Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Randall L. Woodfin combines the best of these ingredients in his approach to economic and workforce development. Woodfin shaped his leadership vision through the stories told by his mother and grandmother, both teachers, who recounted watching from their front porches as their neighborhood deteriorated into vacant lots and dilapidated houses.
He also drew inspiration from his earlier position as school board president, where he observed too many students connecting to neither a good job nor postsecondary education. Woodfin brought together these observations with his drive for public value to establish a collaboration with 10 other entities in the region to bid for and win a $10.8 million Good Jobs Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
Years ago, William D. Eggers and I wrote in our book Governing by Network that “wicked” problems required not just exceptional government but exceptional governance — the ability to create and manage networks of agencies and nonprofits and private organizations in cross-sector collaborations. We argued that an elected leader has a broad range of assets — legal authority, rhetoric and convening power. “The most powerful thing I've done as mayor,” said Woodfin, “is use my convening power.”
Of course, city hall by itself cannot change the economic trajectory of an entire region, a reality that underscores the need for collaboration. Birmingham anchors a region that contributes a fifth of the state's GDP, and as the city's executive, Woodfin wields significant convening power across the area. He used that authority to bring together organizations including health-care providers, the Birmingham Business Alliance, Central Six Alabama Works!, the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) and Prosper, a local job-oriented nonprofit. When the Economic Development Administration released its Good Jobs Challenge in 2021, these organizations collectively wrote an application for the region, outlining a coordinated approach to the critical issue of lack of opportunity for many in the community.
The collaboration spearheaded by Woodfin’s leadership stands in contrast to most regions, where workforce development isn’t a coordinated system but a range of organizations that address the issue from differing perspectives and missions.
Convening without a plan and a governance structure accomplishes little, which is why this work requires data. This commitment to a data-driven approach originated when Josh Carpenter, who served as special adviser to UAB President Raymond Watts as well as director of innovation and economic opportunity for Mayor Woodfin, furnished invaluable data-driven insights.
Woodfin elevated the integral function of data by calling attention to one additional partner, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA), a nonprofit organization whose research “produces knowledge so that public decisions might be made, and public money, both tax dollars and charitable donations, might be spent, informed by fact.” PARCA helped the collaborative focus on the alignment between growing mid-skill jobs and the needs of underemployed residents.
Thanks to this data, the mayor observed that the number of health-sector jobs required in the future was far outpacing the number of qualified workers. The federal grant provided support to the affiliated Birmingham Region Health Partnership, a comprehensive workforce training program focused on building a pipeline of skilled health-care workers.
In our book Growing Fairly, Kate Markin Coleman and I highlight research from the Strada Foundation that showed how almost half of underemployed individuals of color do not participate in education and training programs for which they are eligible because they lack confidence that taking the necessary steps will lead to a good-paying job. This challenge leads to a critical part of the Woodfin approach: increasing hope and aspiration among job seekers. He identified and then expanded upon a Michigan program called the Kalamazoo Promise, creating the Birmingham Promise. That effort, initiated by but not led out of City Hall, provides scholarships to cover tuition and fees for graduates of city schools who attend any public two-year or four-year college or university in Alabama.
“We wanted to provide opportunities for every young person, regardless of whether they choose college or another path,” Woodfin said. “We support both, in order to make sure that young people have exposure and opportunity about work.” The program also offers paid work experience for high school students through apprenticeships and internships with local businesses.
Woodfin focuses on creating opportunity for the half of young students who do not go on to college by helping them aspire for good-paying jobs that promise economic mobility. “If we get this two-year piece right, with the workforce certification and training for blue-collar jobs as well, then every young person will have a path to be gainfully employed or go on to a four-year institution,” he said.
The mayor’s rhetoric on opportunity, combined with actual exposure to work and to financial support for school or training, dramatically increases the numbers of individuals who will in fact take that important step. As of May, the Birmingham Promise had supported more than 1,000 Birmingham high school graduates with college tuition and career readiness, including 50 percent of the graduating class of 2024.
Woodfin’s Birmingham effort shows the best in leadership. It approaches the exceedingly difficult problem of creating and sustaining opportunity through collaboration and data. But the ingredient that makes it all work is an elected leader whose context and language inspires another generation to take the next step.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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