An effort to provide home safety improvements and energy savings low-income Delawareans receives $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The project is led by the Dover-based HELP Initiative: a nonprofit that has previously focused on offering energy-saving lightbulbs, weatherization support and home health risk assessments in low-income communities in places such as Seaford, Milford and Wilmington.
The nonprofit is also working with the Delaware Department of Labor to offer a pre-apprenticeship program for clean energy jobs - a service Gov. Carney lauded while announcing the funding Tuesday in Seaford.
“When we think about the important components of this program," he said, "training people to be able to take the jobs of the future is so incredibly important.”
Delaware Clean Energy Utility Director of Development Jim Purcell says his organization will match the ARPA dollars, building on their existing partnership with the HELP Initiative.
“The American Rescue Plan Act funds will match additional funds from the Energy Equity Fund to provide energy savings to low- and moderate-income communities, create access to clean and renewable energy for all Delawareans, including low- and moderate-income communities," he said, "and finally to create and sustain clean and renewable jobs here in Delaware for our underserved communities across the state.”
The HELP Initiative is also partnering with Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and multiple other government agencies and nonprofits to offer remediation for some home health hazards, including mold and lead.
