A local program for the homelessness demonstrates how collaboration between local government (City of Champaign Township) and organizations (C-U at Home) are the building blocks for new ideas and programs to be tested and grow if successful. From the News-Gazette last week:
CU at Work pays homeless to help clean up ChampaignMore information at the full article here.
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Inspired by “There’s a Better Way,” an initiative on tackling homelessness started in the New Mexico city, City of Champaign Township Supervisor Andy Quarnstrom thought something similar could be a good fit here.
“Essentially, what they were doing is they take homeless individuals and put them to work doing municipal beautification projects,” Quarnstrom said of Albuquerque’s program. “There, it’s taking care of trash and tumbleweeds. But they provide them with cash at the end of the work day.”
Quarnstrom, with a staff of just three, said he saw the need for assistance to homeless people in town and decided to partner with CU at Home to launch the CU at Work initiative.
The program is funded by the township but administered by CU at Home.
CU at Work participants, accompanied by a truck packed with tools, are paid to walk the streets picking up trash for four hours a day. After their work concludes for the day, they receive a meal.
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