Thursday, March 14th at Noon ET
ReImagine Appalachia’s Faith in Action team teamed up with Solar United Neighbors (SUN), a national nonprofit dedicated to helping people go solar, join together, and fight for their energy rights. At this event on Thursday, March 14th at Noon ET, we talked about the innovative ways that communities and houses of worship are being transformed into resilience hubs, which help communities prepare for and recover from climate disaster. These hubs can provide safe spaces, clean energy through solar panels and battery storage, and other precautions when weather events, outages, and other problems strike. As we unfortunately see more climate disasters in our region, this webinar lights the path to energy independence and resiliency.
Dori Wolfe, the Houston Area Co-op Coordinator for SUN, told the story of three homes in Texas that were transformed into resilience hubs. A grant from the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice sparked a collaboration of nonprofits that enabled those homes to install solar panels, battery storage, emergency supplies, and more.
And David Ortiz, Puerto Rico Program Director for SUN, shared his experience working with a community that was heavily impacted by flooding during Hurricane Maria and how a church in that community provided food and shelter to those affected by natural disasters, with soon-to-be installed solar panels.
Autumn Long directs the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund, a regional financial and technical assistance program designed to catalyze solar development in coal-impacted Central Appalachian communities. Autumn discussed the need for and development of local resilience hubs in rural communities in Central Appalachia.
Presentations:
Get in contact:
Autumn Long <[email protected]> – Appalachian Solar Finance Fund
David Ortiz <[email protected]> – SUN Puerto Rico
Dori Wolfe <[email protected]> – SUN Houston Area Program Coordinator