OUC Drives Community Revitalization in the Empowerment Zone

At OUC, we’re more than just the hometown utility, we’re a committed community partner and leader. Our work in the community includes initiatives focused on economically disadvantaged areas throughout our service territory. One such area, which serves as the inaugural Empowerment Zone, is the 32805 ZIP code.

Multiple projects leveraging OUC resources and community partnerships are changing lives here, helping local residents reduce their utility bills, put healthy food on the table, find affordable healthcare, enhance reading skills, pursue worthwhile career opportunities and more.

These initiatives are resulting in significant improvements in the strategic pillars of education, health and wellness and sustainable housing.

Read on as we shine a spotlight on some of these successful programs, many of which feature OUC employee volunteers playing essential roles.

Trade Skills Training That Leads to Good-Paying Careers

“I learned electrical, plumbing, HVAC, rough carpentry, framing… things like that. One of my favorite parts was when we learned how to plumb the right way to put in a sink or toilet – that was pretty cool. If you want to be challenged and learn new things, this is the place to be.”

That’s Felesha Francis, speaking about the OUC-sponsored Pre-Apprenticeship Program, which trains local residents in trade skills like construction, plumbing, electrical and more and sets them up for well-paid careers. Program graduates – the third class, including Felesha, graduated in July – receive full-time job offers as apprentices with local employers.

Apprenticeships come with a commitment from their new bosses to continue their training, including classes at Orlando Technical College.

OUC’s sponsorship of the Pre-Apprenticeship Program covers tuition, supplies, and other program fees and costs. iBuild Central Florida, which is a nonprofit involved in workforce development, runs the classes. In addition to trade skills, students learn safety basics and workplace ethics, as well as communication and employability skills. Participants also receive mentoring and help with preparing for job interviews, among other important career competencies.

Literacy Programs for Adults and Kids

Reading is a fundamental part of learning. It can expand a person’s knowledge, vocabulary and communication skills. In short, it sets them up for a lifetime of success.

For this reason, OUC has been a key partner in the Little Free Library, which promotes literacy and reading by providing free books to residents of all ages.

“We hope to inspire anyone who passes by a Little Free Library to stop and borrow a book, read it, return it and get another one,” said Alandus Sims, OUC’s Project Manager of Strategic Community Partnerships, during the installation of a Free Little Library.

Each library resembles a miniature wooden house, set on a post, with two shelves inside. Anyone can borrow books or donate them. Libraries are located at the New Image Youth Center, Jackson Community Center, Shiloh Baptist Church and Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

Another program, Need to Read, encompasses a series of events aimed at empowering parents and fostering early childhood literacy, with multiple outreach events at child development centers in the Empowerment Zone. These events promote free literacy resources, share multisensory literacy activities, and distribute book bundles to attendees.

Affordable Housing Initiatives

One of the Empowerment Zone’s key pillars is affordable housing, which is especially important in this time of rising housing costs and increasing cost of living.

Working in partnership with the Central Florida Regional Housing Trust, OUC provides improvements to homes to help ease this stress and burden by helping reduce utility costs for low-income residents. This includes installing attic insulation, energy-efficient appliances, and more.  As Frank Wells, Chief Impact Officer of housd, the Central Florida Regional Housing Trust (CFRHT), put it:

“We’re concerned about the long-term affordability of housing in Orlando and Central Florida. OUC shares our values and really puts a focus on reliability and long-term sustainability, both environmentally and economically, making it a great partnership. OUC is our trusted partner in delivering solutions that help our residents lower their total cost of housing, and that’s crucially important.

Highlighting Potential Career Paths in the Utility Industry

The Pre-Apprenticeship Program is not the only initiative helping young people in the community find a worthwhile career path.

OUC partners with CareerSource Central Florida to show high school students potential career paths in a variety of industries, including the utility industry, by organizing tours of participating organizations and companies. This includes OUC, as well as other local companies or organizations such as Disney, Lockheed Martin and Orange County government.

During the most recent OUC visit, students invited by CareerSource visited OUC’s Water Quality Lab, Emerging Technologies department and Customer Service call center. OUC employees shared what they do on the job and explained the training and education needed for the role.

“Our goal is to expose our participants to a variety of careers and jobs at OUC to help them make informed decisions about their future job or career” said Aditta Riha, Program Manager with CareerSource Central Florida, after the event. “It’s one thing to read a job description and surf the internet but another to see, smell, breathe, hear and touch a work environment in person to help bring it to life and help make decisions.”

Enhancing Health and Wellness

Good health provides a foundation for a longer, happier and more successful life. And being proactive in addressing health and wellness issues helps prevent the development of serious – and expensive – health problems down the road. This can be a challenge for the low-income residents of the Empowerment Zone, many of whom are uninsured or underinsured.

The HEAL (Healthy Eating, Active Lifestyle) Program seeks to address this issue by encouraging health and wellness through a variety of activities for residents of all ages, including healthcare referrals and educational classes on topics like diabetes, nutrition and fitness. Participants also have access to healthy food from a community garden and microfarm.

The program a partnership between OUC and Shepherd’s Hope, an organization that provides free healthcare for those in need of medical services.

Bringing Healthy Food to the Community

Due to a lack of appropriate stores and markets, nutritious and affordable food is hard to find in economically disadvantaged areas like the Empowerment Zone. That makes this community what is known as a “food desert.”

Residents living in a food desert often depend on inexpensive meals from convenience stores or fast-food restaurants, which can be expensive and detrimental to their long-term health.

The still-in-development 4Roots Campus in the Packing District aims to counteract that by becoming a destination for healthy food options, with community gardens, a farmers’ market, a food forest and more. 4Roots is an initiative a nonprofit community alliance launched by John Rivers, founder and CEO of 4Rivers Restaurant Group.

OUC plans to install a nanogrid project on the site, which includes EV charging stations, a floating solar panel array to generate electricity and other sustainable features.