COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A program for job training dedicated to a man killed by law enforcement in the city has received a nod of approval from Columbus City Council, and thousands of dollars in funding.

Columbus City Council approved $200,000 Monday to extend The Pathways to Purpose: Casey Goodson Jr. CDL Program, part of the $1.2 billion operating budget that council approved. Announced in 2021, the training program is dedicated to Goodson, who was fatally shot by a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy outside his grandmother’s North Side house in December 2020. In February, a jury deadlocked on whether to convict the deputy, Jason Meade, of murder and reckless homicide.

The workforce development initiative helps low-income residents train to receive their commercial driver’s licenses to get employment as truck drivers. The idea for the program came from a detail from Goodson’s personal life, Councilmember Shayla Favor said.

“Having spent some time with his family, learning more about who he was and his aspirations, we learned that he was a CDL driver, had just got a new rig, and was very proud of that,” Favor said. “Being very deeply impacted by what happened to him, I wanted to do something to make sure that his life was not going to be memorialized by just the last moments that we have all come to know, or that he would not be reduced down to just a hashtag in our community.”

Funding for the program was added to the budget through the council’s budget amendments, announced last week. Favor said the additional funds coming from the budget will support members in the community looking for gainful employment as CDL drivers.

“We advocated very vigorously for an amendment to ensure that this program could continue,” Favor said.

Columbus partners on the initiative with IMPACT Community Action and Capital Transportation Academy’s Roads2Work program. Part of the funding will go toward tuition costs for participants receiving training through Roads2Work.

Because there is a shortage of CDL drivers in the community, Favor said the program is necessary. She said the city has felt the impact of a shortage of COTA bus drivers, school bus drivers and truck drivers. Since the program launched in 2021, Favor said 24 have graduated from it.

Brandon Curry, director of empowerment services for IMPACT, said the training takes four weeks, with one week of in-class instruction followed by three weeks of training in a vehicle.

“We do this because of getting people to work and providing new opportunities, but we also were able to honor the life of Casey Goodson Jr.,” Curry said.