Prosper Birmingham communities — Prosper is Southern Communities Initiative’s lead organization for Birmingham communities. (Prosper Bham / Facebook)

Big news! Southern Communities Initiative (SCI) announced a collaboration with Google that will expand opportunities for Black Americans in four of its six target cities. And, you guessed it—Birmingham is one of them.

Birmingham’s lead community organization, Prosper

SCI focuses its efforts on regions across the Southeast where a majority of Black Americans live.

Through its lead Birmingham community organization, Prosper, SCI makes the following areas a priority for racial equity:

Access to capital
Digital access
HBCU + workforce development
Minority Business Enterprise entrepreneurship + supplier diversity

Launched in 2021, Prosper Birmingham is a nonprofit created to build an inclusive and thriving economy in the Southeast. Prosper’s initiatives are focused on three key areas:

Job access
Job creation
Job preparation

In 2022, Prosper announced their funding of Magic City Match, an initiative that provides 13 Birmingham Black-owned businesses with the capital, connections and coaching necessary for growth.

About Southern Communities Initiative’s partnership

According to a press release from Prosper, this partnership between SCI and Google will offer each community access to Google’s digital skills programming. These certificates will expand available job and career opportunities in high-paying fields like cybersecurity, digital marketing, IT support and more.

Prosper will administer this partnership to bridge education and credential gaps Black Americans face across Birmingham.

The press release also stated that Google’s digital skills development program has a proven track record of expanding opportunities for its graduates. Over 70% of the 200,000+ graduates reported positive career development within six months of program completion.

The dedication to serving underrepresented groups and encouraging growth within Birmingham communities is proven through the work of Prosper and SCI. We look forward to seeing the growth this new partnership will drive in each community.

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