Serenity House is a North Philadelphia nonprofit community outreach center and a mission of Arch Street United Methodist Church. Serenity House plays an integral role in the North Philadelphia community, providing men’s and women’s support groups, a community garden, movie screenings, and public events such as an annual Mother’s Day Celebration.

Serenity House is a community outreach center of Arch Street United Methodist Church, based in North Philadelphia, a low-income community of color. Serenity House is a welcoming nonprofit that plays an important role in the community. One of the projects rooted at Serenity House is called Serenity Soular, which aims to build the green economy in North Philadelphia and train residents for jobs in the solar industry. 

Community Collaboration for Solar 

For this project, Serenity Soular brought together a diverse group of people and institutions around the common goal of supporting a thriving and sustainable community in North Philadelphia. This installation involved many community partners including Serenity Soular, which is composed of students and faculty from Swarthmore College alongside North Philadelphia residents, RE-volv Solar Ambassadors at Swarthmore College, RE-volv, and Solar States, a North Philadelphia solar company with an educational mission. 

Serenity Soular supported two neighborhood residents with stipends to shadow Serenity House’s solar installation, an experience that could launch these residents into careers in the green economy! John Bowie, a local Community Social Activist says, “We are asking the young people in the community to just say no, without giving them something to say yes to. This is something that they can say yes to. By giving them an opportunity to see new technology that helps the environment, that offers the opportunity for jobs in the future.” 

Community Funded Renewable Energy for Serenity House 

Serenity House was RE-volv’s fourth nonprofit solar installation that was installed in January 2017! Through a crowdfunding campaign, generous donors from across the country donated to raise the up-front capital needed to bring solar to Serenity House. Thanks to the generosity of the 11th Hour Project, all donations for this campaign were matched, allowing us to hit our goal and bring solar to Serenity House!

By going solar with RE-volv Serenity House was able to go solar for $0 down, which allowed Serenity House to continue to use their resources to support their community-serving programs. Over the life of the system, Serenity House will save over $21,000, which they can use to support their community-serving programs. Through a 20-year Solar Lease, each month Serenity House will pay back RE-volv for the cost of their solar system. These monthly payments will be put into RE-volv’s Solar Seed Fund, a revolving fund for solar used to bring solar to more nonprofits across the country!