Street Cleaning Grant Program

• Micro-cleaning in an area covering 7 kilometres² within 22 BIAs
• Micro-cleaning of 25 permanent and pop-up plazas
• 73,000 micro-cleaning work hours to individuals with barriers to traditional employment 
• 35,400 bags of litter collected
• 100,100 needles collected from streets and lanes
• 19,900 cumulative feces removals in the downtown area

In addition to achieving cleaner streets, the Street Cleaning Grants support low threshold employment and life skills training for local community residents with barriers to traditional employment.

Program participants provide micro-cleaning of City lanes and streets throughout the Downtown Eastside, Commercial Drive, Strathcona, West End, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Olympic Village, Northeast False Creek, Terminal Ave, and along major arterial streets, including Broadway, Granville, Oak, Cambie, Main, Fraser and Clark/Knight streets.

Individual or human capacity is a crucial factor of social sustainability. Capacity means the attributes and resources that people can contribute to their own well-being and to the well-being of the community as a whole.

The Street Cleaning Grant Program is an excellent example of social sustainability in action. Work crews benefit from a greater sense of pride and self esteem developed through employment that makes a positive contribution to their own community.

In talking with cleaners, some comments are universal. Virtually everyone will tell you that they are regularly praised and thanked for the work they do.

Comments from the program participants

• “My Clean Team job gets me up and out. Being outside and walking my route has been good for my arthritis. I have a lot of positive interaction with people while I’m working. It feels good to have people in the community compliment my work and say ‘thank you’”
• “It feels good to be contributing to the well-being of my neighbourhood. Pretty much every shift, a community member will thank me and express their appreciation”
• “People thank me every day. I’m always getting positive feedback when I’m working my route”
• "It helps me with my self confidence, and my self pride for myself and the Strathcona Community”
• “This job gives me confidence that I work”
• “Working is great, I feel equal to everybody else”
•  “I am really proud that I have this job”
• “Just the knowing I pleased people, did a good job and made extra money to help my family”
• “Bursting with pride when dealing with tourists”
• “Talking to people and knowing I am making a difference”
• “I don’t isolate myself”
• “After cleaning streets it is good feeling when you did all you could to make streets clean & beautiful”
• “Walking into a big pile of a nasty mess, then having the before and after; and people of all walks of life thanking me”
• “I am physically active and part of something special”
• “Has made life better for me; feel part of something useful”
• “I hope to become more active in my community volunteering, sharing knowledge and ideas”
• “I feel that I will be better qualified to handle other pursuits, such as education goals and career based interests”
• “It will help me financially for starting a martial arts program to get in better shape”
• “This job gives me hope that some day I could possibly get a more responsible job”
• “I’m hoping to go back to work full time eventually and will use my background as a record of employment”
• “I don’t have to go to food banks or food line-ups to eat; I can buy groceries every week”
• “The extra income feeds me a healthy diet”