Neighbors Helping Neighbors through NERP

Morehead Hill neighbors out canvassing

If you have been following Clean Energy Durham news, you’ve heard of the Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Program (NERP).  As a staff person at Clean Energy Durham I can’t overestimate how impressed I am with our neighborhood volunteers.  Many of these volunteers are putting in countless hours canvassing homes in their neighborhoods to find out which ones may qualify for energy efficiency upgrades funded in large part by the City of Durham.

Neighborhood volunteers have repeatedly gone above and beyond the call of duty to get their neighbors’ homes weatherized.  Many volunteers have canvassed countless hours in spite of the fact that their own homes don’t qualify for the program. While we only ask volunteers to visit a home once, they have taken it upon themselves to return 2 and 3 times to the homes of neighbors who were not home the first time.

In addition to getting neighbors signed up for the NERP, volunteers have gone out of their way to make sure lower income neighbors know about the more extensive weatherization program available to them through Operation Breakthrough.

Katherine, a canvasser in Trinity Park, has come across cases in which neighbors say they would be suspicious of a program like this if it weren’t for the neighbors they know promoting it.  So, she says, “Hooray for the neighborhood approach!”

Jenny