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Looking back on Weatherization

Alice Gaston — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:05:00 GMT

State & Local Energy Report is proud to present the documentary film Filling the Gaps: The History of the Weatherization Assistance Program. Produced in partnership with the National Association for State Community Service Programs, it tells the complete story of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Through interviews with the pioneers of WAP, the film shows how a modest plan to put people back to work grew into a sophisticated, technologically driven program that's played a major role in advancing building science.

Filling the Gaps looks back on the full history of WAP, from the Carter administration to the present, pausing for an in-depth look at ARRA that celebrates its achievements and counters the misconceptions. At its core, Filling the Gaps is the heartwarming story of the hardworking men and women of weatherization who have dedicated their lives to helping those who need it most.

To view the trailer of the video on the State and Local Energy Report website, click here.

From the State and Local Energy Report.
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Weatherization Day 2012

Alice Gaston — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:27:00 GMT

Another successful Weatherization Day has come and gone. This year, eighteen different states held events or public information sessions, including ten Mayoral and Governor's Proclamations from states as diverse as North Carolina, Idaho, and Kansas. While Hurricane Sandy delayed some events on the East Coast, New York got longtime WAP supporter Representative Paul Tonko out at a site demonstration blowing sidewall insulation.

A list of Weatherization Day events, news clips, invitations, and proclamations can be found on waptac.org here. If you do not see your event listed, or have more information you'd like to share including pictures or invitations, please email info@waptac.org.

Holding site demonstrations, writing letters to Governors or Representatives, and doing public information campaigns are not activities reserved solely for Weatherization Day. In the coming months, support for WAP nationwide will be critical as we go through the lame duck period of Congress and beyond into the 113th Congress. For tips or ideas, http://waptac.org/Public-Information.aspx.

Click here for more information.

New Online Tool Helps Improve Safety and Energy-Efficiency of Low-Income Homes

NASCSP — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:23:00 GMT

WASHINGTON — The National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), launched a new website today, WxPlusHealth.org, to connect low-income families with much-needed services and funding to reduce their homes’ health hazards and energy costs. The website provides vital tools and support for the network of service providers, vendors, and community services agencies that comprise the Weatherization Plus Health initiative?a nationwide effort to improve the health, safety, and energy-efficiency of homes for low-income families.

WxPlusHealth.org brings together two complementary but otherwise isolated Federal programs to improve the effectiveness of both. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) helps lower home energy costs, while the healthy homes initiative seeks to mitigate the health hazards associated with substandard housing. DOE recognizes that both efforts require a similar set of services and the home improvements that both provide can be done more efficiently in coordination.

“Most low-income families are eligible for both programs, because of this overlap we can now deliver more comprehensive services to vulnerable families and make local agencies even more effective. That’s going to make a huge difference in a lot of peoples’ lives during these tough times,” said Steve Payne, President of the National Association for State Community Service Programs Board of Directors and Director of the Department of Commerce, Community Services and Housing Division in Washington.

The website uses advanced, interactive mapping technology to connect WAP and healthy homes providers to each other and to their clients. Besides finding local service providers, users may access demographic and climate data, find service territory and political boundaries, identify training opportunities, and more. For the agencies and businesses of the Weatherization Plus Health initiative, WxPlusHealth.org provides extensive resources to expand their technical expertise through training programs, networking opportunities for sharing best practices, and online video and photo galleries.

“In addition to searching for partners in the community, agencies can also view health and housing data within their service area, enabling them to adjust programs to address needs that are currently underserved,” stated Timothy Warfield, Executive Director of NASCSP.

“WxPlusHealth.org is a really creative way for these Federal programs to maximize the impact of the funds they spend. In these difficult times, it’s important that necessary services reach the people who need them as quickly as possible,” declared Payne.
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Three weeks until Weatherization Day!

Alice Gaston — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:29:00 GMT

Weatherization Day is on October 30th, just three short weeks away! Now is the time to complete your own State plans, urge sub-grantees to finalize events, and think about other ways to recognize the day in your state.

A Governor's Proclamation is a great way to celebrate Weatherization Day and show your State's and Governor's support for the program. State and Governor advocacy was key to securing WAP funding in 2011 and may prove critical in this time of tight fiscal policy. We encourage you to work with your Governor's office to secure a Proclamation and show that your state values the WAP.

Last year, nine states issued Governor's and mayoral proclamations, including Washington State, Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Michigan (the proclamations can be seen here). Not sure you can get a Proclamation in time for Weatherization Day or having trouble planning an event before the election? No problem! Weatherization Day events work year round.

Tools to help draft and implement Governor's Proclamations are available on WAPTAC.org under Public Information. Templates are available here, and step by step instructions for how to get a Proclamation are in the Weatherization Day Toolkit here. Still not sure how to go about getting one? Email waptac at info@waptac.org for support.

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One Million Homes and Counting!

Alice Gaston — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:45:00 GMT

One million homes weatherized and counting! Thank you to everyone who participated in the millionth home celebration last week. NASCSP would particularly like to thank the South Central Community Action Partnership (SCCAP) and the Community Action Association of Lehigh Valley (CACLV) for their work in putting together site demonstrations to mark the event.

In Idaho, technicians demonstrated blower door technology, a computerized energy audit, lead safe weatherization techniques, infrared scans of a wall with insulation gaps, and CO testing on a gas range. The event continued with a luncheon and speakers at the Twin Falls City Park. Speakers at the event included Ken Robinette, Executive Director of SSCAP; Greg Lanting, Mayor of Twin Falls; Rep. Stephen Hartgen, Idaho House of Representatives; Shawn Barigar, CEO of the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce; Leon Mills, Twin Falls County Commissioner; Bob Scott, Energy Services Director at NASCSP; and other stakeholders, including representatives from Idaho State government, Idaho Power, and GreenFiber Insulation were present.

In Pennsylvania, Sealair, Inc. demonstrated air sealing and cellulose dense packing for exterior walls on a 1905 home that lacked any insulation. Speakers at the event included homeowners Andrew and Lee Ann Garton; CACLV representatives; Donald Mathis, President of the Community Action Partnership; and Alice Gaston, WAP Program Assistant at NASCSP.

Some press highlights:

The one millionth home celebration is just the beginning in highlighting the success of the WAP. October is Energy Awareness Month and October 30th is Weatherization Day, a perfect time to let your community, Congressional and state representatives, partners, and media know how successful your program is. Need a few ideas on how to celebrate? Get ideas from past years on waptac.org here. Please send any information about events, proclamations, etc. to info@waptac.org so we can collect and place on waptac.org for future reference!

Let the celebration begin!

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Upcoming DOE WAP State Manager's Meeting

Alice Gaston — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:11:00 GMT

It’s already been two years since the last Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistant Program (WAP) State Manager’s meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. This year, WAP State Managers will be meeting in Atlanta, Georgia September 12th through 14th to discuss changes to the program and the future of the WAP. Sessions include the Federal Perspective on upcoming guidance, health and safety requirements, and national evaluation results; WAP Work Quality on quality assurance; WAP Training and Certification; Weatherization Plus 2015; LIHEAP and WAP; and Weatherization Plus Health.

You can follow the conference on a new website the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) created: www.nascspevents.org/ that will have real-time updates, photos, and information about the conference. You can also follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #nascsp12 and #weatherization. Conference presentations and materials will be posted following the event here.

See you in Atlanta!
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WAP @ the White House: Quick Facts from the Event!

Alice Gaston — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:58:00 GMT

NASCSP would like to thank everyone who participated and attended (either in-person or via the live stream) the White House’s Weatherization Supply Chain Industry Event on June 15th! Additionally, we know there were a lot of numbers and statistics given today that you might have missed, so here are some quick facts from the event provided by the Department of Energy.

WAP’s Impact on American Families

Over 7.3 million families have been served by the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)
Low-Income families, on average, spend 15% of their income on energy costs
Reducing energy costs means these families have more money to spend on food, medicine, and other essentials

WAP’s Impact on American Workers

25,000 living-wage jobs are supported by WAP
Workers are highly trained and make up the largest energy efficiency retrofit workforce in the nation
These workers form a foundation of skilled individuals to support the growth of a private home energy retrofit industry

WAP’s Impact on American Businesses

Over 10,000 local, American businesses are supported by the activities of WAP
WAP provides a marketplace for innovation in the in the energy upgrade industry and supports the growth of American businesses

You can watch video of the event on waptac.org here: Part 1 & Part 2.

Source: DOE’s The Weatherization Assistance Program: An American Industry handout

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PY 2011 Weatherization Funding Survey now available

Alice Gaston — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:47:00 GMT

The NASCSP 2011 Program Year (PY 2011) Funding Survey is now available on waptac.org here.

The NASCSP WAP Funding Survey is the only comprehensive measure of all funds, including non-DOE funds, used in the Program. Each year, the survey catalogues the funding and production levels for each Grantee of the Program as well as the source of that funding including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), utility funds, and state funds among others.

Some highlights from this year include:

An estimated $1,088,197,305 will be available to Grantees of the WAP PY 2011 (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 for most Grantees and July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 for other Grantees) in regular DOE, LIHEAP, and Other funds, such as utility funds.
A national network of Grantees, local agencies, and private contractors will use these annual grant funds to weatherize an estimated 175,722 low-income homes.
In PY 2011, the WAP will leverage approximately $835,770,559 in federal, Grantee, and private funds, or approximately $3.31 in federal and non-federal resources for every dollar invested by DOE.
Grantees may budget a portion DOE funds as “leveraging funds” to be used in initiatives to garner additional funding from sources outside of the traditional network. In 2011, 17 Grantees designated $2,236,685 for this purpose, an increase of $126,501 over 2010, as well as $10,145,630 of Recovery Act funding. When compared with Other funding, this represents a match of 1,0632 percent, which shows that the WAP network leveraging activities have been highly successful. These figures include all Other funds, such as those from utility companies, State general funds, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and rehabilitation grants, but do not include LIHEAP funding.

The composition of funds changes over time, the below graph shows how the distribution of DOE, LIHEAP, and Other funds has changed since 2001.

Past year’s funding surveys are also available on waptac.org here.

Click here for more information.

Public Information and Weatherization Day

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:42:00 GMT

Another successful Weatherization Day has come and gone. State offices and agencies worked together throughout the country to demonstrate to fellow citizens and policymakers that Weatherization Works! Governors around the nation issued Weatherization Day and Energy Awareness month proclamations and state and local weatherization agencies held events to showcase the important work being done in weatherization to local, state, and federal officials.

A highlight of the many successful events was a post-weatherization site visit by Representative Jim Langevin (D-NJ) in West Warwick, New Jersey. One of his constituents, Ms. Anna Golderese, was so impressed with the weatherization services she received from the Westbay Community Action Agency that she wrote to the Congressman in praise of the program. In response, the Congressman visited her home to see the weatherization work done on her home firsthand. As a result of this publicity and educating a particular policymaker, he is now co-sponsoring a letter to House members with Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY) for increased weatherization funding for FY2012. Currently, WAP is slated to receive $33 million in the House appropriations bill, a cut of $141 million dollars compared to FY2011. This is a vivid example of how a local or regional event can change the complexion of politics and weatherization on the national stage.

Another shining example is New Mexico, which had a successful event in conjunction with Santa Fe Community College earlier this year. Attended by Congressional as well as state delegation members, the event highlighted the success of the WAP in the state, the Energy $mart Training facility, and presented awards to local utility companies for supporting the program. This got the word out to community partners that weatherization does not operate in isolation and that the program is a smart investment and partnering opportunity.

These are just a few examples of how states and agencies connected with policymakers and stakeholders on Weatherization Day this year. In a time when all programs are on the chopping block for cuts by Congress, events like these are crucial to show policymakers that weatherization helps their constituents live in safer, cleaner, more energy efficient homes while creating jobs. Several recent site demonstrations have focused on newly hired and trained workers demonstrating WAP work, reinforcing both the technology and the jobs and skills development component of the program and NASCSP encourages this focus for future events.

While we know that you are all tremendously busy, we strongly urge you to conduct ongoing public information campaign activities. We firmly believe that when someone actually observes firsthand the advanced diagnostics and energy efficiency installation techniques utilized by WAP that these override the negative stories profligate in the news media with the actual state-of-the-art work, job-creating, energy burden easing work achieved throughout the country, and often subsequently become supporters of and hopefully advocates for the program.

Site visits while Representatives are at home, press releases for milestones reached, and public service announcements are all examples of steps you can take anytime during the year to show that weatherization works. Additionally, publicizing the additional benefits of weatherization beyond energy savings can provide a powerful impact. For example, a recent story in Pennsylvania highlighted how a carbon monoxide detector installed during the course of regular weatherization work alerted a family to a potentially dangerous leak in their home. The headline is: “Woman says Weatherization Saved her Family” – what could be a more effective narrative? These are stories we hear about every day in the Network that should be shared with the public to underscore the importance of weatherization as more than just a mere energy efficiency upgrade. Weatherization can and does save lives as well as energy.

For more information on any of these and other PIC ideas, please visit the Public Information section of waptac.org.
Click here for more information.

Great-granddaughter writes ‘Grandma and Grandpa prayed for people to help us.’

Arkansas Community Action Association — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:09:00 GMT

The girl of 12, who lives with her great-grandparents, Eldred and Lagail Grant, near Wynne in Cross County in northeast Arkansas, handed one of the weatherization workers for Crowley’s Ridge Development Council (CRDC) in Jonesboro a letter after they’d made improvements on the 35-year-old mobile home they live in.

In orange and green and red crayon, and pencil, on an 8 by 10 inch piece of plain white paper that had been folded to make a card, it said on the cover: “Thanks CRDC.”

Inside, the printing in pencil said: “Dear CRDC, you don’t know how much we appreciate this. . . My grandma and grandpa prayed for people to help us on our trailer. So when she got the call, she said, ‘God is doing his job.’ So I want to say thanks. Thank you CRDC.”

The girl, Kaganlee Dannyelle Parker, and her brother, Phillip Odom, 5, have been cared for by the Grants since their mother, Crystal Parker, 31, died four years ago. (Another great-grandchild, Colt, 15, lives with the Grant’s daughter.)

Eldred Grant, 72, is retired from working for the sheriff’s office, as jail administrator; Mrs. Grant, 75, worked for years in a home health program; they live on their Social Security income. (They have two sons, a daughter, an adopted daughter “and raised another boy,” Mrs. Grant said in a recent telephone interview.)

They bought the three-bedroom mobile home – 12 feet by about 65 feet – just before they were married, and kept it up the best they could, Mrs. Grant said, adding, “We’ve had to keep it up for it to last this long.”

They did some weatherstripping and their son, Wesley, replaced about half the floor.

Still, much air came in, from around the doors and the windows and from under the floors.

They relied on an infrared heater, and two window air conditioners.

“We babied the heater, and we’d hang something over the back door when it got real cold. You do what you have to do; you know what you have to do.”

They couldn’t afford to make more improvements, especially after getting the children from their father, which required hiring a lawyer, who told them that they could pay him when they could.

Mrs. Grant heard about weatherization, and called the agency; it sent an application, which she filled out and returned. She later called, and “lo and behold,” the next day, in July, workers appeared, informing her that the family was eligible for the service, free of charge to those of low and moderate income.

In two days, they patched cracks and holes with caulk, foam, and lumber; put in baseboards, especially around the new flooring; put in 10 vinyl windows; installed a vented space heater and an ENERGY STAR refrigerator; reinstalled their air conditioners after taking them out to put in new windows; sealed the floors and the roof; put a door on the hot water heater and an exhaust fan over the cook stove; and provided compact fluorescent light bulbs and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Still to come are two doors that were specially ordered.

The work cost $6,438, according to Kenny Gunn, CRDC’s weatherization director.

The Grants had no idea of the extent of the work that would be done, Mrs. Grant said. “It was shocking to Eldred and me. We still can’t believe it; we still go outside and look at those windows; it’s just amazing.”

She called weatherization “God’s blessing” and stressed that they sought the service for the children. “It’s for the kids; this is for the kids; now, I know my babies are going to be warm. . . It means so much to this family, to our lives.”

She said the children suffered “much trauma,” adding that Kagan had said to her that she knew that “you and papa will take care of us.” She said: “We done so much praying, and then God sent us three angels,” a reference to Danny Brewer, David Scholl, and Bobby Carr, who did much of the work. (The other workers were Ricky Smith, Layton Thien, and Shane Thigpen.)

All, she said, “were nice, precious.”

When she learned about her great-granddaughter’s letter, she asked her about it. “Kagan said, ‘Mama, the Lord blessed us, and I wanted them to know how much we appreciate it.’ I started crying.”

Weatherization Director Gunn said, “It touched everybody’s heart, because it was a true conviction; it was the truth.” He said weatherization “is a highly emotional program,” for clients and workers, “because it has to do with providing a basic human need – a decent house. . . It gives people hope that they can have a better home, better lives.”

Brewer was surprised by the letter, “because you rarely see something like this from a child. To get such notice, at such a magnitude, was astonishing. . . It makes you feel very good” to know “our work gives such satisfaction and happiness. People do care; they do care about their homes, and want to make them better, safer.”

He said the mobile home was “very much a livable home” before they improved it, despite the warped, swollen aluminum frames that kept the windows from being opened and other problems. “But it’s so much better now; we made major improvements, and beat the goal we set for air flow.” They reduced it from 2,786 cubic feet per minute (cfm) “plum down to 1,989 cfm,” even before the new doors were to be put in. (Air flow is measured by a fan-like machine called a blower door.)

Brewer, who repaired termite-damaged homes for 12 years for Terminix, said, “I love the work; I hope I get to stay until I retire” because weatherization “has such a large impact on the lives of those who truly need the help.”

He was struck by the Grants’ devotion to their great-grandchildren. “They’re overseeing their well-being with great love and care; they are good grandparents.”

Mrs. Grant, an only child, said her parents, who were farmers, as were her husband’s parents, raised 25 other children whose parents weren’t willing or able to care for them. “We was all brothers and sisters,” she said, adding that the children included “a black boy whose father was dying and who asked my daddy if we could take his son, who was 7. He lived with us till he married. . . Daddy said those kids had a right to have something, had a right to be loved.”

She reported that Phillip had just graduated from kindergarten and was preparing to enter first grade and that Kagan plays softball and that “I never miss a game or a practice. . . We do things together, we have discussions at the table, and we know where they are at all times.”

She said: “The good Lord is blessing us to raise these kids. They’re putting a spark in our life. Having them has made our life complete.”

She collects clothes for other children, organizes activities for them during the summer and after school, and takes them to their church, the Valley View Baptist Church.

"Truly, if you love the Lord like you say you do, then all the kids is everybody’s; they’re not just one person’s kids. Kids is everybody’s kids. Kids is the most beautiful things in the world. God can’t give you anything better than these kids. . . We need to love these kids. So many, all they want is for you to put an arm around them and say, ‘I love you.’ How hard is it to tell a kid you love them?”

The Grants’ home is one of nearly 1,000 CRDC has weatherized in the last year with funds from the federal Department of Energy (DOE), which established the Weatherization Assistance Program in 1976, based on work that had been done by community action agencies; the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA); and the Arkansas Weatherization Program, a state Public Service Commission-approved collaborative with the seven investor-owned utilities, which contribute to work on a customer’s home that’s “severely energy-inefficient.” (The Grants are customers of Entergy Arkansas and CenterPoint Energy, which, together, contributed $1,500 to improve their home, according to Gunn.)

Despite the ARRA-powered expansion, many of those eligible won’t be able to be served because of a lack of fuller funding; the agency has about 1,000 on its waiting list.

Since it was begun, the regular, DOE-funded weatherization program in Arkansas has injected more than $115 million into communities throughout the state to improve more than 70,000 homes, making them more energy efficient, safe and healthy and enabling clients to save income to pay for other necessities. The agencies will have received $48 million in ARRA funds, over three years, by March, 2012, to improve an additional 5,5878 homes. As of the end of July, they had improved 4,542 with the funds.

To see the letter Kaganlee Dannyelle Parker wrote, please click here.
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Weatherization Day and Energy Awareness Month: Time to Get Ready!

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:59:00 GMT

As the Recovery Act period concludes on March 31, 2012, it is more important than ever to get out the word about WAP and make the case to policymakers, stakeholders, community partners, and the public that the Program remains a sound public investment for the nation. A great opportunity to showcase your program, put on a site demonstration, or engage in other public information activities is October, which is Energy Awareness Month, culminating with Weatherization Day on October 30th. The Weatherization network has faced so many challenges with the expansion of the program due to the Recovery Act, and now faces a new phase of trying to maintain those gains. We need to celebrate the numerous successes of the network. The network is well on its way to meet the Obama Administration’s goal of weatherizing 600,000 homes and has ranked 8th in jobs created and retained for ARRA projects for the last several quarters. Emphasizing jobs in the energy efficiency retrofit market particularly resonates as a focus in the current political climate.

While these accomplishments are surely noteworthy, a perception of failure and misspent funds persists. Unfortunately, bad news makes better headlines than good news. The best way to fight bad publicity and coverage in the news is to be proactive in getting positive stories out there. NASCSP has created and updated a number of tools to help you create, market, and distribute success stories, as well as plan events and celebrations which can all be found on waptac.org under Public Information.

Social Media 2.0 (coming soon)
As a follow up to last year’s Harnessing the Conversation: Raising the Awareness of the Weatherization Assistance Program, NASCSP has created a follow up guide: Social Media 2.0: Managing Social Media Effectively. As internet use grows, more people are turning to various social media outlets for information about issues and causes they care about. These issues can range from signing petitions and making online donations to seeking volunteer opportunities. Nonprofit organizations have responded to this demand by steadily increasing their presences on social media channels, invoking strategies such as launching an organizational blog or building a Facebook page or a Twitter profile.

For the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), social media presents a range of opportunities. Chief among them is to provide a stream of positive information about the WAP. Social media allows the network to drive multiple success stories of weatherization and deliver these directly to journalists, the public, and policymakers. Additionally, social media offers a cost-effective way to market your organization, publicize events, raise funds, and generally spread the word about the benefits of weatherization.

The key to social media is to work smarter, not harder. Sites like Facebook and Twitter understand the difficulties social media can present and have introduced features on their sites to make things easier for the average user, primarily through the integration of features across platforms. This guide will demonstrate how to employ those new features successfully to make using social media easier and more accessible. An online version of this publication will be available with additional content, including videos demonstrating how to implement the material discussed within. A note will be made in the print edition when additional material is available in the online portal.

WAP Storytelling Manual (coming soon)
WAP's Public Information Campaign raises awareness of the WAP and its many benefits – for individuals, the public, the environment, and local communities nationwide. Narratives or stories can bring WAP work, challenges, and successes to life. Stories are essential communication tools for helping the public, your partners, lawmakers, your potential funders, and other stakeholders understand how the WAP works and for whom it works.

Often, the people writing these stories at an organization are not specially trained and have to make time in their busy schedules to do so. To help you make these stories as effective as possible and building upon the CSBG side of NASCSP’s work, the NASCSP Energy Services has created the WAP Storytelling Manual. The guidelines in the manual are intended to help with the challenging task of communicating the story of weatherization to others.

Recent research about how the public understands stories and narratives tells us a lot about how to choose approaches and write effectively. NASCSP has distilled that research into this guide to writing a narrative as powerful as the actual events and concrete results.

Weatherization Day Planning Kit 2011
Each year, NASCSP updates the Weatherization Day Planning Kit as a guide to help plan your event. Weatherization Day was conceived as a way to focus local, State, and national attention on WAP and the work performed by dedicated members of the WAP network. Capitalizing on DOE’s declaration of October as Energy Awareness Month, weatherization programs across the country make a strategic push to raise the public’s awareness of the work we do every day.

The Kit provides ideas on how you can publicize your program in your community, State, and region. The kit offers specific tips and guides for activities that have been successful in weatherization agencies nationwide including Weatherization Day Governors’ Proclamations, press releases, energy fairs, and site demonstrations. These strategies can all lead to greater networking and leveraging opportunities, enhanced relationships with elected officials and potential partners, and a reinforcement of team building and morale with state and local WAP staff.

Weatherization Site Visit Demonstration Kit 2011
On-site technical demonstrations provide a great opportunity to showcase the benefits of the WAP to select national, State, and local community leaders. The impact of actually seeing a home weatherized is very powerful and speaks for itself. In an hour or less, on-site technical demonstrations tell the best story of how weatherization works. These events also allow a weatherization agency to highlight the impact of WAP on jobs, training, and energy efficiency.

Demonstration guests are impressed with the diagnostic approach, attention to health and safety, and proven cost-effectiveness of the taxpayers’ investment. Invitees experience the client’s circumstances, observe the energy-efficiency diagnostics used in the program, and learn how weatherization services help the family residing in the home.

Other Materials
In addition to the above, NASCSP maintains extensive information on a number of Public Information Campaign strategies, including press releases, creating videos, radio interviews, and print media as well as maintains a current list of local media outlets nationwide so that you can get your stories into the right hands.

All materials referenced above can be found at waptac.org under Public Information. Now is the time to start thinking about Energy Awareness Month, Weatherization Day, and your role in the Public Information Campaign. At this critical time for WAP, a widespread and resolute effort by the Weatherization network to show and tell the story that Weatherization Works would provide a much needed boost to positively influence the perception of the program. Please consider getting involved and send your stories, templates and ideas to us at rstewart@nascsp.org!
Click here for more information.

WAP Storytelling

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:59:00 GMT

As the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) moves into the post-Recovery Act era, telling its story is more important than ever. To maintain funding levels and staffing, the network will need to attract new partners and the best way to do so is to show that the WAP is a proven, time-tested, cost-effective and ultimately very successful program. The WAPTAC website has many tools to assist with this goal, primarily found here in the Public Information tab. However, our colleagues on the CSBG side have gone farther and published a Storytelling Manual with the assistance of Economic Opportunity Studies. This manual provides guidelines and strategies to most effectively communicate your message to the wider world – that Weatherization Works. Below are some tips and guidelines based on research about how the public understands poverty and how to create a narrative that will have the most impact.

Frameworks and Frames
A person’s framework is a complex structure of personal beliefs. It influences the way the person sees any story you frame in your own narrative and how he or she tells his or her own story. The following fleshes out some of the more common frames and how to address them.

Poverty and Poor People: Since hard work and family are still the fundamental American values, Americans identify with a person whose work ethic is unquestionable, who is striving for a better life for her or his family. Our strong individualistic bias leads us to value work, perseverance, and also ingenuity. Experts advise that advocates for low-income Americans to use the term economic insecurity instead of poverty and to refer to low-wage workers instead of working poor or poor. Most people can identify with the terms that suggest insecure employment and hard work, but they find “poverty” and “poor” to be ambiguous.
Opportunity: Opportunity is a valued American concept. The WAP creates opportunity through job creation and training, among other things. Americans generally believe that if your work facilitates opportunity, the economy is fairer. Showcase how your program has helped create ways for people to become self-sufficient and valuable members of the workforce.
Government Programs and Organizations: Americans tend to be skeptical of “government” and “programs” per se. They are uncertain about what works in government and also how their taxes are spent. Many are discouraged by experience or propaganda that says government can never work. At the same time, most Americans generally support the categories of government initiatives offering opportunities for education, training, and employment; that provide some security for people in old age; or for those who are ill or disabled. Therefore, the most effective success story for an organization, according to the research findings, is one that showcases the responsible, informed leadership and management behind a program. Responsible leaders are seen as those whose goals are building new jobs and strengthening the economy for the long term; they focus on strengthening the community as a whole.

Create Your Narrative in Five Strategic Steps

Choose stories that illustrate frames and focus on the values and goals of the WAP. Be sure they reflect shared basic values, such as supporting working families, supporting the economy, opening new opportunities, and expanding economic security;
Begin with a widely-shared framework, a broadly shared concern;
Continue with a description of the problem itself, in this case energy efficiency and jobs for low income Americans; frame it in terms of the categories people recognize and respect;
Lay out the well thought-out and effective solution as implemented; and
End with a description of the outcome, and if appropriate, future expectations.

This five-step strategic approach to story-telling may seem counter to many conventional communications practices. For example, many stories in the network focus on an individual’s history. Using this five-step approach will strategically frame your story so it is more likely to connect with the audience in ways that will help them understand what America should be doing to address economic insecurity, energy efficiency, and job training in this country.

This is just a taste of the much wider ranging document, which can be found on the NASCSP website. Additionally, we will be updating the document and tailoring it to meet the needs of the WAP network and you will be advised when it is available. Thank you for all of your hard work and let’s get the story of our success out there!

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Success Story: Indiana

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:01:00 GMT

The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) is committed to growing Indiana’s economy through housing development and community revitalization. One way of accomplishing that goal is through the weatherization program, which IHCDA has been administering for Indiana since 2006.

In 2009, Indiana received $131,847,383 in federal ARRA stimulus funding for the weatherization program, representing a 1000% increase over its annual DOE weatherization budget. IHCDA would typically service 2,000 homes annually, but with the ARRA funding upwards of 20,000 homes will be weatherized through 2012. Reducing the energy burden of low-income Hoosier households is indeed impactful, and the addition of federal stimulus funding has increased that tenfold.

In response to this extraordinary level of funding and demand for service, Indiana added 10 new organizations to their existing provider network. All of these agencies had relevant experience in providing home energy conservation or rehabilitation related activities. These organizations helped an already exemplary network of providers reach more homes, faster, than ever before.

In addition to the expanding network, when Indiana received weatherization stimulus funding, Governor Mitch Daniels decided to change the name of the program for Indiana to Home Energy Conservation to encompass more educational outreach efforts encouraging Hoosiers to reduce their energy consumption and thus the state’s overall energy load.

Indiana has spent an average of $4,185.59 per home through weatherization activities. From the beginning, Indiana chose to limit the average investment per home to $5,000 rather than the $6,500 allowed under ARRA guidelines. This determination was based on a study of Indiana’s historical weatherization performance which showed a reduced return on investment above $5,000. To maximize the total investment, Indiana decided to put the additional $1,500 toward the next home. As a result, Indiana will weatherize even more Hoosier households with recovery act dollars.

With a large number of additional trainings needed to meet demand and in order to fulfill the programmatic goals and timelines, IHCDA quickly realized that a reorganization of the traditional three week BPI training was needed. Therefore, IHCDA and their partners reconfigured the training into a comprehensive three day training for contractors held at several educational institutions including Ivy Tech and AC/C Tech. Another need for the new structure was that many of the contractors were not only new to weatherization, but federal programming in general. In addition to contractors, auditors completed a five week intensive course including classroom and field work conducted in partnership with the Indiana Community Action Association (INCAA).

Through the first quarter of 2011, IHCDA’s Home Energy Conservation Program has trained 2,450 contractors and 135 auditors.

Combining IHCDA’s planning and the hard work of the provider network, to date, Indiana is over 77% of the way towards their overall goal, having performed Home Energy Conservation activities on 15,957 of 20,678 units planned to be completed by the spring of 2012.

Program Highlight:

Each year, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels presents Governor’s Public Service Achievement Awards to state employees who stretch taxpayer dollars and save the state money. This year Chelsey Wininger, Paul Krievins, and Deb Hepler, of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA), were among the 85 state employees who received such an award from the Governor. They were nominated for their work in creating and implementing a centralized purchasing system for weatherization sub-grantees, which has saved the state more than $1.4 million dollars in materials to-date. The savings realized with the centralized purchasing system allowed sub-grantees to weatherize an additional 285 homes.

When Indiana was awarded $133 million through the federal stimulus program to weatherize homes, Governor Daniels charged IHCDA and the Department of Administration to use the state’s bulk buying power to secure aggressive prices on high-dollar, high-volume materials. The team devised a system by which steeply discounted furnaces and fiberglass insulation were held at a central location until a sub-grantee needed the products. This state-of-the-art supply chain solution ships the materials purchased by sub-grantees to all 92 counties within 24 hours of order placement and streamlines material tracking by providing real-time delivery information.

The $1.4 million saved through the centralized purchasing system was part of the more than $20 million saved by the other state employees honored with a Governor’s Public Service Achievement Award. IHCDA staff continues to value and embraces the culture of performance encouraged by IHCDA executives and the Governor.
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Georgia WAP Success Story

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:22:00 GMT

The State of Georgia’s Recovery Act Program is one of the best in the nation, with the majority of their agencies over 100% of production goals. Only a few of Georgia’s 21 agencies are below 60% of cumulative production goals, but move closer to being on target with each month. As of November 2010, the State completed 6,780 of a planned 13,871 units. This is no small feat for a Recovery Act program of $124,756,312 when typically funded around $2-3 million.

The ramp up was not always smooth, however. The State office took the lead in setting expectations that local agencies were to reach full production levels by February 2010. Georgia consulted with the local agencies to ensure they had fully estimated their need to ramp-up with hiring of crews and purchasing vehicles and equipment and to confirm network buy-in for the ramp up plan. They furthermore trained their agencies in project management, understanding that intake processing would be critical to meeting production goals.

The State office also tracked production by agency. After two full months of production, they were clearly able to identify CAAs struggling with ARRA. To assist these agencies reach their full potential, three members of GEFA’s staff traveled across the State to meet with each individually to assess what actions needed to be taken and to provide concrete recommendations. Agencies were obligated to respond with a timeline for increased production. Two months after full production, eight agencies were on this “watch-list”; after four months, only four remained.

Georgia devised a creative solutions to manage the remaining CAAs that had yet to reach full ARRA production. The State office initiated a mentoring program for two agencies whereby a neighboring, high production agency advised a struggling agency. The high performing agency spent time with the weatherization director training them on various areas – scheduling, procurement, or training. The mentoring agreement worked very well with one of these agencies and they are now meeting their production goals and did not face reallocation.

Another agency was recommended to increase client intake by double (due to a high deferral rate that was contributing to their lack of performance) and to also partner with other non-profits that had rehab programs in the county. This partnering would also reduce their deferral rate. The final recommendation was to join the Senior Housing Coalition – where agencies that provide services to seniors meet monthly, to increase further production. These measures along with increasing their work week saved the agency from reallocation.

Georgia is also working to train its crews and employees in technical, programmatic, and project management. SouthFace Institute has trained over 700 weatherization workers, significantly more than the 500 originally envisioned. The programmatic training involves technical assistance in the areas of processing monthly reports, and troubleshooting certain problem areas of the program, including how to handle customer service issues. The final approach is project and program management. Weatherization Directors needed assistance in coping with the increased capacity of the program due to ARRA. Management Trainings have included a best practices roundtable, outside presentations, presentations by high performing agencies, and fiscal management session.

When asked what tips of techniques were particularly useful, Kim Cameron noted it was important to use control measures to set standards. “Each agency understands that the State of Georgia is examined not just on their individual progress,” she stated about agency’s working together throughout the state to ensure high quality work. This “has created a sense of team amongst them, they don’t want to let each other down. Accountability is now to each other and not just to the State.” Kim also listed motivation and encouragement including awards for high performing agencies and individuals, as well as team as key ingredients for a good weatherization program. From their innovative approach to managing agencies to their continuing training for all employees and workers, Georgia is an example of a successful Weatherization Assistance Program.
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NYTimes takes on Home Energy Efficiency

Alice Gaston — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:23:00 GMT

The New York Times recently published an article on home energy efficiency. While most stories about cutting down utility bills merely tell you to caulk your windows and use more efficient light bulbs, this one delved far more deeply into the world of home energy efficiency measures used commonly in the Weatherization Assistance Program.

The author sought out home energy specialists who explained how a home breathes and provided some useful tips to homeowners on how they could find and seal the largest holes. The author also contacted his local utility company to conduct a home energy audit involving a blower door test to calculate the rate at which his home breathed.

It is encouraging that advanced energy efficiency techniques so commonly used in the WAP program like the blower door are making their way more into the mainstream home retrofit industry. This is a good first step towards a greater understanding that weatherization involves much more than caulk and new windows.

To view the original article, please click here.

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Weatherization Day 2010

Alice Gaston — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:30:00 GMT

The Department of Energy (DOE) officially declared October Energy Awareness Month. Weatherization Day, October 30th, is a culmination of the month’s activities meant to showcase the great work being done by the weatherization network across the country.

This year, Weatherization Day falls on a Saturday. States and local agencies are thus celebrating their Weatherization Day’s throughout the month of October in a variety of ways. Here is a glance at some of the activities planned this year:

Michigan kicked off the Weatherization Day festivities with a dual event on October 12 in Oakland and Livingston. Participants were able to witness a live energy audit, meeting the homeowners and learning how auditors assess homes.
Oregon is holding the next event on October 23rd in Hillsboro at the Community Action’s 8th Annual Energy Fair. Workshops are going to be held covering topics such as Safety Kid Training, Furnace Basics, Eating for Good Heath, and Mold Control in Your Home. The fair is open to all, with materials available in English and Spanish.
Georgia is celebrating their Weatherization Day by opening up a new Weatherization training Facility, the Southeast Weatherization & Energy Training (SWEET) Center on October 28th. Sponsored by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority of Southface, the theme of the event will be “Putting the Southeast Back to Work.” Participants will include State and local officials as well as over two hundred senior business leaders from across the region.
New Mexico will be highlighting the new focus on multifamily buildings for their Weatherization Day on October 28th. Participants will tour a 100 unit, multifamily project currently underway by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
Idaho is rounding out the week with an event on October 29th at a low-income senior living housing multifamily unit in Jerome. The South Central Community Action Partnership hosting the event invited their Governor along with state and local legislators to the event to a demonstration of diagnostic and insulation techniques.

This is just a sample of the many events being held across the country. If your state or local agency is holding an event, please let NASCSP know by sending an e-mail to Rebecca Stewart at rstewart@nascsp.org.

Keep up the great work and have a successful Weatherization Day!
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