Community Action Works
Community Action Works

Partnering with experienced organizers for solutions in Holyoke, MA

People are rarely taught how to put together a winning action plan. Even experienced community leaders often need support to ensure they’re taking the most strategic approach. That’s why we partnered with the powerful organization Neighbor to Neighbor, who had run many successful campaigns before, but never one for clean energy.

We worked with Neighbor to Neighbor to retire a coal plant in Holyoke, MA, which was making people in the neighboring Latinx community sick. But we recognized that closing the plant wasn’t enough—the city needed to be made whole with the good jobs the community wanted.

Community leaders celebrate as Holyoke goes from Coal to Sol.

So we decided to work together on a campaign that centered working people, and we won job training, retirement packages, and a new clean energy facility in Holyoke, in addition to the closure of the coal-fired power plant.

In 2016, we celebrated with Neighbor to Neighbor as ground broke on a new solar farm in Holyoke, MA at the site of the former coal-fired power plant.