Summer Workshop Experiences: Participants' Perspectives By Andrew Rosenthal

Each winter staff members from the Energy Coordinating Agency and Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Energy Centers teach dozens of energy conservation workshops around the city, all of which are funded by PGW. These workshops are funded by Philadelphia Gas Works and help residents learn strategies to reduce their utility bills. Between December 2020 and March 2021, the Energy Rights Project recruited people who attended these workshops to take an hour-long phone survey. We asked participants five questions about their workshop experience. The questions were:

1. If you attended the PGW workshop, what was the most helpful thing you learned?

2. Was most of the information new information, or did you know most of what the facilitator talked about?

3. On a scale from 1-5 (5 being excellent, 3 being good,and 1 being poor), how would you rate this workshop? Why?

4. Is there information that you wish was included in the workshop, but was not covered?

5. Did you have any questions afterwards?

Fifty-eight workshop participants answered this set of questions, out of the larger group of 83 respondents surveyed. Fewer participants answered these questions because this set of five were only added to the survey in January, after about two dozen people had already been surveyed.

Learning how to weatherize windows was one of the most helpful tips participants learned. Twenty-four out of 58 respondents (41.3%) reported that learning how to put plastic on their windows and caulk their windows was the biggest takeaway. Several participants stated that the demonstrations during the workshop were a huge benefit. Each workshop participant received a kit with caulk, plastic, a door sweep, and other materials after the workshop. The facilitator, B.J. McDuffie, showed how to do the caulking using the materials they received in their kit.

More than half of the participants we surveyed told us that the information they received at the workshop was new to them (thirty out of 58 respondents, or 55.6% of people surveyed). But even among those who reported that they knew much of the information, several said that the workshop was an important refresher: 

“I knew most of it, but you forget things. It's helpful to keep abreast each year. There is always something you add. Before you had to use a hair dryer to use the plastic, but not anymore. So many things have changed and it's a good thing.”

When workshop participants were asked to rate the workshop on a scale of 1-5 (five being excellent, three being good, and 1 being poor) the overwhelming majority of respondents found the workshop to be excellent. Forty respondents (72.7%) gave the workshop a 5/5. The most common reason for giving the workshop a 5 rating was that the facilitator, BJ McDuffie, was engaging and thorough. BJ is an energy consultant with the ECA and has been working for years to educate Philadelphians about energy conservation. She will also be the facilitator for our summer energy workshops. She teaches people how LED light bulbs can reduce their electric bill, how to save water with an aerator, how folks can save energy by unplugging devices not in use, and where to go if they need further assistance. All of this was conveyed to the audience in a way that was personable and entertaining.

Although most workshop participants did not have questions afterwards (49 out of the 58 respondents or 89.1%, said that everything they hoped would be covered was covered) a few people did ask the facilitator questions after. 

“Oh yeah I did. I talked to her about some things.You know I had to say something. She took her time and explained to me, and answered all my questions.”

Our findings indicate that NEC workshops offer valuable information to the community, and that the workshops are overwhelmingly positive for the community. 

In our fall newsletter, we will update these results with data collected at workshops between March and September 2021.

Quotes to include:

“When she was talking about conserving heat. The bleeding of the radiators, the caulking of the windows, about the plastic on the windows... a lot of what she said I had thought about but I didn't know about. She explained it all really well.”