Portland’s Non-Profit Job Creator

Community Energy Project doubles its impact

Crew members from Portland’s Community Energy Project outside the non-profit’s headquarters on Northeast Alberta Street. Pictured are Wai Ming Tang (from left), Josiah Broomfield, Brian McVay, Rosalie Gordon, and Ryan Cruse .

The Community Energy Project has shown that it’s possible to create jobs, even in a nationwide recession.

Known most for their free weatherization workshops and window kits, the Portland non-profit provides lead poisoning prevention services and home repairs for seniors and people with disabilities.

With 32 years of experience in the weatherization world, Community Energy Project naturally stepped into the home performance business, delivering large-scale energy upgrades to people looking for to make to their homes safer and more efficient.

The expanded services support CEP’s free programs while strengthening local women and minority owned businesses with contracting jobs.

With the potential help from two foundations, company officials expect to not only stabilize a dozen jobs already in existence, but also create five more jobs this year, increasing CEP’s size by nearly 50 percent while providing hands-on training to traditionally disadvantaged populations through partnerships with organizations like Constructing Hope.

CEP will hire local businesses for some of the work, prioritizing women and minority-owned companies like Boanerges Group.

Rosalie Gordon, an AmeriCorps member for the Community Energy Project, trains Jeremy Toews, a student intern from the Oregon Institute of Technology, on how to use a blower to test a door for proper weatherization.

CEP’s free services have been shrinking for years as government grants become less stable. This year CEP will provide weatherization workshops and supplies to 685 households, a drastic reduction from the 1,200 they served in 2009.

Community Home Performance has the potential to bring those numbers back up, as well as preserve services for seniors and people with disabilities, officials said.

CEP’s priority is to connect people with smaller budgets to energy and home health upgrades, something unusual in that field. By collaborating with homeowners and businesses to plan long-term, clients guide the work according to their priorities and particular family needs.

For more information, call 503-284-6827 or visit CEP’s website atcommunityenergyproject.org. CEP is located at 422 N.E. Alberta St.