Residential Energy Assistance Challenge Option (REACH) Program
The purpose of the REACH Program is to provide for the establishment of demonstration projects designed to determine ways to:
- minimize health and safety risks that results from high energy burdens on low-income Americans,
- prevent homelessness as a result of inability to pay energy bills,
- increase efficiency of energy usage by low-income households, and
- target energy assistance to individuals who are most in need.
REACH performance goals include:
- a reduction in the energy costs of participating households,
- an increase in the regularity of their home energy bill payments, and
- an increase in energy vendor contributions toward reducing the energy burdens of eligible households.
The program supports a limited number of innovative projects that demonstrate the long-term, cost-effectiveness of supplementing energy assistance payments with non-monetary benefits that increase the ability of low-income households to meet home energy costs a nd achieve energy self-sufficiency.
REACH funds are awarded on a competitive basis to LIHEAP grantees that submit qualifying plans for HHS approval. These plans attempt to approach the energy needs of low-income families within a holistic context of the economic, social, physical and environmental barriers to achieving energy self-sufficiency.
The program provides two types of awards:
- A three-year grant to States, the District of Columbia and Puerto
Rico to provide the time necessary for grantees to contract
with non-profits or community-based organizations to implement and
operate their projects. Additionally, the State grantee must hire
a third-party evaluator for the evaluation of such projects.
- Awards up to two years are made to Tribes//Tribal Organizations and some Insular Areas. However, Tribes/Tribal Organizations may administer their programs without sub-contracting or sub-granting to a non-profit or community-based organization. In addition, Tribes/Tribal Organizations are not required (as States) to conduct evaluations on the effectiveness of their project approaches, but they must describe and submit a report summarizing the indicators that will be used to measure whether their performance goals have been achieved.
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