Grant program pilot improves community buildings in Southwest Virginia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2026
CONTACT
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (540) 798-6683, [email protected]
NORTON, Va. — Fifteen community facilities are receiving technical support and grant funding through the Southwest Virginia Building Upgrade Program in 2026. The pilot program is improving buildings to address health and safety concerns, increase energy efficiency and reduce energy bills for community-serving organizations across Southwest Virginia.
Awardees include local government facilities, small businesses, nonprofits and healthcare facilities providing meaningful services to their community. These community facilities are crucial resources for rural people throughout the year. Building UP is serving facilities that provide healthcare, food access, meeting spaces and other services available to community members.
“Energy cost is one of the main things that you consider when you are looking at places to either rent or own,” said Stephanie Strouth, founder of Anchoring Hope Counseling, whose business received $15,000 for air-sealing and heat pump upgrades during the pilot. “It’s one of the more major expenses you might run into. It’s really going to help our community. When people come here for therapy, they don’t want to freeze to death, and they also don’t want to burn up. So we’ll be able to regulate temperature more easily and not have to have as much back and forth.”
“Our facility’s energy cost is astronomical. We would love to do what we can to cut it down and do what we can to make it reasonable,” said Tony Lawson, manager of Lee Theatre in Pennington Gap.
The pilot program identified and is funding multiple energy-saving measures for the theater, including plugging holes in heating and cooling ducts, reducing air leakage around doors and managing humidity levels for better air quality.
Learn more at the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund website or by contacting SWVA Solar and Electrification Projects Manager Austin Counts at [email protected] or (276) 591-2175. If you are involved with a facility that could benefit from this program in the future, fill out our interest form.
The program is made possible in part by the American Made Buildings Upgrade Prize and the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund.
Photos are available on request.
ABOUT
Appalachian Voices: Appalachian Voices is a leading nonprofit advocate for a healthy environment and just economy in the Appalachian region, and a driving force in America’s shift from fossil fuels to a clean energy future.
Appalachian Solar Finance Fund: The Appalachian Solar Finance Fund is a regional financial and technical assistance program designed to catalyze renewable, efficient, and resilient energy projects in Central Appalachian communities. Appalachian Voices houses the program and serves as its fiscal sponsor.
