Boulder's Ready to Work program offers…
Boulder's Ready to Work program offers opportunity for homeless workers
CLIFF GRASSMICK
Laurallee Rucker replaces broken bricks on the Pearl Street Mall on Monday as part of the Ready to Work program.
Chad Carbone, left, a Ready to Work supervisor, and Kenneth Lowe replace broken bricks on the Pearl Street Mall on Monday. The Ready to Work program is a new initiative of Bridge House to provide work experience for homeless adults looking to turn their lives around.
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Six people dressed in green sweatshirts and neon yellow work vests marked "Ready to Work" moved down the Pearl Street Mall on Monday morning, sweeping up cigarette butts and piles of leaves.
Then they gathered around a city of Boulder parks employee, who showed them how to dig out and replace loose bricks.
The sky was cloudy, the weather raw, the work simple compared to what some of the workers used to do, but they're excited and energized.
"I'm so stoked to have this job," said Laurallee Rucker, the lone woman on the work crew. "I'm bouncy. It feels so good to get back to work, to do something positive."
Ready to Work is a new initiative of Bridge House, the day shelter and social service agency formerly known as Carriage House. It aims to provide real work experience for motivated homeless adults. The hope is that by the end of the six-month program, they'll be able to find private-sector employment that will allow them to support themselves.
It's modeled on Ready, Willing and Able, a project of New York City's Doe Fund, which has provided transitional jobs, houses and services to the city's homeless. The Doe Fund's social enterprises — companies with a social purpose — include a large street-cleaning service, pest control and waste oil recycling.
Isabel McDevitt, program manager for Ready to Work, spent years with Ready, Willing and Able, including as a developer of new jobs programs.
"The work is the foundation of the opportunity to become independent," she said.
Ready to Work's pilot program, with five participants and a supervisor — Chad Carbone, himself formerly homeless — began Monday.
Participants earn $8 an hour, get priority housing at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless and supportive case management services. They have to stay clean and sober, show up to work on time every day and move toward independence.
For now, the program is funded by donors, and workers are doing projects for the city's parks and rec and parking services divisions. On Mondays and Tuesdays, they'll be on the Pearl Street Mall. On Wednesdays, they'll be in the University Hill commercial district. On Thursdays and Fridays, they'll be along the Boulder Creek Path. They'll be picking up trash, cleaning graffiti, painting, landscaping and shoveling snow.
McDevitt hopes that once the program has an established track record, government entities and private businesses will want to contract with Ready to Work for services. Eventually, she'd like to be providing work opportunities for between 20 and 25 people at a time.
And once the workers have a proven track record, McDevitt hopes they'll be able to find private-sector employment. The economy may be grim, but Ready to Work alums will have a lot to offer.
"There is a lot of turnover in entry-level positions, especially in a college town," McDevitt said. "Employers hire for attitude and train for skills. When someone says, 'I swept the streets five days a week through the winter,' that's a measure of motivation."
Ready to Work also represents an opportunity to present the city's homeless population in a new light, as productive, contributing members of the community, McDevitt said. She hopes the new approach attracts supporters.
"A lot of citizens in Boulder are looking for comprehensive solutions, for pathways out of homelessness," she said. "They don't just want Band-Aids and emergency services."
Kenneth Lowe, a Ready to Work participant, owned his own cable installation business in Michigan for 18 years before a two-story fall left him unable to climb poles. Then he worked in a welding shop, but it shut down in 2008. Then he drove a school bus.
He came out to Boulder a few years ago to live closer to his son and worked on the census. But when that temporary job ended, he couldn't find other work. He dropped his car insurance when things got too tight, and then when he got pulled over, he lost his license.
Without a driver's license, many of the jobs he could do are out of reach.
"This is going to help me get some money saved up so I can get my license back," he said, of Ready to Work. "When you don't have money, you can't take care of anything, you can't take care of your tickets, your court fines."
From figuring out where to use the restroom in the morning to where you're going to sleep the next night, being homeless takes a lot of energy, but none of it goes toward anything productive, Lowe said. Just knowing he'll have a bed to sleep in each night will be a big help in getting his life back on track.
Cliff Shepherd used to be a journeyman machinist before losing his job and then his marriage. He said he's happy to be doing any job after 10 years on the streets.
"Work is work," he said. "Pride went out the window after the first three years."
Rucker, who has been homeless for the last two years, said she's had a few temp jobs here and there, but Ready to Work provides a chance at real stability.
"I see this as a golden opportunity," she said.
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