Connecting with Community: Community Action of Greater Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Cold temperatures have returned to Central Indiana and so has the high price to keep your family warm. For low-income families, the increased winter heating bills strain monthly budgets. The stress is lessened thanks to Community Action of Greater Indianapolis’ Energy Assistance Program (EAP).

"When you're living on a limited income, if you don't have it, you don't have it,” says single mom Stacey Graves. She is one of more than 40,000 households in Marion, Boone, Hamilton and Hendricks counties enrolled in EAP.

“In the winter it’s colder, so it costs more to heat your house, so without the assistance from Community Action (CAGI) we could be sitting in the dark,” says Graves.

The EAP is designed to help defray heating costs during the winter and cooling costs during the summer. It works by adding a credit of up to $390 to your gas or electric account. Payments are directed straight from Community Action’s EAP to the utility company and shows up as a credit on your utility bill.

The program is available to families within 150 percent of poverty level , which equates to about $35,000 annual income for a family of four.

The funding stream for EAP also provides most of the dollars supporting CAGI’s Family Development Services and case management efforts.

"I would characterize this organization as one that is not an emergency service type organization,” says CAGI President Ed Tipton. “It is one that looks at the core needs of families, and it does what it can to help those families either be self-sufficient or self-reliant."

If you would like to enroll in the Energy Assistance Program, contact the organization online here .

To apply in person, the EAP provides application intake throughout the agency’s service area. EAP intake occurs at all of the five CAGI office locations:

• Meridian Street, Marion County
• 46th Street, Marion County
• Boone County
• Hamilton County
• Hendricks County

Satellite Sites: where applications are taken from the public at large:

• Martin Luther King Center
• Wayne Township Trustee
• Concord (Only take applications for their clients)
• Crooked Creek CDC
• CAFÉ (Community Alliance of the Far Eastside)
• Center Township Trustee
• CICOA (Only take applications for their current tenants)