Electrical Black Futures will assist and empower underserved Black communities in Albany, Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, to check and create their electrical mobility future.
Madelyn Collins and Stan Cross | Could 21, 2024
| Clear Transportation, Electrical Black Futures, Electrical Autos, Power Justice, Georgia
In October 2023, the Southern Alliance for Clear Power (SACE), together with our companions EVNoire and Clear Cities Georgia, was awarded a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Division of Power’s Car Applied sciences Workplace Program Large Funding Alternative titled Advancing Equitable Entry to EVs, Infrastructure, and Jobs in Underserved Communities in Georgia.
Electrical Black Futures and Afrofuturism
We named this undertaking Electrical Black Futures (EBF), and are using a really intentional and forward-thinking Afrofuturism body to create a culturally related futurescoping methodology centered across the lived experiences of Black folks in technological innovation. Our undertaking goals to make sure that underserved Black communities inside three Georgia cities – Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah – are actively engaged and empowered to create and deploy equitable, accessible electrical mobility initiatives and acquire entry to the roles that the transition to electrical transportation is bringing to Georgia. Our targets over the following three years embody:
- Leveraging community-based participatory analysis and engagement to co-create community-centered electrical mobility plans that join Black communities to federal funding and clear power jobs and deal with the disproportionate environmental and transportation burdens that influence Black communities’ social and financial well-being
- Empowering future-building electrical mobility coalitions in Black communities to check and lead their electrical mobility futures utilizing Afrofuturism to middle the lived experiences of Black folks in technological innovation
- Addressing the workforce underrepresentation of Black employees and thinkers within the clear power labor power and discovering pathways for upward mobility and financial empowerment via inexperienced jobs and entrepreneurship
EBF will leverage community-based participatory analysis and genuine group engagement to determine and perceive group wants and priorities, develop community-centered strategic plans, and empower group voices to make sure that electrical mobility investments from federal applications such because the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (BIL) and the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) ship what communities want and wish.
Laying the Groundwork
Over the previous six months, the undertaking workforce has been assembly with stakeholders in Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah to enlist consultant companions, together with grassroots organizations reminiscent of SOWEGA Rising and Black Sustainability, Inc., anchor establishments just like the United Approach of Southwest Georgia, and communication associate Subsume Studios. Our workforce continues to fulfill with community-based organizations in Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah to enlist extra companions and individuals earlier than launching the undertaking’s formative analysis stage in June, which is able to embody group surveys and focus teams. EBF will set up Neighborhood Advisory Boards of native companions to assist lead engagement with the cities’ underserved Black communities. The qualitative and qualitative information gathered throughout this stage will, in flip, inform group engagement all through the undertaking.
Watch the Webinar: Constructing Our Equitable E-mobility Future
Final week, the undertaking workforce and EBF associate Drawdown Georgia’s 2024 Local weather Options Webinar Collection hosted Constructing Our Equitable E-Mobility Future. The webinar included a panel dialogue moderated by SACE’s Electrical Transportation Director Stan Cross, with SACE’s Electrical Transportation Fairness Supervisor Madelyn Collins, EVNoire Co-Founder and Managing Accomplice Dr. Shelley Francis, and Clear Cities Georgia Program Supervisor Sumner Pomeroy. The panel dialogue launched the general public to EBF’s method and went deeper in discussing our targets.
Wanting Towards the Subsequent Steps
Along with creating strategic plans and figuring out pathways to electrical mobility undertaking funding, the undertaking can even interact training companions, together with the Technical Neighborhood Faculty System of Georgia and native Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities, to determine job talent gaps and guarantee communities have entry to the job coaching wanted to take part within the state’s booming electrical transportation sector. EBF’s success will assist inform and obtain the targets of the Justice40 initiative, by which the Biden administration seeks to ship 40% of the advantages from nationwide clear power and local weather investments to underserved communities disproportionately affected by environmental and socioeconomic challenges.
As we transfer ahead, Electrical Black Futures will probably be knowledgeable by our ongoing analysis and by what we hear from genuine group voices. Thus, we’ll consistently uncover new group electrical mobility wants and priorities. Studying in real-time is what makes this undertaking so distinctive and thrilling, and we’re wanting ahead to seeing how EBF will unfold in Georgia over the following three years. Click on on the webinar above to be taught extra.
To take part in and keep linked to EBF, go to ElectricBlackFutures.org.
Electrical Black Futures is a part of SACE’s Electrify the South program that leverages analysis, advocacy, and outreach to speed up the equitable transition to electrical transportation throughout the Southeast. Go to ElectrifytheSouth.org to be taught extra and join with us.
