seeing at least 1,500 of the 4,880 new jobs promised by area employers going to residents living in the grant service area.
• Of the residents hired, more than 60% being African American and more than half being women.
• Having a one-year job-retention rate higher than 80% for residents in the area.

The Recompete grant is part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which authorized $1 billion for the program. To date, the Economic Development Administration, overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce, has allocated $200 million of that money.

“This investment in northwest Birmingham will allow entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and help connect workers to the skills and support services they need for quality jobs, leading to economic prosperity in Alabama,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo was quoted as saying in a release from the department.