A Letter of Thanksgiving

Every other Thursday, our team here at Groundswell gathers for Thankful Thursdays. We all join in and share one thing we’re each grateful for that week. Sometimes people give thanks for each other or for our partners or for provision, and sometimes it’s for health and family. One of the things that has struck me about our Thankful Thursdays this year is that, even in the midst of the hardest weeks, we have been overflowing with gratitude.

Good abounds. So, as we faced the headwinds out of Washington, we resolved to stand firm, move forward, and maintain momentum in service to our neighbors. And that’s what we did. Even after termination letters for $176 million in multi-year federal grant contracts, our work has been blessed.

On a personal level, as I have shared with you all before, my faith is the foundation of my work and my life. So from where I stand this year has been a demonstration of what it means to praise the Lord in the valleys as well as on the mountaintops. It has not been an easy year, but just look at the fruit of working from a posture of gratitude!

We have:

	Advanced the 30 MW of local community solar and energy storage projects we developed as a part of our SE Rural Power Program with new partners, because the people and places we serve need more local power and affordability.
	Completed our 119th home repair with energy efficiency, preserving people’s homes and cutting their electricity bills in Georgia and Alabama, because the rural housing crisis is inextricably intertwined with our nation’s energy crisis.
	Launched the Westside Resilience Corridor working alongside area churches in service to our neighbors in Southwest Atlanta, building new partnerships with organizations including Georgia Power and the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).
	Expanded our SolMate data platform with ethical AI to help more people enroll in energy efficiency programs to cut household bills and strengthen the grid.
	Welcomed 200 local leaders to Opelika, AL, for this year’s Rural Renaissance Roadshow, where unity, sovereignty and self-resilience, and shared goals of serve our neighbors were common themes.
	Built new partnerships, including with people and institutions we wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to know, as we reached out to build resilience.
	Shared the good news with hundreds of thousands of our neighbors through new media partnerships with local papers, local TV stations, and independent producers serving small towns and rural communities with locally grounded news.