United Teen Equality Center Awarded Funds via Patrick-Murray Recovery Plan

18th March 2010

BOSTON - As part of the Patrick-Murray Administration's Massachusetts Recovery Plan, Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian Bowles today announced that 11 projects will share $16.25 million in federal stimulus funding to demonstrate innovative ways of achieving dramatic energy savings in buildings across the Commonwealth.

A Request for Responses (RFR) issued by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) last fall for $15 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding opened a floodgate of innovation - yielding 114 proposals worth over $250 million in requested project costs. After evaluating the proposals, DOER increased the pool of funding to $16.25 million to accommodate more projects. The 11 selected won approval based on their ability to create jobs, leverage cost sharing, and achieve scalable and dramatic improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings across the Commonwealth.

Among those selected:

Lowell - United Teen Equality Center: $1.9 million
Founded in 1999 as a positive response to local gang violence, United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) is a youth-led agency that blends a drop-in, safe-haven center with more structured workforce development and educational programming. UTEC serves nearly 2,000 young people in Lowell annually. The organization's proposal for a Deep Energy Retrofit combines building envelope treatment with passive heating and cooling techniques, which will condition the center with little to no support from mechanical systems. The result will be a model retrofit and demonstration of passive space conditioning, which also creates jobs and provides long-term energy savings for UTEC, as well as new and expanded opportunities for youth in Lowell.

Start Date: April 2010

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