NEON receives grant to provide low income households with heating oil

NORWALK, Conn. – South Norwalk’s anti-poverty agency will be able to give heating oil to low income households thanks to a successful grant application.

NEON (Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now) can provide 265 working families struggling to pay their winter heating bills with 100 gallons of heating oil, free of charge, with funding from the Boston-based Citizens Energy Corporation’s Oil Heat Program, a press release said. The value of the oil being offered through NEON’s Energy Assistance program is $107,590.

NEON Chief Operating Officer Chiquita Stephenson said she was grateful for the “generous assistance.”

“NEON is constantly seeking out partnerships with local and regional businesses and non-profit groups to provide critical assistance and services to the people we serve in the Greater Norwalk and Stamford communities,” she said in the release. “In the coming year our agency will double our efforts to initiate new relationships with the private sector and charitable organizations with the goal of fulfilling our mission and enhancing the many programs we operate.”

Citizens Energy, in partnership with CITGO, works with thousands of oil heat dealers and local fuel assistance agencies in 25 states to provide deliveries of home heating oil to those in need.

NEON’s Energy Assistance program helps income-eligible people stay warm through the winter by providing vendor payments for home heating, through an intake and assessment process.  Income guidelines for the program change yearly. For more information call NEON at (203) 663-7337.