Recipient Organization
ALABAMA A&M UNIVERSITY
4900 MERIDIAN STREET
NORMAL,AL 35762
Performing Department
Alabama Cooperative Extension
Non Technical Summary
As Alabama cities and economies are growing, the realities of social and racial inequities continue to create barriers to sustainable, high-wage employmentin limited-resource communities.Although many Americans believe hard work can create economic mobility, defined as improved well-being in one's lifetime, only 5.2% of poor Alabamians will make it into the wealthy class. Furthermore, data shows that inequity is exacerbated along racial lines, meaning that low-income communities of color experience the most challenges in economic advancement. To address these issues, Alabama Cooperative Extension System at Alabama A&M University will implement a 2-year project to investigate the state of economic mobility in four Alabama urban centers, convene cross-sector partners to create new resources and opportunities, and implement holistic programs that provide business training and supportto limited-resourced entrepreneurs of color.The Upward Alabama project centers around one key question: how can we provide collaborative and holistic resources to chronically unemployed and under-employed Alabamians and create pathways towards economic mobility? The project will be implemented in two phases: community research and programming. First,we will collect data from targeted communities in Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile to analyze the various challenges, needs, and service gaps that are perpetuating economic inequities.We will then apply findings to the creation of the Go-Getter program, which will combine Community Partner Hubs, cohort-based workshops, and mentorship to transform livelihoods through small business entrepreneurship. This projectwill produce new knowledge on urban economics via the collection and analysis of hundreds of surveys; will increase cross-sector collaboration towards equityby convening dozens of community partners, private employers, and major institutions; and ultimately catalyze economic mobility for hundreds of Alabamians. Continuation plans beyond this grant period includethe expansion of the Go-Getter program into two pathways, one for entrepreneurship and another for career development. Research and program evaluation findings will be shared broadly to support economic equity projects in other communities across the country.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Upward Alabama Project Goal: Provide collaborative and holistic resources to chronically unemployed and/or under-employed Alabamians and create pathways towards economic mobility.This project goal and its sub-components (research, Go-Getter pathways, supplemental activities, and communications) have been designed to pursue the greater impact of creating more equitable economies in our target cities of Huntsville (Madison County), Birmingham (Jefferson County), Montgomery (Montgomery County) and Mobile (Mobile County). Equitable economies are measured by a more equal dispersion of wages/incomes across racial and social lines. This impact cannot be achieved within the two-year project period but will remain the goal as Go-Getter and similar initiatives continue beyond grant support.In order to achieve this project goal, the following objectives will guide our activities in four different project areas: research, Go-Getter programming, supplemental activities, and communications.Research ObjectivesInvestigate what barriersto economic opportunities existforHard-To-Employ (The) individuals and low-income business owners.Analyze the relevant landscape of partners, stakeholders and resources across the state and in each urban center.Develop a geographic/spatial analysis of economic inequality in each city in order to create target areas for recommendations and programs.Create recommendations for policy and practice in response to research findings.Go-Getter Entrepreneur Objectives:Identify unemployed and/or under-employed Alabamians who demonstrate high potential for creating a livelihood via entrepreneurship/small business ownership.Coordinate with partners and mentors to provide cohort-based programming to identified entrepreneurs through a 3-month program.Provide high-impact education and resources around business formation, planning, capital access, marketing, and book-keeping in order to build the entrepreneurial capacity of all participants.Create Community Hubs (groups of partners across social service areas) in each city that support entrepreneur cohorts before, during, and after the Go-Getter program. Pair graduates with small business mentors for additional support in implementing new knowledge towards their entrepreneurship goals.Supplemental Activity Objectives:Prior to the start of Go-Getter Entrepreneur, host 2 workshops per city to support the identification of program participants, partners, curriculum needs, and mentors.After the close of Go-Getter Entrepreneur, host workshops to employers and corporations to train on how they can use their position to increase economic mobility in Alabama.Provide actionable information on equitable hiring, procurement, advancement, and contracting practices.Test Go-Getter expansion into a second pathway, Career, by hosting workshops on career-building skills forHtE Alabamians who do not have small business capacity or interest.Communications Objectives:Follow IRB guidelines to create a research report with high-integrity data and informed recommendations to share with practitioners across Alabama and the country.Submit research report to relevant journals for publishing consideration. Create a communications channel for Community Hubs to facilitate consistent and efficient communication among partners working to create economic mobility. Create and share annual, non-technical project reports to share findings and contribute to shared best practices in community development.
Project Methods
ResearchMethods:Conduct literature and stakeholder analyses to interpret and understand current knowledge on economic inequities in 4 target cities. Apply these analyses to develop new survey and identify particular neighborhoods and communities to research.Create IRB-approved survey and perform data collection throughout 4 cities.Surveying will follow all IRB protocol, including collecting participant agreements before surveying and anonymizing all data.The survey will be built in Qualtrics. Project staff will submit responses through the Qualtrics survey weblink.Responses will be collected via partners and project staff on mobile devices (tablets) or on the computer, either in-person or over the phone.Editing capabilities/access to Qualtrics account will be limited to Specialist and Project Coordinator. Tablets will be password protected.Geographic and demographic information will be collected to analyze responses across spatial, social, racial, and economic lenses.Surveying will be done by trained project staff and will take place at community events and activities that serve our target audience. Partners serving this target audience will also share the survey opportunity with their networks, with instructions on how to connect with a surveyor to participate. Self-serve responses (such as publishing a public link to participate) will not be used to control for factors that affect our data.Identify partners to assist in connecting researchers with project participants. This includes the County Extension Coordinators for each county.Conduct formal interviews via phone or in-personto supplement surveys with qualitative data on the HtE and low-income entrepreneur communities.Interviews will be collected from partners, community leaders and individuals from our target audience.Questions will be standardized to enhance our ability analyze qualitative data.Incentivize research participation and compensate participants for their time via gift cards.Participants of the survey will be given a $10 gift card to a pharmacy or grocery store in their city.Qualitative interview participants, who will give much more time, will be compensated with a $50 gift card.This is a vital method to ensuring equity in our data collection, as marginalized communities have historically not been compensated for their time in research efforts.This is recognized as a best practice for both increasing participation rates and equity in data collection approaches. Analyze and interpret findings along spatial, racial, social, and economic lenses using best practices in statistical and geographic analysis.Specialist will oversee data collection strategy and surveyor training. She will alsouse GIS software (ArcGIS or QGIS) to create spatial analysis of economic equity in the urban environments.Project Coordinator will review data as it is collected to review for errors in real time and address any surveyor challenges.Research advisor will be responsible for the statistical analysis, using software such as R or Stata, to create key quantitative findings.Create a final report that communicates all findings.The final report writing will be done by the specialist, with support from the project coordinator and research advisor.Submit report for peer-review through theAlabama Cooperative Extension System process.Submit peer-reviewed report to relevant journals.Methods for program and workshop activities:Market all activities through partner networks and ACES channels to reach targeted audiences.Deliver all pilot workshops and Employer Equity events via hybrid channels to expand reach of activities.Provide train-the-trainer event for all revelant program staff to prepare for curriculum and 1on1 delivery.Vet Go-Getter cohort participants for commitment, capacity, and business potential to ensure high completion rates and positive long-term outcomes.Provide Pathway cohorts will 3-months of sessions on most needed content, as evaluated during research and pilot activities.Peer-review curricula to ensure quality and accuracy.Connect Partner Hub organizations with cohort participants to address any personal challenges that arise during and after the program.Provide 1on1 assistance to cohort participants to assist in applying session knowledge to their unique business goals.Connect graduates with small business mentors to further ensure long-term success of small business goals.Methods for Community Partner HubsAddress the multi-faceted challenges our audience faces by building partnerships across resource areas such asphysical and mental health,housing andeducation.Specialist will identify and invite partners and manage the MOUs.Project Coordinator will organize partner information and manage hub communications.Extension Agents and PAs will be responsible for maintaining these partnerships, including inviting them to programs and connecting them to program participants.Establish an MOU with each partner joining a partner hub to formalize the partnership.Create communication channel, such as email group, to increase collaboration.Methods for EvaluationCollect pre and post surveys for all events, sessions, and workshops to track increase in knowledge for each activity.Pre and post surveys ask participants to rate their knowledge on topics and/or answer questions about key concepts. Responses are then analyzed for increase in knowledge.Collect 3-month delayed survey on all Go-Getter graduates to measure short-term outcomes in their life and small business.This survey will question entrepreneurs about business revenue, strategies, challenges and personal financial stability.Survey and interview partners and mentors, in addition to program participants, for feedback on program experience.Use Qualtrics surveying software to collect all evaluation data.Extension Agents and PAs will be responsible for collection pre, post, and post-delay surveys.Project Coordinator will compile, organize, and analyze data.Specialist will reviewfinal data and write the narrative communicating our findings on the program impact.Convene all partners, mentors, and participants virtually during the post-delay period to facilitate a discussion on Go-Getter Entrepreneur program effectiveness.Methods for CommunicationsPeer-review (through ACES system) research report andprogram curricula prior to sharing with public.Create final project report to build on intitial research findings withprogram evaluation metrics and recommendations for other practitioners looking to implement similar projects in their communities.Share research report and final project reportwith the public in several ways including through the ACES.edu website, all official ACES social media channels, and the national Community Development Extension Library.Any supplemental results of this project, including informational articles, will also be peer-reviewed and shared via official ACES channels. Share reports with partners, Chambers of Commerce, and other relevant networks to communicate findings.Leverage Extension networks, such as the Program Leaders Network (PLN) and the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) to further share our research and final project report.