In Atlanta’s Cascade neighborhood, a Black church has operated a community center next door for decades. The recently renovated space is simple inside — white walls and gray carpet — but that’s where the magic happens. There, the congregation runs a weekly food pantry where they feed up to 400 predominantly Black families a week. Now, with financial help from the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law passed by Democrats during the Biden administration, the church is offering even more services — by making the center the first community-owned resiliency hub in the city.
The Vicars Community Center, which held its ribbon-cutting ceremony in July, is outfitted with solar panels and battery storage that can provide enough energy to power the building for three days should there be a blackout and no sunlight. The center is prepared to serve as an emergency shelter for locals in the face of a power outage. In the era of fossil fuel-powered hurricanes and heat waves, frontline community members need a safe place to turn when the lights go out.
“It really fit into what we’re already trying to do,” said Pastor Kevin Earley of Community Church Atlanta, which worked with the clean energy nonprofit Groundswell to develop the resiliency hub in its community center. “We want to be the place that people turn to in the good times and the bad.”
From 2000 to 2023, extreme weather caused 80% of power outages, according to the research and communications group Climate Central. Just last September, Hurricane Helene knocked out power for some 5.5 million people in the Southeast and Midwest. Some families were left in the dark for three weeks.
