After having her utilities disconnected, Donna Carpenter joined Community Organizing and Family Issues to fight for energy assistance

By Samantha Cabrera Friend

Donna Carpenter joined Community Organizing and Family Issues to fight for energy assistance. (Photo: Courtesy of COFI)

Englewood resident Donna Carpenter, 56, took an unexpected journey into advocacy. As a mother, grandmother, caregiver and all-around busy person, Carpenter went from being a Chicagoan impacted by utility disconnection to one affecting how the city and state handle public energy assistance. This involvement began locally, through the Illinois organization Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), where she helped to conduct a parent-to-parent survey, to research how friends, family and neighbors handle debt. COFI is known to empower parents—primarily mothers—by nurturing the individual voices of low-income and working-class families through leadership development and organizing.

After being the victim of several all too common, door-to-door energy bill scams disguised as assistance, Carpenter realized the need to educate the public about their utility bills and payment assistance options. She first heard about COFI through their affiliated parent-led organization, POWER-PAC Illinois, which stands for Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew Policy Action Council. After a number of thoughtful, encouraging invitations from POWER-PAC parent leaders at her child’s school, she finally agreed to attend one of their meetings, which changed the way she saw her life. 

“I went in and sat in the back of the room, wasn't talking, wasn't asking no questions, but they saw something in me, and they brought it out,” she says. “I've been speaking and letting my voice be heard ever since.”

Carpenter also campaigned for Senate Bill 0265, which was signed into law in July 2021. The bill expands the pool of Illinoisans who are able to access a program that can pay a monthly benefit toward utility costs, reduce overdue bills and ultimately help them get out of utility debt. 

Carpenter sat down with City Bureau to explain what working as a local parent leader feels like and what Chicagoans should be looking out for regarding their utility bills and services. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You’ve been a member of POWER-PAC since 2006. The program includes a growing community of parent advocates across the state. How common is the issue of utility debt in Chicago as compared to other cities?

They have these kinds of issues in East St. Louis and in Aurora, so that's why we all tend to come together as parent leaders, and we come together as one. That's why we gather resources, because utility debt is not just here in Chicago, it's all over. That's why we formed this group of POWER-PAC parents, so we all can come together and work on these issues. I think about us parents going down to Springfield and talking to legislators and our senator, letting them know this is not just happening here; it's happening everywhere. So we all, as parents, we go down and we let them know this is what we need for our community.

You conducted research on how friends, family and neighbors are handling debt in a parent-to-parent survey, which was part of a campaign called Stepping Out of Poverty (STOP). Did anything surprise you in this process?

That I wasn't by myself. I wasn't alone. What I went through, I don't want to see anybody else go through it. We recently went to a press conference [for the signing of Senate Bill 0265] with Governor JB Pritzker. He signed into law that they're gonna make utilities affordable, they're gonna make PIPP [Percentage of Income Payment Plan] and LIHEAP [Low Income Home Energy. Assistance Program] affordable and better for all Illinois residents. No matter what your status is, what color you is, whatever, you are eligible to apply for these resources. That's a good thing. If they can do that, we gonna be all right. Then we have to continue to make sure that they uphold their part. I've never really sat down and looked at my bills and read. I don't understand all of it, but now I know a little bit. I pay more attention to it now.

The STOP campaign research focused on mothers and grandmothers, and single mothers in particular, who often are greatly affected by debt. Is that what you've seen in your work?" 

It is the single mom that's struggling, honestly. It's some fathers out there as well, but I haven't run across [many]. It's mostly single moms in the Black and brown communities, and they're everywhere. I'm a single mom of five children and I raised them all by myself, without a father. It is pretty much the ladies that are really struggling. That's why I want to be so passionate, because I know it's us women that are going through it. I don't want to see my other sisters going through what I went through. So if there's any way that I can help the next sister, I will. I have my brothers as well, but I'm there for my sisters. 

You supported Senate Bill 0265, which brings further aid to Chicagoans through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). What made you testify in its favor last year?

I don't want to see no one else go through what I went through. This bill is gonna really help a lot of people. I have had friends in situations where they couldn't pay their bills or their bills are way off. This bill is gonna be a huge help to all Illinois families and it has been a long time coming. We deserve it. We should have had it. To be honest with you, energy should be free, but it's not.

I believe the reason utility companies treat people, their customers, like that, [poorly and with no sense of urgency] is because they know this is something that we need. We have to have heat. We can't stay here in the dark, with no heat. No. We wouldn't survive! They make it seem like it's OK, but it's not.

How would you describe Senate Bill 0265 to those who aren’t familiar with it?

I tell them this will help you get the resources you need when you’re behind on your utility bill, and this part will help you do such and such. And who to contact to correct problems with their bills.

At the end of July 2021, the governor officially signed Senate Bill 0265 into law. How does this win feel?

I feel so grateful and thankful to be able to even tell my story because it just feels good. We have to continue because the fight is not over. We have to continue to make sure that these things that we craft and that are signed into law, continue to go on and on and on until we just can't use them no more. We have to keep going and to let them [legislators] know: this is what we need. I want to continue to fight and continue to let them know and hear my voice.

What do you think community members should know in regards to utilities and utility debt?

Pay attention to their bills, that's really the key part of it. Learn to read your bills, and you will know if it's going up or down, if it ain't right, how it looks compared to the ones you had before. You have to pay attention and be aware of what's going on with your bills, and be able to reach out to people when you need help, because the help is there now.

This story is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read City Bureau’s guidelines here.

Support City Bureau’s community-centered reporting by becoming a City Bureau sustaining donor today.

To get twice-monthly emails including Chicago news and events, sign up for City Bureau’s Chicago newsletter.