SHREVEPORT, La., March 4, 2021 – The American Electric Power Foundation has announced four individual $10,000 grants to Arkansas nonprofit organizations providing critical services in areas served by Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO).

The AEP Foundation is funded by American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) and its utility operating units, including SWEPCO, which serves approximately 123,000 customers in Arkansas.

The organizations receiving grants are:

• Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Arkansas and Area Agency on Aging of Western Arkansas, $10,000 each, to deliver meals to homebound seniors and assist in transportation needs.
• Children’s Advocacy Center of Benton County, $10,000 for services, counseling and other support for children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse.
• Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, $10,000, to purchase meals for people facing food insecurity.

“We are pleased to present AEP Foundation grants to support the important work of these four organizations,” said Bradley Hardin, SWEPCO External Affairs and Government Affairs manager in Fayetteville. “They play an important role in serving the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens, especially during the pandemic.”

The Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Arkansas serves Benton, Carroll and Washington counties.

 “This grant has been made available to our Senior Centers at such a needed time,” said Brad Bailey, executive director. “The pandemic has forced the agency and our partner, Our Healthy Communities, to change our mode of operations. Serving our existing clients, expanding services to additional seniors in need and fundraising have all been challenging due to restrictions from the virus. We are grateful for the support from SWEPCO and the AEP Foundation for this grant.” 

The Area Agency of Western Arkansas serves Crawford, Logan, Polk, Scott and Sebastian counties.

“We are very appreciative of this grant. These funds will be used to assist with the home delivered meal programs in the area senior centers of the SWEPCO coverage area,” said CEO Jennifer Hallum. “We have selected those that are in the more rural areas that often have limited access to additional funding. The home delivered meal programs in these rural communities of Arkansas incur additional expenses and are daily faced with unique challenges in providing a hot meal to the homebound in need.”

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Benton County provides comprehensive advocacy support, forensic interviewing, forensic medical examinations and counseling to children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse and their families in Benton County, and additionally facilitates education to the community. The CAC is located in Little Flock with a new satellite facility in Gentry.

“This grant was so impactful because despite the national circumstances of a pandemic, which dramatically changed the way we must fundraise for our services, child abuse did not stop and our services were needed even more,” said Natalie Tibbs, executive director. “Over 90% of offenders to children are people known to that child, often living in the same home with them. Therefore, many children were sent home to quarantine with their abusers, and during situations of high stress, child abuse instances only increase. This support from the AEP Foundation helped make our essential services possible during a very stressful year.”

The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, based in Springdale, serves four Northwest Arkansas counties by providing an affordable and credible food source to partner agencies serving the hungry.

“We are so thankful for the generous grant from the AEP Foundation. It will help us provide up to 100,000 meals for food insecure residents,” said Kent Eikenberry, president and CEO. “2020 was an unprecedented year with the need skyrocketing because of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic fallout. This gift will go a long way in helping us serve the needs of our neighbors.”

The AEP Foundation focuses its support on education, from early childhood through higher education, and supporting those agencies that meet basic needs, such as emergency shelter, affordable housing and the elimination of hunger.

The AEP Foundation has provided nearly $4 million in emergency funds to support basic human needs – food, shelter and housing assistance – and other COVID-19 related emergencies across the AEP system.

The AEP Foundation is based in Columbus, Ohio.

About Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO)

SWEPCO, an American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) company, serves more than 543,000 customers in northwest and central Louisiana, northeast Texas and the Texas Panhandle, and western Arkansas. SWEPCO’s headquarters are in Shreveport, La. News releases and other information about SWEPCO can be found at SWEPCO.com. Connect with us at Facebook.com/SWEPCO, Twitter.com/SWEPCOnews, Instagram.com/swepco, Youtube.com/SWEPCOtv, LinkedIn.com/company/swepco and SWEPCOConnections.com.

About American Electric Power (AEP)

American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is focused on building a smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions to our customers. AEP’s approximately 17,000 employees operate and maintain the nation’s largest electricity transmission system and more than 221,000 miles of distribution lines to efficiently deliver safe, reliable power to nearly 5.5 million regulated customers in 11 states. AEP also is one of the nation’s largest electricity producers with approximately 30,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including more than 5,300 megawatts of renewable energy. AEP’s family of companies includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas and the Texas Panhandle). AEP also owns AEP Energy, AEP Energy Partners, AEP OnSite Partners, and AEP Renewables, which provide innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide. For more information, visit aep.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
SWEPCO Corporate Communications
Peter Main, 479-973-2526