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Streets Team
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doWntoWn streets teaM: beFore, dUrIng and aFter CoVId-19
By Greg Pensinger, Director / Stanislaus County Downtown Street Team
At the core of Downtown Streets Team’s model is our Structured Daily Activity in which our Team Members go out into the community in teams to pick up litter and other discarded debris. In our first year in Modesto (2019) our Team Members collected over 240,000 pounds of trash and over 1300 syringes from the Modesto community.
More important than the trash that our Teams collect is the opportunities our Team Members have to make positive changes in their lives.
Our Team Members have reported improved physical and mental health, increased confidence, a higher sense of community pride, and an expanded social and professional network as a result of their participation with DST.
All of these are foundational to their setting and achieving goals such as employment and housing, and, indeed, many of our past and present Team Members have already achieved those goals or are working toward them with our case managers. The onset of the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent Shelter in Place orders threatened to disrupt the momentum we had built over the past year. After all, our Team Members often draw structure in their lives from their participation on the Team and from their peers.
Our staff went to great lengths to make sure that our Team Members stayed connected and focused on their goals despite not having regular in-person contact.
By and large, our Team of 38 individuals – all of whom are currently or at risk of becoming homeless – maintained contact with our staff and many worked more diligently than before toward their goals. As a result of our Team Members and staff working together, we were able to successfully relaunch our cleanup projects in early June. When you see our Team Members in their yellow shirts cleaning up the community, make sure and honk to say hi!
For more information about The Downtown Street Team or to help support please go to https://www.streetsteam. org/modesto or call (209) 702-1481.
1003 10th Street Ste. A, Modesto, CA 95354
