he Obama Foundation announced Wednesday that more than a third of its construction hires for the upcoming presidential center will hail from South and West side neighborhoods as part of a drive to give jobs to the Chicago communities that bolstered the rise of the nation’s first Black president. When groundbreaking on the Obama Presidential Center — tentatively set for August — begins, 35% of the construction workers on the project will be residents of South and West Side neighborhoods such as Austin, Lawndale, Englewood, Woodlawn, South Shore and Washington Park, Obama Foundation chief engagement officer Mike Strautmanis said in an interview. That commitment was because former President Barack Obama wants the legacy that will be enshrined in his presidential center in Jackson Park to honor the city that he credits with the genesis of his swift rise in politics.
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