Current Projects
Summer 2019 – Summer 2020
"Wx Rx: Connecting Healthcare (Rx) with Weatherization (Wx)"
This project, funded by the Energy Foundation and the East Tennessee Foundation, seeks to create new approaches and a sustainable system for linking the healthcare and energy efficiency sectors in Knoxville to address housing issues that contribute to chronic respiratory illness for income-qualifying households. To do this, Three3, in partnership with the City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability, has convened key stakeholders across the city – from government officials and local community-based organizations to the public health and healthcare sectors. Transformative education across organizations will help to develop processes and protocols to refer patients from healthcare (Cherokee Health and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital) to Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee. Through this pilot, a small number of homes of patients with chronic (and uncontrolled) respiratory illness will receive a healthy homes assessment and will be weatherized. Three3 and study partners will assess the process and short-term health outcomes for patients whose homes were weatherized and the model’s impacts overall to ensure households that need a referral for healthy homes and weatherization services have access to any newly developed program with strong likelihood to produce meaningful outcomes.
"Wx Rx: Connecting Healthcare (Rx) with Weatherization (Wx)"
This project, funded by the Energy Foundation and the East Tennessee Foundation, seeks to create new approaches and a sustainable system for linking the healthcare and energy efficiency sectors in Knoxville to address housing issues that contribute to chronic respiratory illness for income-qualifying households. To do this, Three3, in partnership with the City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability, has convened key stakeholders across the city – from government officials and local community-based organizations to the public health and healthcare sectors. Transformative education across organizations will help to develop processes and protocols to refer patients from healthcare (Cherokee Health and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital) to Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee. Through this pilot, a small number of homes of patients with chronic (and uncontrolled) respiratory illness will receive a healthy homes assessment and will be weatherized. Three3 and study partners will assess the process and short-term health outcomes for patients whose homes were weatherized and the model’s impacts overall to ensure households that need a referral for healthy homes and weatherization services have access to any newly developed program with strong likelihood to produce meaningful outcomes.
Summer 2018 – Spring 2021
"Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Home Uplift Initiative Non-Energy Impact Study”
Three3 has been contracted by TVA to capture and estimate observed non-energy impacts (NEIs) stemming from their low-income weatherization initiative, Home Uplift, implemented in multiple metro areas across the Tennessee Valley. Three3 will use survey data to estimate select health and wellbeing, dwelling quality, and household economic outcomes to measure broader impacts, such as reduced energy burden and advancements in health equity. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental approach with both treatment (weatherized) and control (non-weatherized) group household to measure NEIs attributable to Home Uplift. Qualitative information is being collected through in-depth interviews with households participating in the Data With a Soul (DWaS) component of our evaluation. The DWaS project uses microdocs (short documentary films) to capture the human stories in response to observable changes in quality of life, thermal stress, indoor environmental quality, and energy burden as a result of Home Uplift.
"Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Home Uplift Initiative Non-Energy Impact Study”
Three3 has been contracted by TVA to capture and estimate observed non-energy impacts (NEIs) stemming from their low-income weatherization initiative, Home Uplift, implemented in multiple metro areas across the Tennessee Valley. Three3 will use survey data to estimate select health and wellbeing, dwelling quality, and household economic outcomes to measure broader impacts, such as reduced energy burden and advancements in health equity. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental approach with both treatment (weatherized) and control (non-weatherized) group household to measure NEIs attributable to Home Uplift. Qualitative information is being collected through in-depth interviews with households participating in the Data With a Soul (DWaS) component of our evaluation. The DWaS project uses microdocs (short documentary films) to capture the human stories in response to observable changes in quality of life, thermal stress, indoor environmental quality, and energy burden as a result of Home Uplift.
Phase I Planning Grant: October 2017– October 2018; Phase II Implementation Grant: October 2018 – October 2020
"Valuating the Health, Social, and Building Systems Resilience Benefits of
Weatherizing Affordable Multifamily Housing"
During Phase I of this collaborative planning grant, Three3 and numerous invited experts in the fields of housing, building systems, public health, social equity and community resilience, worked to develop robust and exploratory research designs to assess the health impacts and resilience benefits—both building systems and social resilience—of improving the energy-efficiency of affordable multifamily (MF) housing. Phase I concluded with identifying weatherization partners in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. for access to affordable housing and introductions to property owners and managers.
Phase II of this grant involves survey administration to residents of a large sample of multifamily buildings throughout the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. Through permission with property owners, managers provided access for the study team to conduct in-field visits to both deliver surveys to residents and to capture building characteristics. In-field staff also surveyed property managers to gain insights on observations of health and resilience status of building residents as well as the resilience of the building systems. We collected over 1900 Round 1 surveys across all research groups; Treatment group (pre-weatherization observations from residents in buildings scheduled for weatherization), Control group (observations from residents in buildings not scheduled for weatherization), and Comparison group (observations from residents in previously weatherized buildings). Round 2 of the grant, which includes administering the ~12-month follow up survey to households for both Treatment (weatherized building) and Control (non-weatherized) buildings was initiated Summer 2019. We plan to convene Phase I planning grant participants in Summer 2020 to review and provide feedback on study findings. This project is being supported by grants awarded by The JPB Foundation and eight utility companies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
"Valuating the Health, Social, and Building Systems Resilience Benefits of
Weatherizing Affordable Multifamily Housing"
During Phase I of this collaborative planning grant, Three3 and numerous invited experts in the fields of housing, building systems, public health, social equity and community resilience, worked to develop robust and exploratory research designs to assess the health impacts and resilience benefits—both building systems and social resilience—of improving the energy-efficiency of affordable multifamily (MF) housing. Phase I concluded with identifying weatherization partners in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. for access to affordable housing and introductions to property owners and managers.
Phase II of this grant involves survey administration to residents of a large sample of multifamily buildings throughout the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. Through permission with property owners, managers provided access for the study team to conduct in-field visits to both deliver surveys to residents and to capture building characteristics. In-field staff also surveyed property managers to gain insights on observations of health and resilience status of building residents as well as the resilience of the building systems. We collected over 1900 Round 1 surveys across all research groups; Treatment group (pre-weatherization observations from residents in buildings scheduled for weatherization), Control group (observations from residents in buildings not scheduled for weatherization), and Comparison group (observations from residents in previously weatherized buildings). Round 2 of the grant, which includes administering the ~12-month follow up survey to households for both Treatment (weatherized building) and Control (non-weatherized) buildings was initiated Summer 2019. We plan to convene Phase I planning grant participants in Summer 2020 to review and provide feedback on study findings. This project is being supported by grants awarded by The JPB Foundation and eight utility companies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
February 2017 – February 2020
Evidence for Action--Investigator-Initiated Research to Build a Culture of Health"
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) awarded $40 million to seven communities in their service territory in the Southeastern United States to implement an Extreme Energy Makeover (EEM) program, with the goal of improving the energy efficiency of homes inhabited by households of low socioeconomic status. Due to the increased attention to our non-energy impact research we have been conducting around the country, we were invited by TVA to submit a research design that would look beyond the energy savings and explore the health impacts of Knoxville's Extreme Energy Makeover (KEEM) program. Through this project we are: examining how the energy cost savings affect household budgets and expenditures on health and well-being; and, are creating a database of the characteristics, health impacts, and costs and savings of weatherization. The database and findings from the study will inform optimization of low-income energy efficiency and healthy housing programs, particularly in moderate and hot-humid climate zones. This project is being supported by a grant awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Click button below for more details on the grant and RWJF's Evidence for Action-Culture of Health program.
Evidence for Action--Investigator-Initiated Research to Build a Culture of Health"
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) awarded $40 million to seven communities in their service territory in the Southeastern United States to implement an Extreme Energy Makeover (EEM) program, with the goal of improving the energy efficiency of homes inhabited by households of low socioeconomic status. Due to the increased attention to our non-energy impact research we have been conducting around the country, we were invited by TVA to submit a research design that would look beyond the energy savings and explore the health impacts of Knoxville's Extreme Energy Makeover (KEEM) program. Through this project we are: examining how the energy cost savings affect household budgets and expenditures on health and well-being; and, are creating a database of the characteristics, health impacts, and costs and savings of weatherization. The database and findings from the study will inform optimization of low-income energy efficiency and healthy housing programs, particularly in moderate and hot-humid climate zones. This project is being supported by a grant awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Click button below for more details on the grant and RWJF's Evidence for Action-Culture of Health program.
Spring 2017 – Fall 2019
"Weatherization + Health Enhanced Program Impact Study"
"Weatherization + Health Enhanced Program Impact Study"
Three3 was contracted by the Opportunity Council, located in Bellingham, Washington, to assist in their efforts to define and optimize its Weatherization + Health program impact potential for “high utilization” recipients of the healthcare system. Three3 has transferred the management of this project from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the original approval was secured for Washington State Institutional Review Board (WSIRB) for accessing Medicaid records. Under a data sharing agreement with the Health Care Authority (HCA) in WA state, identifiable data was received to link participants in the Opportunity Council's Weatherization Plus Health programs to their Medicaid costs and claims data. Throughout the project, Three3 has worked closely with Opportunity Council as a study partner in the study design and in securing data.