Today at the weekly Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative meeting, the idea came up for us to start a non-profit that people could donate to in order to help get pellet stoves in the hands of LIHEAP recipients.
This rolls in with my idea for a church-based volunteer weatherization team. After talking with my dad this idea seems to be taking shape a bit more. There are plenty of guys from North Avenue Alliance who are pretty handy, and we could get CVOEO to host a training, and then go to people's houses, do an evaluation, and then send a team of people to do the work (caulking, insulating, etc.). Why not?
It could be like it's own organization like Care Net, or the Burlington Emergency Shelter, which both get support from area churches. They're inter-ecclesiastical and really they have to be because the scope of their work.
One thing though - I should check with Hal Colston (Good News Garage, and Neighbor Keepers) cause I think he may be starting a new fuel-based non-profit, so maybe he's already doing this stuff! :)
And to tie in something Hal taught me, if we did this weatherization volunteer program, I don't think it's enough to say, "here you go! welcome to fuel savings! Bye." The recipient needs to commit to give back somehow. Hopefully by reducing their consumption in some way. And if it were church people, perhaps the recipient could host a potluck where they bring nothing, but then the people who worked there could get to know the home owners.
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