Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grants in Action
LAGRANGE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / November 19, 2025 / The Ray C. Anderson Foundation and the Ghanta Family Foundation recently visited with Groundswell in LaGrange, Georgia, located in Southwest Georgia, near the Alabama border.
The visit offered the local Groundswell team and the City of LaGrange an opportunity to reflect on the successes and lessons learned from their two year Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutons & Equity Grant awarded in 2024-25 for the Save On Utilities Long term (SOUL) program.
The SOUL program was piloted in LaGrange, and has now been implemented in other areas of Troup County with planned expansion into neighboring cities in Alabama.
Patrick Bowie, City Manager of LaGrange, joined Groundswell staff members and the funding team members at City Hall. He explained how the City and Groundswell worked together to create a model that allows local residents to take advantage of safety and weatherization upgrades in aging, energy burdened housing stock, improving energy affordability and building local resilience to extreme weather events.
Because the City of LaGrange owns its utilities, there is more leverage to help the senior citizens, disabled residents and other hardworking families facing high energy burdens. Many of the beneficiaries are retirees and hardworking families that have invested 30-40 years of their lives working in the textile industry that has long supported the local economy.
The City of LaGrange used Community Development funds as seed money, coupled with federal and state grants and the Drawdown Georgia grant to build on an existing program where qualified homeowners receive safety and weatherization services at no cost to them. They modeled the SOUL program after the Pay As You Save (PAYS) program which has been successful in Alabama.
Weatherization services average $12,000 to $15,000 per home, but the Groundswell team members estimate it has taken another $22,000 to $25,000 in stacked funds to retrofit several homes to a level that they can qualify for the weatherization upgrades. COVID posed issues in moving forward with retrofits and weatherization projects in 2020-21 due to the fact that many of the residents were immune compromised and the homes were not accessible during that timeframe.
During COVID, and still today, there has also been a shortage of certified, licensed retrofitters available to complete the necessary pre-weatherization work, and the contractors Groundswell has been able to hire are often based more than four hours from the job sites; a gap that highlights a future opportunity for workforce development in Troup County.
The City's utility team monitors data on SOUL homes' energy costs prior to and after the upgrades. The residents benefit from reduced energy costs and improved thermal comfort.
On average, the weatherized homes are seeing 30-40% savings on their electric bills," said Leon Childs, Southeast Community Engagement Associate for Groundswell, and City Councilor for LaGrange, District 2.
The City of LaGrange reinvests the "savings" for each retrofitted home back into the program so more homeowners can take part in the program. Over 100 homes have now been completed in LaGrange, Franklin, West Point, Hogansville and Pine Mountain, Georgia, as well as neighboring Lanett, Alabama. 100 more were planned in Alabama in 2026.
Childs noted that the most difficult part of the program has been the number of homes they've encountered that don't meet the minimum requirements to receive the weatherization upgrades.
"So many of the homes don't qualify because they need so many costly repairs before weatherization can begin," Childs said. "The weatherization funds are strictly for safety and energy efficiency upgrades. Holes in the roof, floors and walls, and the damage already done from water intrusion are not included, and we see a lot of that."
Initially, Groundswell was able to help homeowners apply for funding through other federal programs to stack with the weatherization grants, and address some of the repairs that weren't covered, but many of those additional funding sources have become unavailable due to federal directives from the current administration.
Childs says one of most important strategies for success has been that of trust, and it was clear that he has the trust of the people. As the funders joined him for a tour around town, people were constantly stopping him, often greeting him with smiles and handshakes, and lots of hugs and gratitude from homeowners for what has been received.
Home #1 (see picture above)
The first home on the tour was strictly focused on weatherization, with no additional retrofits. The home is 100 years old, and the homeowner received a new, energy efficient HVAC unit, weatherization around the windows, new ductwork in the crawlspace and some added insulation under two sinks.
Home #2 (see picture above)
This was a home where safety and comfort were the main drivers for the project. The house received a new roof, a new electrical panel and a new energy efficient HVAC system. The homeowner now has reassurance that their home will be cool during heat waves which are common in Southwest Georgia.
Groundswell team and Georgia funders on tour in LaGrange, GA
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SOURCE: Ray C. Anderson Foundation
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/groundswells-weatherization-program-helps-energy-burdened-reside-1104186