We believe every family should have a safe place to live. But some families barely make enough to afford food, let alone pay for crucial home repairs. Over time, these homes fall more and more into disrepair and become unsafe to live in. This can have a dramatic impact on the health of the residents. Your living environment is considered to be one of the social determinants of health.
Social determinants of health are factors of our physical, emotional and social environment that have key impacts on our health. In fact, 80% of our health outcomes are determined by where we live, work and play. For more than 50 years, community action agencies have provided a variety of programs and services which improve social determinants of health for low-income citizens. With investments from Duke Energy and BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, we offer the following home repair and weatherization programs: Healthy Homes Initiative, Duke Energy Helping Home Fund, and Duke Energy Weatherization Program.
Healthy Home Initiative
Most Americans spend nearly 60 percent of their time in their homes. As a result, the conditions of their homes play a vital role in their health. "Poor quality and inadequate housing contributes to health problems such as chronic diseases and injuries, and can have harmful effects on childhood development." Unfortunately, many of North Carolina's families are unable to afford the repairs and home safety updates necessary to protect their health.
Our Healthy Home Initiative, funded by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, provides families with the crucial home repairs that they need to improve their health. Through this program, NCCAA will help to remedy the unsuspecting causes of illnesses hidden in the homes of vulnerable North Carolinians across 94 counties. Each participant is eligible to receive up to $2,500 in home health and safety repairs.
More than 300,000 households in North Carolina are eligible to receive assistance through the Healthy Homes Initiative. This funding helps fill the gap that our other weatherization programs cannot cover such as installing fire alarms and CO2 detectors, replacing carpet with hard surface flooring, and removing mold.
Duke Energy Helping Home Fund
More than 700 income-qualified North Carolina families will save energy and money through free home energy makeovers provided by Duke Energy's Helping Home Fund. Households will receive energy-saving upgrades through a $2.5 million investment.
An energy assessment is conducted at each participant's home to determine which measures are most appropriate. In addition to the installation of energy-efficiency measures, customers also receive information on their home's energy use and strategies to reduce energy costs in the future.
"Helping our customers save energy and money is important to Duke Energy. For many of our low-income and elderly customers, energy-efficient appliances and technology are simply beyond their financial reach. The Helping Home Fund empowers customers to save energy by providing tools and upgrades that they otherwise might not be able to afford." David Fountain, Duke Energy's North Carolina President.
Duke Energy Weatherization Program
NCCAA has been selected to administer the Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) Income-Qualified Weatherization Program. This program reduces energy consumption for income-qualified customers by directly installing energy-efficient measures and providing education on energy efficiency.
The goal of the program is to provide comprehensive weatherization/efficiency measures to the greatest number of customers in the Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) service territory. Funds will be distributed to participating Service Providers involved in assisting income-qualified customers with energy efficiency.
The DEC Weatherization Program will provide funding to 40 North Carolina counties and 14 South Carolina counties.
Thanks to the investment of these programs, we are able to help hundreds of families live in safer, healthier homes.
Read some of our programs’ success stories here!
Want to Help People in Poverty?
Donate | We use your money to help run our programs, and provide training that helps organizations and individuals make their way to self-sufficiency. You can donate on our web page or find an agencies local to you.
Volunteer | We can’t do this alone. Join us! Find one of our agencies in your county and check out their website for volunteer opportunities.
Become a Member | Did you know you can become a Community Action Member? Membership provides discounted tickets to our various events, an inside look into our organization and more. Membership fees start at only $25 a year for an individual, or $300 for an agency.
Partner with Us | We are humbled by the many non-profit and for-profit organizations that partner with us to bring services, educations and events to North Carolina. If your organization is looking for a non-profit to partner with, please consider us. Email us at info@nccaa.net. We would love to hear from you!