Stimulus Funds set to triple Agency’s Weatherization Program

Posted May 15th, 2009

LEADS is set to receive $2.3 million over the next 2 years in stimulus funds to expand weatherization and energy efficiency programs. The program will help over 200 families and individuals, as well as create jobs in Licking County.

The goal of LEADS Community Action Agency is to provide people with hope to improve their economic situation. The struggles of poverty on a family and the elderly can be devastating — it is hard to seek to improve your life when you are worried about not being able to afford heat, clothing, or food. The weatherization program at LEADS, as well as LEADS Head Start preschool program, home repair, affordable housing, food banks and clothes closets, seeks to help people improve their lives by giving them support, hope and meeting basic needs such as a safe place to live. LEADS empowers people not to stay in the cycle of poverty, but the motivation to get out of it, and in turn help others. Community Action is about alleviating the effects of poverty to better individuals, families and the entire community.

In today’s economic storm, LEADS can offer a hand up to help people get back on their feet.

From the Newark Advocate:

What LEADS customer had to say:

“I was surprised when they told me I could be eligible for a whole new furnace,” said Denna Lane, of Newark. “Last year, I almost lost my home. I couldn’t afford a new furnace.”

What LEADS new weatherization employee had to say:

Mike Hayes, a local resident and a recent hire, said he has worked in the heating and cooling industry for more than a decade but was unemployed when he got the job at LEADS.

“I was laid off from several jobs last year because there just wasn’t enough work,” he said.

But since he began his new job, the benefits and stability it affords has built him up, he said.