Can a burst of multimillion-dollar federal grants help revitalize even the most economically stagnant communities in America? The Biden administration is betting on it.

On Monday, officials from the Department of Commerce announced the first six recipients to receive grants through the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program. Part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the Recompete program is designed to fund job creation and other economic development initiatives in “distressed” communities—that is, localities suffering from high unemployment and poverty rates and low median household income. 

Those economic development initiatives include job training programs, access to “wraparound” services like transportation and childcare, critical infrastructure, and small business support “that will allow Americans to take advantage of new opportunities,” said Lael Brainard, White House National Economic Advisor and co-chair of the CHIPS Implementation Steering Council, in a call with reporters ahead of the Monday announcement. And since the program is “place-based”—meaning it packages together different measures in order to promote jobs and stimulate growth in a given area—the funding “is flexible [so] communities can target specific developments,” Brainard said.

The grants total $184 million. Its recipients include the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, which requested and received $20 million for “connecting underserved communities to high-opportunity industries”; Washington State’s Callum County, which recieved $50 million to revitalize the natural resources industries in the state’s North Olympic Peninsula; Puerto Rico’s Platform for Social Impact, which received $30 million to invest in public housing and other domestic support services; the city of Birmingham, Alabama, which received $20 million to counteract “a legacy of disinvestment, systemic racism, pollution, and land use decisions”; the innovation hub Shaping Our Appalachian Region, which received $40 million to reduce barriers to employment in southeastern Kentucky; and the Wind River Development Fund, which received $36 million to catalyze “an indigenous-led, eco-tourism economy” on the Wind River Indian Reservation and Fremont County, Wyoming. 

These communities won’t have to implement these new initiatives alone: the six awardees submitted 300 commitments from private-sector companies, local governments, and philanthropies, totaling about $350 million in “complementary investments” to fulfill their vision of community-based economic development.

“Through partnership with local communities, the Recompete program will make targeted, community-led investments to reduce unemployment,” Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Castillo said on the call with reporters. “The Recompete awardees are bringing together a wide range of partners to develop integrated approaches to support Americans in accessing good jobs.”

The program can’t start doling out funds soon enough. According to data from the bipartisan Economic Innovation Group, roughly one in six Americans live in an economically distressed zip code. Indeed, the EDA says it received 565 applications for the initial Phase 1 of the Recompete program, the largest number of applications of any national grant competition ever, according to the agency, reflecting a massive need for direct investment among distressed communities.