Last year, a group of residents in rural West Tennessee – near the under-construction Ford EV plant known as BlueOval City – formed the BlueOval Good Neighbors Coalition, which wants FoMoCo to sign a legally binding community benefits agreement as it aims to ensure that the future plant hires locals and also prevents gentrification from occurring. That group issued a list of demands to the automaker in late November, after which Ford announced that it would be adding a YMCA Early Learning Center to its site to help with childcare. Now, Ford has created a Good Neighbor Plan to further aid the local community.
The Ford Good Neighbor Plan is a multi-faceted one that the automaker says is the “the largest community investment made by a company so far in rural West Tennessee.” Ford Philanthropy and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers are teaming up to offer $2,500 cost-of-attendance scholarships to local students pursuing careers in automotive-related manufacturing, for starters, and Ford will be renovating and repurposing the historic African-American schoolhouse in Stanton as a central hub for community services, too.
Additionally, the Ford Good Neighbor Plan will create an Equitable Growth Advisory Council consisting of 30 local leaders that will work to identify and address any barriers that stand in the way of equitable growth. All of these moves are being made based on feedback from the local community, and with an eye toward investing in youth development, creating community spaces, and providing financial assistance to those that need it.
This effort stems from feedback provided by the BlueOval Good Neighbors Coalition, as residents in the area surrounding BlueOval City are concerned that the massive growth occurring around that site will drive up the costs of housing, rent, and repairs, all while many local land owners have been asked or even told that they must sell their land.
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