From 5-7pm on June 17th, SAFE hosted an Energy Fair at Espacio in El Punto. SAFE is so grateful for the many organizations that co-hosted the event: the City of Salem, North Shore Community Development Coalition (NSCDC), El Punto Urban Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).
All In Energy joined us to provide bill check-ups and greet people at the doors and direct residents to other tables for support. We had HomeWorks to support residents in signing up for Mass Save, National Grid to support getting folks who qualify onto lower rates, and Mass Power Choice to get residents off predatory lending programs and onto Salem Power Choice. Salem Hospital had a community care van directly across from Espacio to provide routine health check-ups to support residents before the heatwave. Additionally, MassArt and El Punto Urban Art Museum shared renderings for a shade structure to be placed in the neighborhood where more shade is needed.
The fair was focused on spreading awareness about energy incentives and how to stay safe and cool this Summer. Thanks to deep outreach from the NSCDC, over 50 community members joined us in total! Residents received free cooling kits, containing a neck towel, a backpack, a personal fan, a reusable cold pack, and more. Everyone had fun socializing and having a full meal from the local Dominican restaurant, El Buen Sabor. At the closing of the event we held a raffle, which included an air conditioning unit provided by SAFE.
Community members receiving free cooling kits
Additionally, SAFE asked questions about transit and energy bills to better understand where residents of El Punto go during high heat events, and discover how much of the average resident’s income goes to energy bills currently. This is especially important as predatory energy companies appear to target El Punto, locking community members into contracts that increase in cost. If we improve energy literacy, we can hopefully protect residents from being exploited.
SAFE’s resource table
As community outreach was the primary goal of the event, every table had at least one Spanish speaking employee, aside from National Grid.. Most of the provided information about energy savings is inaccessible to residents that only fluently speak in Spanish, so our Energy Fair attempted to overcome those barriers with live interpretation.
During the event MassArt’s Community Build program shared and received community feedback on multiple possible designs for a shade structure that will be developed on Congress St. The graduate students in the program made posters about their proposed designs for the shade structure and invited residents to give feedback on sticky notes.
One of the student’s designs with feedback sticky-notes.
The students and professors from MassArt also talked with the community members about what the designs meant, where they might be built and they answered any questions they had. They also had one student who was able to translate into Spanish the posters and the conversations.
Participants were asked to place a sticker based on how prepared they feel to address extreme heat. The vast majority felt unprepared or were unsure.With this honest reflection and dialogue with residents, we recognize the need to continue our efforts and explore next steps.
Overall, the event was a success and is a step in the right direction for ensuring everyone in Salem has access to affordable energy. Alongside heat and energy related community outreach, SAFE has also hung 6 heat monitors across Salem, primarily in El Punto. Check out our page SAFE Installs Fifteen Air Quality Monitors Across Salem for more information on the locations and purpose of these monitors!
Once more, a huge thank you to all of our community partners for their efforts; the event would not have been possible without them.
Our work this Summer on high heat is generously funded by the Barr Foundation.
