Clean Corners…Bright Hopes crew members pose with BPD officers who work in the area of Melnea Cass and Massachusetts Ave.
Project Place is proud to announce that Clean Corners…Bright Hopes, its facilities maintenance social enterprise program, has significantly expanded its business with three new fee-for-service contracts with the city of Boston and Boston University; Washington Gateway Main Street; and the Chinatown Main Street Association.
Clean Corners will maintain the neighborhood of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Mass Ave. for the city of Boston and Boston University. Clean Corners will also provide routine outdoor cleaning for Washington Main Street and the Chinatown Neighborhood Association. Services include picking up and bagging trash along sidewalks and gutters; removing posters from light poles; caring for planters, and cleaning the city’s “Big Belly” trash containers. Additionally, members of the Clean Corners crew working in the Melnea Cass Boulevard neighborhood have received specialized training so that they may also contribute to the City of Boston’s outreach to vulnerable residents of the neighborhood. They have been trained in basic first aid and how to administer Narcan to reverse opioid overdoses, as well as how to field the numerous requests for assistance that they are receiving from area residents.
“Clean Corners is a great option for urban communities that want to keep their neighborhoods and business districts clean,” said Suzanne Kenney, Executive Director of Project Place. “But much more impressive is Clean Corners’ record of helping clients become self-sufficient by teaching them skills through on-the-job training that they can use to obtain mainstream employment.”
Clean Corners is an economic development initiative created in response to the immense challenges involved with assisting people who are homeless achieve self-sufficiency. In addition to job training, Clean Corners employees have access to support services that help them maintain a professional work schedule. They receive intense training and are a highly visible, positive presence in the neighborhoods they serve. They are paid hourly, and graduate from Clean Corners with skills that transfer directly to a variety of industries, including custodial services, facilities maintenance, waste management, and landscaping.
Project Place clients who participate in Clean Corners are paid hourly and graduate with skills that transfer directly to a variety of industries, including custodial services, facilities maintenance, waste management, and landscaping. They wear uniforms and are a highly visible, highly trained positive presence in the neighborhoods they serve.
Other Clean Corners clients have included the Boston Red Sox, City Year, Cristo Rey School, and the New England Holocaust Memorial/Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Clean Corners crew members pick up trash near a person sleeping on the street