UPLIFT! Trash Collect/Neighborhood Cleanup Program

The UPLIFT! Trash collection/neighborhood cleanup program will be the entry point for homeless persons seeking to move towards employment. Participants will be provided a sack lunch, and will be taken by van to the various work locations around the city. Cleanup crew members will collect and remove trash from contracted areas then bring it back to the warehouse where it will be further processed by removing recyclables from the garbage.

Anyone can contract for one of our cleanup crews. Whether you are a private landowner that needs a one-time cleanup of a property, or a business owner near a busy intersection who needs your property cleaned up once a week. For just $150/hour, UPLIFT! will provide a six member cleanup crew and its supervisor to your location and clean up and remove trash and debris. Even if you don’t own a property, but your business, or neighborhood association wants to sponsor cleanup of a park or busy intersection, anyone can sponsor or contract for the UPLIFT! services to help make their city a cleaner place.

Crew members are paid for their work at the end of each work day and also receive employment focused counseling, and assistance. With the exception of those whose physical ability will not permit their working in the field, all participants will be required to begin the employment program as cleanup crew members and will be eligible for moving to the scraping or warehouse sorting positions after successfully completing three weeks of work on the cleanup crew. The UPLIFT! trash removal/neighborhood cleanup program will help remove trash from our parks, streets, parking lots, and open spaces, will help reduce the amount of trash going into landfills through recycling, and will help take people who would otherwise resort to panhandling or asking for hand-outs and give them the power to move themselves towards sustainable independence.

UPLIFT! Scrap Recycling Program

Part of the goal of UPLIFT! Is to provide low barrier, low skilled work available to any person who simply desires to work. The scrap recycling program will allow us to do just that. People donate their unwanted appliances, scrap metal, or other metal trash. These items can be dropped off at our warehouse, or we’ll even come to your location and haul it away for free. Participants in the scrap recycling program will disassemble and sort the scrap into bins based on their composition, then the material will be sold to a recycler.

Participants will learn basic job skills, will be paid for the work they complete, and like all participants in the UPLIFT! Program, will receive employment focused case management at the end of each work day. Participants who successfully complete 3 weeks in the scrap recycling program will be eligible to enter the Tabitha’s Garage automotive repair and maintenanceprogram.

How Can I Get Involved

Donations - We need donations, donations of vehicles, if you or someone you know is getting rid of an older car, working or not, it can be donated for a tax deductable receipt. We will even arrange pick up. We also need people to give us their old non-working and unwanted appliances, metal and other recyclable materials.These materials can be dropped off at our warehouse, or we can schedule a convenient time and come pick them up at no charge. Regular donations of scrap, recyclables and vehicles will be necessary to the sustainability of the UPLIFT! program.

Cleanup Contracts -  In addition to donations to the recycling and automotive programs, we need companies,  organizations, and even individuals to provide contract hours for our cleanup crews. If you work for a business that needs regular cleanup or know someone who does, let them know about our program. In your neighborhood organization would like to sponsor the cleanup of an area park or particularly busy intersection, you can do that. If you or someone you know has a property that needs to have trash removed even just a one time thing, we can do that too. These regular contracted hours will provide the bulk of the lowest level work opportunities and are essential to helping us get people working instead of looking for hand-outs.