BHAM STRONG

BUILDING RESILIENCE
EDUCATION|CURRICULUM
COMBATING COVID-19

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 COVID-19 is a public health and economic
crisis. The City’s first response was to act
quickly to support small businesses.

Now, we need to act to support workers who

have lost their jobs, while solving public
health problems created by COVID-19.

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 Last week, 13,000 people filed for
unemployment in Jefferson County: a 750%
increase from the previous week.

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 Birmingham s Workers are Struggling:

Risk of Layoffs Workers Affected Businesses Affected

9,100 workers in 720 businesses in COB

Laid off Birmingham (retailers and restaurants)

Immediate 22,000 workers in 1,160 businesses in COB

(retail, trade and accommodation
Risk Birmingham food services)

Other industries
90,000 workers in
At Risk Birmingham
(e.g. mining, transportation, employment
services, travel arrangements and leisure
& hospitality workers)
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Residents have vital needs. COVID-19 sharpened the
urgency to meet them.
22,000 24,000 zero-car
Birmingham households may
230,000 Public School need transportation 23% of
households 66,000 workers households don’t
students are to access medical
are food insecure have experienced have an internet
being educated at care
in Birmingham income loss or are service provider
home
MSA at risk of losing
income

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Bham Strong is a public-private partnership formed
to bring people, projects and resources together to
strengthen Birmingham’s COVID-19 response,
particularly with regard to economic impact.

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 Bham Strong Vision

Birmingham’s small businesses and workers are

empowered to build a resilient community that
overcomes COVID-19.
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Bham Strong’s two-part economic stimulus package
will help protect small businesses, workers and
residents through robust civic partnerships and
public support.

FORTIFYING SMALL SERVICE CORPS:

BUSINESS:
Enabling BBRC to expand
operations to bridge small
businesses to other capital
connecting out of work
residents to paid volunteering
opportunities that meet core
community needs
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Fortifying Small Businesses: Part One

Data collection: built small business survey to identify emergent

needs; gathered responses from 650+ small businesses

BhamStrong Small Business Fund: $2.4 million in

resources for local small business in partnership with the
Birmingham Community Foundation and Birmingham Business
Resource Center
● 246 applications requesting $5.2 Million
● ROI of 7:1 taxpayer dollars (random sample of 125 businesses
=$7.4 million in revenue to the City)
FORTIFY SMALL BUSINESSES | 9
PART TWO:
Bham Strong Service Corps for
Resilient Workers
Program designed to address
emergent and evolving needs in our
community by enlisting workers as
paid volunteers on projects to respond
to the COVID-19 crisis

EMPOWER WORKERS TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS | 10

 Nearly 100 unemployed workers have already
been redeployed to paid opportunities that
support community needs. These pilot projects
are having a community impact while putting
people back to work.
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Birmingham Service Corps Projects
COVID symptom screening: Phone screened 8,476
residents at 14 public housing locations across
Birmingham for virus symptoms and connected them to
testing.
School lunch preparation and delivery: Coordinated
preparation and delivery of 12,000 lunches for
Birmingham City Schools students
Woodlawn Health Clinic: Partnered with Christ Health
to set up an emergency COVID clinic
EMPOWER WORKERS TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS | 12
Birmingham Service Corps Projects

School supply distribution: Partnered with the

Birmingham Education Foundation and BCS in
distribution of school supplies to 42 schools.
Food access: Connected over 350 Birmingham
residents to food resources by building a
neighbor-to-neighbor assistance program
Cleaning and food supply delivery to homeless
shelters

EMPOWER WORKERS TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS | 13

Fortifying Small Businesses

Connecting local businesses to billions in federal

funding
➔ Reaching over 2,853 local businesses
Partnered with BBA, Rev and Urban Impact to
connect 248 small businesses to free technical
assistance to ensure they are competitive for federal
funding, with priority for neighborhood and
minority-owned businesses

FORTIFY SMALL BUSINESSES | 14

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 Transport Pilot Project: BhamStrong Shuttle
Problem: 24,000 residents live in a household without access to a car. COVID-symptomatic or
COVID-positive patients who use public transit to access medical care will expose others to to virus.

Solution: Service Corps Members will transport patients who are symptomatic or COVID-positive to and
from treatment using health department-approved containment pods within vehicles.

Goal: Ensure access to medical care for at-risk residents, reduce risk of symptomatic or COVID-positive
residents spreading the virus and using public transit

What are we testing? Scalable infrastructure (model, personnel, technology) for medical transport

Partners: Fitz-Thors Engineering, Jefferson County Department of Health, City of Birmingham,

Yellowhammer Creative, Airdev, Health Coalition (UAB, Ascension, Brookwood Baptist), Maynard Cooper

Performance Indicators: # of patients served; # of trips; # of drivers; # of patients otherwise unable to

seek treatment

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 How are our workers selected?
Must be members of
the Birmingham Selected for membership
based on interest and
community, age 18 availability, skill set for
or older 18+ priority service projects,
and Service Corps values
of equity and diversity

To date, opportunities have been 2.0

advertised through BhamStrong
website, community outreach,
and partner networks. As
program scales, we will pursue Residents from all
targeted advertising strategies,
prioritizing outreach to areas of the city
low-income and minority
applicants
 Service Corps Members in their own words:

“ Kendall P., former preschool teacher: “Working with Birmingham Strong has
been such a positive experience for me during this time! I'm civic-minded and I
truly love people, so being able to reach out with helpful information to fellow
Birmingham residents and local small business owners has been immensely
rewarding.”

Jose C.: “Working for Bham Strong never felt like a job. It was more like my
duty as a resident of the Birmingham community.”
“ Call center agent: “Bham Strong has given me an opportunity to feel like I'm
contributing something positive during these strange and uncertain times.”

Rusty L.: “Working with Bham Strong on this project has been a very rewarding
experience for me. I have gotten great feedback from residents and small business
owners who simply want to thank Mayor Woodfin and the City Council for taking the
time to make sure they're ok and that they have the information they need during this
crisis.”

“They (residents and small business owners) are very appreciative of the fact that
our local leaders took the time to call the little guy who doesn't always get
remembered. You can tell in the sound of their voice how grateful they are that
we've called them. Being able to help people in a time of uncertainty like this has
been very humbling and gratifying.”
 Leadership

Charles Barkley Kelly Caruso Melanie Bridgeforth Dr. Selwyn Vickers Suzanna Fritzberg
Analyst & Investor Shipt Women’s Fund UAB Medicine

Lee Styslinger, III. Roy Wood, Jr. Joyce Vance Jared Weinstein Cori Fain
Altec Comedian MSNBC Overton Project 21
 $300,000+
In private contributions from the Overton Project, Shipt,
Altec and other supporters has launched the Birmingham
Service Corps and seeded the first round of projects.

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 $1 million
We are asking for $1 MM reimbursable allocation from the City of
Birmingham to augment the program. A public-private partnership will
fuel the City of Birmingham’s commitment to the BhamStrong Service
Corps program, and allow BhamStrong to continue empowering
workers to meet community needs.
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Where is the funding coming from?
We are shifting from $1 million in economic development to
economic stabilization.
100% of this funding is redirecting funds in the
2019-2020 budget from three primary sources:
The IEO budget: $557,000
Redirecting economic incentives:
➔ Pappadeaux: $215,000 (completed and repurposed)
➔ Topgolf: $228,000 (did not comply)

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 We believe this funding qualifies as a
reimbursable expense for the City under the
CARES Act.

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Birmingham Strong is a temporary non-profit
that will conclude when we defeat COVID-19.
EVERY City dollar will go into the pockets of
Birmingham residents, and it will only be
drawn when needed.

In order to be #BhamStrong, we need your

partnership.
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