About 10,000 Northwest Jacksonville residents could benefit from $3 million in new state funding for workforce training, food insecurity relief and other initiatives, officials said April 16 during an announcement of the appropriation.
State Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman and Sheriff T.K. Waters said the funding for Council District 10 was aimed at helping residents find work, reduce their cost of living, improve their health and more.
“These are not abstract policy goals,” Duggan said. “These are the conditions that help a child growing up here have a better chance to have a better life here.”
Officials said $2 million of the funding from the Department of Children and Families would go to Beaver Street Enterprise Center for workforce training and food insecurity relief, with the other $1 million divided among the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and local organizations for crime prevention, workforce development and other uses.
Pittman did not detail how the $1 million would be divided or which entities would receive money outside of JSO.
“It’s a game changer for District 10,” she said.
“For far too long, communities like ours have faced disenfranchisement, limited access to opportunities and barriers that have made it difficult for families and residents to thrive. But today, we’re definitely shifting the narrative.”
Pittman’s District 10 encompasses much of Northwest Jacksonville, including residential neighborhoods near the Trout River and more rural and industrial land on the southwest side of Kings Road.
Beaver Street Enterprise Center, which works with small businesses in the area, said it would distribute the funds between Workforce Industrial Training, Sharron Nursing Academy, Farm Share, Clara’s Grow and Go, and Feeding Northeast Florida.
The bulk of the Beaver Street center’s share of the appropriation, $1.2 million, will be directed to Workforce Industrial Training and Sharron Nursing Academy, which have begun training local residents for jobs in trade sectors and nursing. Terrance Brisbane, the enterprise center’s executive director, said the two programs are expected to graduate about 350 students with the allocated funding.
The other $800,000 will be awarded to Farm Share, Clara’s Grow and Go, and Feeding Northeast Florida, which will provide food distribution, along with classes teaching residents how to eat healthier and how to grow their own food.
The grant to the enterprise center would create $5.6 million in economic impact in the area, Brisbane said.
The April 16 news conference was held less than a half-mile from the Dollar General where a gunman shot and killed two customers and one employee Aug. 26, 2023. The gunman shot and killed himself after the attack, which authorities said was racially motivated.
Duggan said he first began seeking the funding for District 10 after a vigil for the victims of the shooting, which took place less than a mile from Edward Waters University.
“Immediately after the service, I went up to the governor’s staff and said, ‘Thoughts, prayers and a moment of silence are not nearly enough. We need to do more,’” Duggan said, speaking from the same location as the 2023 vigil. “That’s when I went to work.”
The appropriation initially was earmarked for the 2024-25 state budget, Duggan said, but bureaucratic issues pushed it into the 2025-26 budget.
Brisbane said the $2 million allocated toward his organization could reach as many as 10,000 residents.