Alabama’s Black Belt has been left behind over time, stuck in a riptide that sees its residents falling further and further behind in workforce participation, educational attainment, income, healthcare coverage and more, as documented in the EPC’s 2021 and 2022 series of briefs on the Black Belt. COVID has hit these persistent poverty counties even harder than the rest of the state of Alabama. Expanding access to skilled manufacturing jobs, the training, education, and credentialing to earn those jobs, as well as childcare, transportation, and behavioral health will help alleviate the enduring hardship felt by many in WiderWest Alabama and foster economic growth. Our Coalition stands apart in that each of our nine component projects was designed with two questions in mind: how can we reach as many underserved individuals as possible? and, how can we ensure that the positive impacts of our initiatives are felt across all of Wider West Alabama?
The answers to both of these are: comprehensive, layered programs that support and build upon each other, targeted distributions of funds to achieve those components’ goals, and program scalability with endemic and embedded programs that reside in and focus on the growth of the region.
Distribution of Funds
To ensure that the benefits of the cluster are equitably shared across all 27 counties in Wider WestAlabama, our programs funnel funds into the communities. This is done in two ways: directly, through the allocation of money for the implementation of programs, and indirectly, through spinoff investments that result from these direct investments.
For example, Driving Talent Pathways is providing five community colleges with funds to expand the industry recognized, soft skill credentialing program Ready-to-Work. It specifically targets individuals with low educational attainment who seek entry-employment. Due to a lack of resources, many community colleges in the region were forced to reduce the number of coursesoffered. In addition, Driving Talent Pathways is investing in 22 school systems in Wider West Alabama, providing the needed funds to hire additional Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers for advanced manufacturing programs.
Similarly, Smart & Connected Rural Manufacturing is equipping training hubs with state-of-the art technology to train and educate rural students in advanced manufacturing. The regional universities and community colleges in the rural parts of WiderWest Alabama o)en cannot afford to make these kinds of investments; this is limiting the type of courses they can offer and their responsiveness to the needs of evolving industries. As a result, students who seek to study specialized subjects often have no choice but to leave their communities and pursue their educational careers at other institutions; or not pursue them at all.
These are two examples of the direct investments our Coalition is making to reach our region’s underserved populations and communities. The strength of our approach also comes from the spinoff investments that will result from the fund- ing of our programs. For example, the Tuscaloosa Innovation District Electrification Expansion Effort (TIDE3) and the private-public partnerships that are being forged on its back, is connecting commu-nities to industry helping them recruit employers to their area. In addition, the TIDE3 research and training efforts will inform local workforce training initiatives to ready local workers for new employment opportunities.
Program scalability
Transformative change does not happen overnight. Many of the problems that communities in Wider West Alabama are dealing with are long-standing, with deep roots. Thus, it would be utopian to assume that any initiative can make an impact all at once. Therefore, each of our com- ponent projects is designed to be scalable both in size and reach.