Duke Energy Foundation supports resiliency and emergency response efforts with $523,000 in Florida grants | Duke Energy

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  Firm invests in 26 Florida-based organizations to strengthen emergency preparedness and catastrophe response efforts, amongst different initiatives together with variety, fairness and inclusion

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Duke Power Basis has awarded $523,000 in grants to assist a variety of emergency preparedness efforts, in addition to variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives all through Florida.

Of the 26 Florida-based organizations that obtained funding, many are amongst native emergency administration departments that present important info, assets and assist throughout main emergencies and disasters.

“As we proceed our efforts to enhance reliability and resiliency inside our personal operations, Duke Power Florida stays dedicated to investing within the organizations which can be important to our communities’ response and restoration efforts throughout a catastrophe,” stated Melissa Seixas, Duke Power Florida state president. “By supporting the organizations and the individuals who help our neighbors throughout troublesome instances, we’re serving to to make sure our communities stay secure, protected and ready.”

Over the previous 12 months and a half, native emergency administration departments all through the state have seen a rising want to offer neighborhood providers by way of drive-thru meals pantries, testing and vaccination websites, private protecting gear (PPE) distributions and extra.

This 12 months’s Duke Power Basis funding will enable Orange County’s Workplace of Emergency Administration to boost and develop these essential providers to extra areas, extra shortly.

“Orange County authorities has partnered with Duke Power Florida to construct a Group Resilience Pod to assist Duke Power clients and residents throughout outages, public emergencies and extreme climate days,” stated Lauraleigh Avery, Orange County Hearth Rescue, Workplace of Emergency Administration emergency supervisor. “This cell unit will improve and develop providers to extra residents in want by offering sufficient instruments and infrastructure to strengthen our neighborhood, advance prosperity and deal with poor financial circumstances and high quality of life points.”

The Duke Power Basis additionally continues its work to advance social justice and racial fairness. By means of long-standing relationships with native organizations, the corporate helps to make vital impacts throughout the state.

One instance of a company receiving assist in Florida to scale back disparate outcomes is Prospera, an financial improvement, nonprofit group specializing in offering bilingual help to Hispanic entrepreneurs making an attempt to determine or develop their enterprise.

“Duke Power’s invaluable and steady donations positively impression our applications and the underserved inhabitants we help in Florida,” stated Augusto Sanabria, Prospera president and chief government officer. “Prospera works year-round to empower Hispanic entrepreneurs with consulting, coaching, entry to capital and extra assets to assist them begin, maintain and develop companies. Small, minority-owned companies want our continued assist so extra people can present for his or her households and create jobs for others. Collectively, we will proceed growing prosperity and fairness in our communities.”

Duke Power will proceed to interact with native organizations and leaders to assist create long-term options to the social justice points our communities face. The corporate can be strengthening its inside variety and inclusion applications to foster higher consciousness, respect and inclusion.

This 12 months’s largest grants have been awarded to the next neighborhood organizations that make impactful contributions to the communities we serve.

Statewide

Florida State Parks Basis – $50,000. Florida State Parks Basis will replace its gear for the Florida Park Service Strike Crew, leading to a more practical emergency response.

Prospera – $50,000. Prospera’s program will work instantly with Hispanic-owned companies to change into extra economically resilient by forging sturdy enterprise continuity plans and monetary methods to recuperate and function with out interruption throughout future disasters.

Tampa Bay space

Academy Prep Facilities for Schooling – $15,000. The Academy Prep Heart of St. Petersburg program will enhance entry to academic alternatives and permit college students to interrupt the cycle of poverty by offering graduates with textbooks, tutoring, expertise, summer season programming, uniforms, charges for his or her registration and checks, faculty excursions, and extra.

Gulf Coast Jewish Household and Group Providers – $10,000. Gulf Coast Jewish Household and Group Providers will present meals and hygiene objects as a part of its “Totes for Hope” undertaking that helps its Group Help and Life Liaison (CALL) program purchasers who’re displaced. Funding can even assist alleviate vital shopper boundaries to stability, security and success.

Hernando County Emergency Administration – $17,000. The Hernando County Emergency Administration program will launch a multimedia marketing campaign concerning info on its hurricane and security expo and the most recent info on how one can put together for, reply to, recuperate from, and mitigate towards the prevalent hazards that face the neighborhood. This system can even present its first HERricane Summer season Camp, a five-day summer season camp for younger girls ages 13-17 to find out about emergency administration as a profession.

Pinellas County Emergency Administration – $58,000. The Pinellas County Emergency Administration program will set up kitchen gear in an current area on the Lealman Trade, which serves as an emergency shelter, to offer on-site feeding earlier than, throughout and after a storm for the county’s most susceptible communities.

Better Orlando space

Haines Metropolis Group Redevelopment Company – $10,000. Haines Metropolis Group Redevelopment Company will present numerous approaches to revitalize properties and communities and restore lives by collaborating with different authorities businesses and nonprofit organizations. Funds can even assist the  Residents First Initiative’s Secure At Dwelling Workshop Sequence that features emergency response and readiness and conservation subjects.

Highlands County Emergency Administration – $15,000. The Highlands County Emergency Administration program will present a collection of outreach occasions introduced in numerous platforms and mediums to assist educate residents on completely different preparedness methods to allow them to higher handle any kind of emergency.

Orange County Workplace of Emergency Administration – $78,000. Orange County’s Workplace of Emergency Administration will develop and deploy a 24-foot Group Resilience Pod. The pod shall be a first-of-its-kind cell unit, specializing in cell Wi-Fi sizzling spots, cooling areas, machine charging, meals/tarp/first-aid package distribution and offering clear consuming water. The pod can even provide training signage, immersive video and coaching to area people members.

Polk County Emergency Administration – $10,000. Polk County Emergency Administration will associate with the Metropolis of Auburndale to offer a Hurricane Expo for residents and put together Polk residents with catastrophe preparedness, fireplace security, 911 consciousness and different emergency management-related training.

Seminole County Emergency Administration – $30,000. Seminole County Emergency Administration will buy preparedness provides for its Emergency Operations Heart, in addition to develop a focused junk mail marketing campaign to advertise Alert Seminole/Reverse 911 alerts to susceptible populations.

United Arts of Central Florida – $50,000. United Arts of Central Florida will deal with the underrepresentation of individuals of colour within the arts in Central Florida by conducting focus teams to determine the boundaries to inclusion, present coaching and workshops to demystify the funding course of, and design funding applications to offer alternatives for native organizations.

Better Tallahassee; Gainesville space

Council of Tradition & Arts (COCA) – $10,000. The Council of Tradition & Arts program will enable COCA to instantly deal with a number of of the present wants of their faculties and neighborhood by making funding, assets and supplies extra accessible, and by fostering extra fairness, variety and neighborhood engagement of their faculty arts applications.

Household Promise of Gainesville – $5,000. Household Promise of Gainesville will present properties for 16 households per 12 months for a 90-day shelter program that features connection to advantages that enhance household self-sufficiency and scale back the trauma of homelessness.

Forgotten Coast en Plein Air – $20,000. Forgotten Coast en Plein Air will have interaction nontraditional “artwork occasion” populations to incorporate individuals of colour and useful resource challenged people who wrestle with multigenerational poverty in its 2022 occasion, emphasizing neighborhood discussions and consciousness surrounding variety, fairness and inclusion.

Franklin County Emergency Administration – $10,000. Franklin County Emergency Administration will assemble and distribute “Hurricane Preparedness Buckets” to susceptible populations in Franklin County. Buckets will embody survival provides and knowledge to extend the neighborhood’s potential to be resilient following a catastrophe.

Levy County Emergency Administration – $14,000. Levy County Emergency Administration will enhance the variety of residents who’ve entry to important emergency info by organising cell, programmable digital message kiosks in high-traffic areas to show vital preparedness info and submit catastrophe updates.

Madison County Emergency Administration – $10,000. Madison County Emergency Administration will buy a mass notification system for emergency alerts. The mass notification system shall be utilized for vital preparedness and response info to be distributed to residents shortly throughout catastrophe response and restoration.

Ocala Metro Chamber & Financial Partnership – $10,000. The Ocala Metro Chamber & Financial Partnership program will conduct an Ocala Metro Workforce Participation Survey in an effort to determine people not taking part within the workforce, determine boundaries to their getting into the workforce and start plans to deal with boundaries.

Wakulla County Emergency Administration – $10,000. Wakulla County Emergency Administration will enhance neighborhood resiliency and the aptitude to answer disasters by offering a preparedness occasion and equipping a Wakulla County Emergency Administration Group Emergency Response Crew (CERT) that may very well be utilized in public outreach and catastrophe occasions.

Duke Power Basis

The Duke Power Basis gives philanthropic assist to satisfy the wants of communities the place Duke Power clients stay and work. The Basis contributes greater than $30 million yearly in charitable items and is funded by Duke Power shareholder {dollars}. Extra details about the Basis and its Highly effective Communities program will be discovered at duke-energy.com/foundation.

Duke Power (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 firm headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one in all America’s largest power holding corporations. Its electrical utilities serve 7.9 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively personal 51,000 megawatts of power capability. Its pure fuel unit serves 1.6 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The corporate employs 27,500 individuals.

Duke Power is executing an aggressive clear power technique to create a better power future for its clients and communities – with objectives of at the least a 50% carbon discount by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The corporate is a prime U.S. renewable power supplier, on observe to personal or buy 16,000 megawatts of renewable power capability by 2025. The corporate is also investing in main electrical grid upgrades and expanded battery storage, and exploring zero-emitting energy era applied sciences similar to hydrogen and superior nuclear.

Duke Power was named to Fortune’s 2021 “World’s Most Admired Corporations” listing and Forbes’ “America’s Finest Employers” listing. Extra info is accessible at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center comprises information releases, reality sheets, pictures and movies. Duke Power’s illumination options tales about individuals, improvements, neighborhood subjects and environmental points. Observe Duke Power on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contact: Audrey Stasko

Cellphone: 315.877.3031