Birmingham educational — Zoomin’ into more opportunities for Bham youth. (Jacob Blankenship / Bham Now)

According to Birmingham Times, the Housing Authority of Birmingham District (HABD) alongside the Bessemer Housing Authority will receive $1.5 million each in grants from the Department of Labor’s (DOL) YouthBuild program. This grant money will go towards job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth. Keep reading to learn more about this advantageous opportunity.

Job and educational opportunities

cooper green — Cooper Green Mercy Health Services. (Tira Davis / Bham Now)

The greater Birmingham area is expected to receive over $4.2 million in grant funding from DOL’s YouthBuild program. You can expect these grants to support the development of apprenticeships and other career pathways that will help at-risk youth gain jobs for future success.

How do the programs work? These programs train young people for employment in health care, information technology, manufacturing and logistics, culinary arts and hospitality. By partaking in these courses, they can acquire useful life skills that will help them manage successful careers.

Participants will split their time between workplace training and the classroom, where they will be able to earn a high school diploma and even postsecondary degrees.

BONUS: Attention job-seekers: 24.6K jobs in Birmingham-Hoover are available right now.

How this will benefit Birmingham

The Blox facility in Bessemer is producing ready-made hospital wings for Encompass Health. Photo by Libby Foster for Bham Now. — Can you see yourself here? (Libby Foster / Bham Now)

According to Birmingham Times, the HABD Interim President and CEO Dontrelle Young Foster claims that the program seeks out youth to give hope back to them. Once a child drops out of school, corporations tend to turn their back on them. This grant will assist HABD to prepare its youth with the skills to acquire high-quality positions.

Since the greater Birmingham area will be receiving over $4.2 million in grant funding, this will benefit local companies that will be hiring the new generation of workers.

“This funding will provide our most vulnerable young adults with the resources they need to succeed, all while growing our green energy workforce.”
US Rep. Terri Sewell, State of Alabama

We’re thrilled to see this opportunity benefit the youth of Birmingham and look forward to seeing the educational programs build a better community.

How do you feel about this educational program? For more local news like this, sign up for our FREE newsletter.