Dismantling Energy Inequity in Communities of Color
The Dismantling Energy Inequity in Communities of Color (DEICC) project works to build and improve energy equity in historically-divested communities.
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Across the United States, communities of color are navigating rising energy costs, aging infrastructure, and increasing climate impacts. Power outages, flooding, extreme heat, and winter storms disrupt daily life and too often, the communities facing the greatestwe economic pressures are hit first and hardest.
Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) launched the Dismantling Energy Inequity in Communities of Color (DEICC) initiative to change that reality.
Over 18 months, with funding from the Tides Foundation and resources from Wells Fargo Foundation, we partnered with 10 communities of color to co-create solar-powered community resilience hubs, trusted neighborhood spaces designed to keep people safe, connected, and supported before, during, and after climate disruptions.
What Is a Community Resilience Hub?
A community resilience hub is more than a building. It is a locally anchored, equitably designed gathering place that strengthens community resilience year-round.
Resilience hubs:
- Coordinate trusted communication during emergencies
- Provide social and educational programming
- Distribute essential resources
- Reduce carbon pollution through clean energy upgrades
Most hubs developed through DEICC are powered by solar energy with battery storage. This clean energy backbone reduces greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring the facility can operate when the grid goes down.
From Climate Risk to Community Readiness
Solar-powered resilience hubs serve as:
- Cooling centers during extreme heat
- Warming shelters during winter storms
- Temporary refuge during flooding and extended power outages
In neighborhoods where housing is often energy-inefficient and utility burdens are high, these hubs offer more than emergency relief, they offer stability, dignity, and local control.
Our Impact
DEICC By the Numbers
10 Organizations Supported
ISC partners with 10 community-based organizations led by people of color to advance the planning and implementation of solar-powered resilience hubs.
43 Training Sessions
ISC provided partners with practical skills, technical guidance, and peer learning opportunities to strengthen their projects through multiple trainings and workshops.
8 Resources Developed
ISC created and shared eight tools, resources, and curricula to support partners in designing, implementing and sustaining resilience hub initiatives.
20 CBOs Climate Equipped
Through networking and connections, 20 community-based organizations received the knowledge and tools necessary to strengthen local climate resilience.
13 Initiatives Created
Partners advanced 13 community-driven initiatives and policies supporting clean energy access, community resilience, and climate preparedness.
“The ISC-PRC partnership has supported organizing around resilience as well as the pivots we had to make during and after the pandemic. This partnership has honored the relationship-building across community members to build the trust needed for successful resilience hub creation and deployment. The ISC-PRC gatherings helped us learn from other organizations developing hubs in their own contexts, providing inspirational examples to us. This partnership also provided helpful technical assistance – from the goal setting and design phase (when we needed technical language to launch a solar energy system for the community) to the added capacity for storytelling and model-building.”
– Asian Pacific Environmental Network
“The DEICC project is really the heart of where we need to be because we don’t have staff that is steeped in environmentalism or clean energy technologies, so we need the guidance; we need the technical assistance that the organization and the project itself bring to us. We really couldn’t do it without this organization supporting us.”
Kimberly T. Henderson, President & CEO, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida
Objectives
DEUCC was designed to support community-based organizations at one of the following phases of solar resilience hub development:
- Building Acquisition or Retrofit
- Supporting the purchase or retrofit of facilities that would serve as community resilience hubs.
- Solar and Storage Feasibility Assessment
- Providing resources for feasibility studies to evaluate solar installation, battery storage needs, and overall system design.
- Implementation and Financing Readiness
- Advancing projects that had completed feasibility studies but required support to install solar panels, secure battery storage, and identify viable financing pathways.
Through this phased approach, DEICC helped communities move from vision to implementation—strengthening local leadership and accelerating practical, clean energy solutions.
What We Do
Hands-On Technical Assistance
Our team provides hands-on support for feasibility studies, system design, financing, and solar resilience hub implementation.
Strengthening Local Leadership
We work alongside leaders and organizations to build the systems, skills, and resources they need to lead and sustain clean energy projects.
Peer Learning & Collective Problem-Solving
We bring partners together with other ISC cohorts and each other to share lessons, solve challenges, and strengthen collective impact.
Connecting Communities to Opportunity
We connect DEICC partners with funders, experts, and peers to expand resources and opportunity.