"WHEN THE FUTURE GETS DEFERRED"
- Earl Williams
- Sep 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 23
When the Future Gets Deferred: The Lost Opportunity of the EPA Community Change
Grant in Thomasville, GA
By DeBorah Warren
In community development, we often say progress takes time—but in addition, it also takes
funding. This past May, our community was dealt a heavy blow when the Environmental
Protection Agency formally rescinded the $19.8 million Community Change Grant (CCG)
award that the Thomasville Community Development Corporation (TCDC) and City of
Thomasville had partnered to win in a national competitive procurement process. On
August 31, I personally was dealt a heavy blow when my position as the Community
Resilience Director at TCDC ended because of the grant cancellation.
In this role, I’ve spent the past few months helping to design a future for Thomasville’s
traditional neighborhoods that centered on resilience, health, and economic equity.
“This grant was never just a line in the federal budget—it was a lifeline for our traditional
neighborhoods, places too often overlooked and under-resourced. It was hope for people
who have never been the problem yet continue to carry the weight of a problem they did not
create,” said TCDC Executive Director Earl Williams. “This grant represented a critical
opportunity to reverse generations of disinvestment and restore community-led resilience
in some of Thomasville’s oldest and most underserved neighborhoods.”
These areas—originally developed by freed slaves after the Civil War—were historically
neglected due to their location near the floodplain of Oquina Creek and proximity to
railroads, making them undesirable to residents at the time. Over the decades, that neglect
compounded into layers of environmental and health disparities.
Looking forward, climate change with projected hotter temperatures and more severe and
frequent storms threaten the long-term livability of our communities, unless we adapted
our existing home stock to protect us from climate change.
A Vision for Change That Now Goes Unfunded
The grant would have allowed us to begin addressing these deep-rooted challenges with
meaningful, community-centered solutions. Its cancellation will be felt for years to come. It
would have transformed the way Thomasville showed up for its most vulnerable residents,
trying to right wrongs that had been perpetuated for far too long.
Through the proposed Community Resilience Hub, we would have offered:
• A neighborhood-based federally qualified health center for low-income residents• Disaster Assistance & Recreation Activities Center offering disaster preparedness
workshops, emergency displacement assistance/resources, and a place for indoor
athletics
• The Business Accelerator would have given our local entrepreneurs—many of them
Black, brown, and women-owned businesses—access to shared workspaces,
coaching, capital-readiness programs, a Community Kitchen and microgrant
opportunities to scale their dreams.
• No cost energy-efficiency assessments and related home improvements to reduce
home energy bills
• No cost indoor air quality audits and upgrades to improve health outcomes, such as
diminished impacts from asthma (our traditional neighborhoods have among the
highest asthma rates in the country)
• A lawn care equipment trade-in program, so residents could trade in polluting gas
powered lawn care equipment for electric equipment to reduce the levels of
pollutants in our community.
• Training and certification to create a local workforce consisting of contractors who
could help keep our homes healthy and energy efficient
• New business opportunities that would create new jobs that would positively
impact Thomasville’s economy
What We Lost When the Grant Was Pulled
We lost more than buildings, job titles, or proposed programs. We lost the ability to create a
future different from our past and correct decades of environmental injustice, economic
exclusion, and neighborhood disinvestment.
By the end of the grant cycle, we projected that over 100 homes would be healthier and
safer. Dozens of small businesses would be thriving. Community members would have new
job skills. Public trust would be higher. A new chapter of hope would have been written and
disparities between neighborhoods due to decades of bias and discrimination would have
been shifted towards a balance.
Where Do We Go From Here?
While I am no longer in my formal role at TCDC, my commitment to the community of
Thomasville remains unchanged. We may have lost the EPA grant, but we have not lost our
vision. And we certainly have not lost our voice.
This is not a post of resignation—it is a post of reflection and re-commitment.
To my fellowchange makers, funders, and policymakers: when federal investments are promised and then revoked, communities suffer. Trust is broken. Plans collapse.
But resilience is not just what we hoped to build -it’s what we still embody.
“We will regroup. We will reimagine. And we will rise again, because our neighborhoods
deserve more than hope deferred. They deserve the future we were planning to build –
together,” said TCDC Executive Director, Earl Williams.
What can you do?
TCDC has critical operational funding gaps caused by the termination of this grant. Over
$90,000 was invested from our non-profit's operating budget to cover additional staffing
and project costs related to this grant.
If you are interested in partnering in this work, your tax-deductible contribution would help
TCDC continue this work to improve the quality of life and wealth creation opportunities in
these neighborhoods. Please visit TCDC’s https://www.thomasvillecdc.org/donate to donate and see more of the community impacting work being done.