The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has awarded nearly $4.5 million to three organizations to provide job training to residents living in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods of English Avenue and Vine City, in an effort to prevent displacement and increase economic mobility.
Atlanta Technical College was awarded $2.5 million to train 400 residents in electrical linework, transportation, distribution and logistics; Goodwill of North Georgia received $1.5 million to train 250 residents in clean-tech industries like solar technology and electric vehicle charging; and the Atlanta Department of Labor and Employment Services got $486,000 to offer paid job experience, skills training and job placement to residents ages 18-34.
Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, pledged to support jobs programs, affordable housing and other inititatives in the Westside neighborhoods as part of a deal with the city for hundreds of millions in public funding to build and maintain Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
English Avenue and Vine City, majority Black neighborhoods where civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Maynard Jackson and Julian Bond once lived, stand in the shadow of the $1.6 billion stadium that opened in 2017. The neighborhoods, long neglected by investors, have high rates of poverty, unemployment and crime.
The stadium plus a stretch of the Atlanta Beltline running near the neighborhoods have attracted some new development. Out-of-state real estate speculators are also buying up houses in the neighborhoods at rock-bottom prices, with most leaving them empty and boarded up as they wait for real estate prices to increase.
This gentrification of the historic Westside neighborhoods threatens to force out legacy residents who can’t afford rising property taxes, for instance.
“We recognize that financial security is essential to the stability of residents, and addressing the wage gap is key to preventing displacement,” said Danny Shoy, Jr., managing director of Atlanta’s Westside and Youth Development at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, in a news release.
Last year, the Blank Foundation awarded $22.4 million in grants to the Westside Future Fund , CareerRise and Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund. The grants supported the foundation’s decision to revise its strategy to increase the economic mobility of legacy residents English Avenue and Vine City and address both affordable housing and financial inclusion.
With the three newest grants, the foundation has invested more than $106 million in Atlanta’s Westside since 20071.
