PALMETTO, GA, January 6, 2023 – Coweta-Fayette EMC (CFEMC) completed a community project for local organization, Hope Revisited, as a part of CFEMC’s internal professional development program, VisionEMC.

VisionEMC participants constructed an outdoor meeting space for Hope Revisited, a local organization which aims to assist families in reconnecting in a safe and stable environment.

“For our class project, we built an outdoor space to help Hope Revisited reunite local families,” said Tamara Harmon, CFEMC employee and 2022 VisionEMC graduate. “The outdoor space is equipped with a swing set for both the children and adults, a pavilion with picnic tables, and a play area with a chalkboard and several other activities for them to play with outside.”

15 CFEMC employees, who made up the 2022 VisionEMC class, spent months developing the idea, raising funds to support the construction and maintenance costs, and building and implementing the project, which is now complete and open for use by the organization.

According to Jennifer Nolder, Hope Revisited’s President, everything at Hope Revisited was set up to mimic a home environment.

“This really gives some normalcy to those families as they’re reconnecting because what they learn here, they can take home so they can thrive and stabilize and remain as a family unit once they’re reconnected.”

The outdoor space will allow families whose children are in foster care or other domestic situations to have an additional space to use when conducting a family visitation other than a park or a fast-food restaurant.

“Before the project started, visits were limited to the inside of the building,” said Nolder. “Having the outdoor area allows our families to have a total experience. So, if it’s pretty outside, they can start with homework and then when they’re done, they can make their dinner and take it outside or before they start homework, they can go swing and have a little decompression time.”

Each year, VisionEMC participants develop and implement a community project as a part of completing the internal program, which allows participants to strengthen their sense of community and accountability. As a cooperative, one of CFEMC’s guiding principles is concern for the community.

“I’m proud of the VisionEMC class and the efforts they put into this project to make it a success. It’s really rewarding to see how they learned to work together as a team and came together to give back to the community,” said Chris Stephens, CFEMC’s President and CEO.

Coweta-Fayette EMC is a member-owned cooperative providing electricity and related services to over 80,000 consumers in Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Fulton, Heard, Meriwether, Spalding, and Troup counties.