We’re excited to announce the launch of The Groundswell Way podcast, a new series that explores what resilience means for communities across the country, and how neighbors are coming together to co-create solutions that work.
In our first episode, Spinning Plates in a Hurricane, host Matthew Wesley Williams, SVP for Community Development at Groundswell, takes us to the border region of West Georgia and East Alabama. It’s a place where small towns like LaGrange, West Point, Valley, and Lanett are working to overcome decades of disinvestment while facing the fresh challenge of losing $20 million in federal funding that had been set aside for home repairs and resilience hubs.
The episode opens with the voices of local mayors and residents who have already seen the impact of Groundswell’s partnerships. More than 100 homes in the area have been repaired and upgraded, helping seniors and families on fixed incomes lower their energy bills, improve safety, and live with dignity. For many, it has been life-changing. And with hundreds more families hoping for the same support, the loss of funding hit hard.
But as this episode makes clear, resilience is not just about withstanding storms or setbacks — it’s about coming together to imagine and build a better future.
To go deeper, Matthew sits down with Michelle Moore, CEO of Groundswell and author of Rural Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Hometowns Through Clean Power. Drawing on her roots in LaGrange, GA, and decades of leadership in sustainability and clean energy, Michelle reflects on the larger shifts underway in rural America. She highlights how resilience isn’t simply about technology or individual grit — it’s about community agency, shared care, and local leadership.
Together, Matthew and Michelle lift up three pillars of community resilience that Groundswell has seen again and again in our work:
- Access to critical resources and infrastructure
- Community connection and care
- Participation in local decision-making
These pillars, they remind us, aren’t built by chance or imposed from the outside. They emerge from the power of communities themselves, neighbors choosing to show up for one another, honoring the legacy of their elders, and making sure everyone has what they need to thrive.
As Saraya Chemaly writes in The Resilience Myth, resilience isn’t just about heroic endurance or going it alone. True resilience is rooted in interdependence, collective care, and the relationships that hold us together. That vision shines through in this episode, as we hear from local leaders who are making a way forward — even in the face of daunting challenges.
Episode 1 sets the tone for The Groundswell Way: widening the lens on what resilience really means, grounding it in local stories, and sparking imagination about what’s possible when communities build power together.
Listen to Spinning Plates in a Hurricane now, and subscribe to The Groundswell Way wherever you get your podcasts.
- Access to critical resources and infrastructure
- Community connection and care
- Participation in local decision-making