A Birmingham nonprofit is gearing up for a big push in 2022 to secure more partnerships and continue on a path that was set in place during the pandemic.
Ed Farm, which launched in Birmingham with a team of six in February 2020, named a new CEO two months later, and the team got busy keeping its mission alive virtually.
CEO Waymond Jackson said despite the onset of the pandemic, Ed Farm was able to lay out a program and effectively run its teacher fellows initiative.
The nonprofit’s team was able to transition to a virtual platform and work with Birmingham City Schools. It was also key in helping fill a teaching void, leading to an expansion in programs.
Jackson said Ed Farm’s educational work is now in 77 districts in Alabama and in three additional states. This switch to a virtual setting allowed for its workforce development program to launch, which enabled the nonprofit to serve more people and hold classes on a more frequent basis.
“Also because of the pandemic, teachers and many educators were not in a position to deliver virtual training. We were asked by Birmingham City Schools to step in to fill a void of training (and) provide professional development seminars and services for all educators,” Jackson said. “So, it really saw us develop a model of how we can engage with more educators than we had initially started, which then led into us being able to expand our program not just (in) Birmingham city (but) to other school districts across Alabama and into other states in a virtual environment.”
Now that the pandemic is showing signs of subsiding, Ed Farm will return to having in-person teaching events.
It won’t leave virtual behind, however. Jackson said there is room to expand virtual training offerings.
By offering a hybrid approach, Jackson said it will help accelerate the timeframe of the work that the nonprofit’s leaders have set out to accomplish.
He said Ed Farm is going to continue to push the boundaries with communities in ways that expand the nonprofit’s initial goals.
For example, Ed Farm is looking to try to provide greater digital access to underserved communities by providing them with devices or opportunities in coding and access to computer science at no cost to them.
“Helping create new pathways for workforce — that’s what this community can come to expect,” Jackson said. “We can see how this organization grows into a national organization.
“That is where we are at this moment and expanding the scope of our work to more of a nationally structured nonprofit that’s headquartered here in Birmingham. But it’s also able to impact underserved communities in other areas that are similarly situated to what we see here.”
While Ed Farm already has powerful support from corporate partners like Apple and Alabama Power, Jackson said he plans to develop relationships with other nonprofits and corporate partners as well.
He said funding is always critical. While current corporate backing is strong, his team of 25 employees will develop a fundraising campaign in 2022 as they actively position themselves in the nonprofit space.
