Supporting Healthy Homes Across Delaware Starts with One Free Porch Light
Help Initiative Inc started with free porch and backyard lights, then built a Delaware healthy-housing approach around energy counseling, hazard assessments, and weatherization support. Its reported 2022 footprint reached 3,964 homes across 12 towns and cities.
Help Initiative offers free LED lighting through Lights-ON Delaware Strong and separate home assessments through Health-ON Delaware Strong. Bether Rojas, the organization’s chief operations officer, has worked in energy efficiency since 2015. Residents can also connect with home energy counseling and checkups.
Help Initiative began in 2016 with Lights-ON Delaware Strong.
For people looking to support healthy homes across Delaware, with statewide service for eligible Lewes residents, Help Initiative serves low-income Delaware residents and underserved communities statewide. Help Initiative Inc
How the lighting program connects to healthier homes
Help Initiative says Lights-ON can reduce household energy costs by up to 30%, while Windows-ON offers low-cost inserts that improve home comfort.
Health-ON Delaware Strong meets that reality with free home assessments using the HUD Healthy Homes Rating System, which identifies and prioritizes health and safety hazards in a household.
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In Dover, the documented next step was a Phase II campaign scheduled to cover 300 homes in Lincoln Park and the Restoring Central Dover area.
Where Lights-ON Delaware Strong has operated
Campaigns followed in Seaford. Later work reached Milford and Laurel before expanding elsewhere in Delaware; in 2022, Help Initiative reported providing free lighting at 3,964 homes across 12 towns and cities statewide. Help Initiative also reported crime reductions of as much as 10% in served neighborhoods.
How to support healthy homes in Lewes, DE
Help Initiative says donations fund free LED lighting for low-income households and the home services that support safer, more efficient living.
An LED porch light can mark the start of a larger home-safety intervention. Before giving, ask Help Initiative to report how many low-income homes the next installation serves and what changed in household energy costs, identified hazards, and neighborhood safety.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Help Initiative Inc do for Delaware homes?
- Help Initiative provides free LED porch and solar backyard lighting through Lights-ON Delaware Strong, plus energy counseling, weatherization-related support, and free Health-ON home assessments using the HUD Healthy Homes Rating System.
- How can a Delaware resident ask for help from Help Initiative?
- Residents can complete the organization’s online form or call 833-224-9220 or 302-597-9044, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., for qualification and program information.
- Where has Lights-ON Delaware Strong operated?
- Help Initiative serves low-income and underserved communities statewide. Its 2022 reporting says installations reached 3,964 homes across 12 Delaware towns and cities, and past campaigns included Dover, Seaford, Milford, Laurel, and Wilmington.
- Does Help Initiative offer free healthy-home assessments?
- Yes. Its Health-ON Delaware Strong program provides free home assessments using the HUD Healthy Homes Rating System to identify and prioritize health and safety hazards.
- What can a donation to Help Initiative fund?
- Help Initiative says gifts fund free LED lighting installations, home energy counseling and checkups, heating and weatherization services, and health and safety home assessments.
- helpinitiativede.org ↗
- Help Initiative Inc was established in Delaware in 2016 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving low-income communities statewide.
- The organization's Lights-ON Delaware Strong intervention uses higher-efficiency home lighting as part of an energy-efficiency and neighborhood-safety program.
- Help Initiative says the lighting intervention can reduce a household's energy costs by up to 30%.
- Its Health-ON Delaware Strong program provides free home assessments using the HUD Healthy Homes Rating System to identify health and safety hazards.
- helpinitiative.wpengine.com ↗
- A 2017 Phase II plan for the Lights-ON Dover Strong campaign called for lighting installations in 300 homes in Dover's Lincoln Park neighborhood.