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 Economic Opportunity Studies (EOS) in Washington, DC has been awarded a grant from the Department of Energy to deliver the Recovery Act Weatherization Leveraged Partnerships and Performance Assistance Project. The funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) resources will allow EOS to deliver two related projects, providing services to the nationwide network of agencies delivering the Weatherization Assistance Program (W.A.P.).
The first component – The Weatherization Leveraged Partnerships Project – provides the network with training and resources for forming partnerships that tap (or "leverage") funding from non-federal sources to coordinate with federal funds. The second – The Local Weatherization ARRA Performance Assistance Project – assists the local agencies in their rapid expansion of services as they manage the expanded federal investment in the W.A.P. program from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
EOS is recruiting two full-time staff professionals (see the job descriptions) and will also work closely with many state Weatherization Associations by funding specific research and communications activities related to the Project’s goals.
I. The Weatherization Leveraged Partnerships Project
The goals of the Weatherization Leveraging Partnerships Project are:
- To offer the tools, assistance, and information that leaders of local, statewide and regional Weatherization network agencies need to attract non-federal capital to their Weatherization programs and to maintain the new partnerships;
- To facilitate and foster communications between network agencies and potential investors by:
- Providing tools and technical assistance that help local and state network leaders recognize and act on emerging opportunities for new Weatherization investments and/or to strengthen their existing leveraged projects;
- Developing linkages to other national networks or industry groups that may have an interest in promoting residential energy efficiency; and
- Serving as a surrogate staff for entrepreneurial Weatherization state and local managers offering individualized technical assistance when opportunities arise;
- To develop and disseminate information about the potential market value of Weatherization Plus investments in various markets;
- To produce decision-making or advocacy/presentation tools for accurate local Weatherization advocates’ presentations, from regulatory presentations to technical and quantitative analysis; and
- To provide accessible common tools through the Project’s web-based compilation of leveraging information (Weatherizationplus.org will continue to be a hub for busy Weatherization leaders seeking ideas and evidence-based analysis about leveraged resources).
II. The Local Weatherization ARRA Performance Assistance Project
The goals of the Local Weatherization ARRA Performance Assistance Project are:
- To identify opportunities for enhancing Weatherization delivery by conducting sustained outreach to local Weatherization delivery agencies and engaging them in voluntary, qualitative analysis of their programs, including barriers to their progress, and new expansion opportunities;
- To identify solutions adopted by Weatherizers or their peers in similar projects and create materials and other resources that can be used by Weatherization providers and their partners to expand their capacity for delivering excellent efficiency services;
- To identify promising practices in local W.A.P. management of training, service delivery, expansion and partnership development and to assist in replicating such promising practices by providing tools, operational analysis, linkages to experts and by assisting innovative Weatherizers through the development phases;
- To provide resources integrated from multiple sources in formats that are useful for Weatherizers as they design effective program elements and approaches;
- To organize and facilitate exchanges of information about promising practices and innovations among local and state Weatherization networks based on specific common interests; and
- To track emerging innovations in the W.A.P., as well as other initiatives that deliver residential efficiency services, clean energy, and sustainable low-income community development.
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