May Day Breakfast
On May 1, we joined with other members of the Worcester Community Labor Coalition for a May Day Breakfast with local and state policy makers. Each member presented our mission and our priorities for them to keep in mind and consider as they make decisions that will affect the residents of Worcester. A number of city and state officials, as well as candidates in the upcoming municipal elections were in attendance.
Deb delivered the following statement, which was co-written by the three Core members – herself, Jeuji, and Kwaku.
RENEW Worcester is a grassroots energy democracy organization and a CEC of Co-op Power, a regional consumer energy co-op. We believe solar energy projects that deliver green energy to the community can be planned, developed, and ultimately owned by the community. We’ve previously worked with an equity investor and Resonant Energy to install solar panels on The Mustard Seed Catholic Worker house, and seek opportunities to bring the benefits of solar energy to Worcester’s most under-resourced neighborhoods. We are looking for rooftops or parking lots in new developments and for developers with whom we can negotiate mutually beneficial leases.
We maintain a mailing list of more than 250 Worcester residents interested in our work. Our Core membership, however, has fluctuated because it consists mainly of volunteers. Recently, we’ve received funding to compensate team members who are willing to learn enough about community owned solar projects to be in conversation with contractors and consultants around the policy, legal, technical, and financial issues involved, and will be kicking off our campaign to move community-owned solar projects ahead with an event at The Village on May 16.
We are members of the Worcester Community Labor Coalition becaise we believe that all workers deserve living wage jobs and safe working conditions. Our projects will include on-ramps to jobs in the green energy sector. Our goal is to connect our members to career ladders. Our dream is to form a worker-owned solar energy co-operative like the Boston Solar Co-op, which has been supporting us.
We also recognize that workers include homemakers, caregivers, and volunteers, whose work is unpaid, invisible, and taken for granted, yet is the backbone of our economy. We believe that their voices and needs should be heard and respected when making decisions that affect them,
