Video Update: Centerstone Job Placement Partnership with Public Works

Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.

In the last video update in 2022, Mayor John Hamilton and Department of Public Works Director Adam Wason continue the discussion about the City’s employment placement initiative with Centerstone. 

After the successful launch in 2017 with Parks and Recreation, the program was expanded into Public Works with a focus on the Brighten B-Town initiative. Participants assist City staff with neighborhood cleanups, painting yellow curbs, refreshing no-parking zones, cleaning the debris out of storm drains, cleaning tree plots, weeding, and doing general maintenance activities.    

At the end of 2022, the program will record 27,000 person-hours worked. Every participant earns a living wage and training and is provided the necessary tools to be successful. If you missed the video with Parks and Recreation Director Paula McDevitt you can watch it at https://youtu.be/QGCw8UE9NWo.  

If you have questions about Brighten B-Town or the partnership with Centerstone, contact Adam Wason at wasona@bloomington.in.gov. Learn more about Centerstone at centerstone.org.

Transcript

Mayor John Hamilton:
Hi, it's Mayor John Hamilton from Bloomington again. Thanks for joining us. Today, we're with Adam Wason, the Director of our Public Works Department. Adam, thanks for joining us.

Adam Wason:
Thanks for having me.

Mayor John Hamilton:
And we want to talk again about a particular program that's really exciting that we do in partnership with Centerstone, our mental health provider. And Adam, you've added that program. We talked about how it started in Parks, but can you tell us how you got into that and how it affects Public Works?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, sure. So back in 2019, after we saw Parks and Recreation having a really great partnership with Centerstone, we thought, "How can we do more of this, and on a larger scale, citywide?" After that first trial period with Parks, we started looking at how we could expand it and what types of work we could really have those crews work with us on. And so, ever since 2019, the program's grown the number of participants, and it's just been such a great successful partnership.

Mayor John Hamilton:
So these are individuals that you bring in with Centerstone, people under the mental health services of Centerstone. And what kind of work do they do? What do they do with that?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, so we really refer to it as a supportive employment program. So, clients of Centerstone, whether seeking mental health services or addiction services, or any of the various services that Centerstone offers, they identify clients that could be good partners for the program. Some of the work we've done since the inception of the program, we do a zone-based approach with neighborhood cleanups, painting yellow curbs, refreshing the yellow paint on curbs for no-parking zones, cleaning the debris out of the gutter areas, cleaning tree plots, doing weeding, and doing general maintenance activities.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Is that what we call Brighten B-Town, some of that?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, exactly.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Is that our name, where we're trying to brighten it up?

Adam Wason:
That's exactly it.

Mayor John Hamilton:
That's great.

Adam Wason:
Kind of community cleanliness. Every Monday, we go right down to Kirkwood and do a big downtown cleanup.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Because the weekends are hard on Kirkwood.

Adam Wason:
Those students have a lot of...We have folks that have some fun down there.

Mayor John Hamilton:
So one of the things I really like about this is these are individuals, some of whom we were dealing with, in some of these places, and now they're our partners. They're working together. Have you seen changes, or how's it work, at an individual level, too?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of great success stories. Since Public Works merged the program under our department in '21, we've served over 70 clients of Centerstone.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Great. That's in your Public Works side?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, it's on the Public Works side, so 70 unique clients have participated in the program. By the end of this year, we'll be close to 27,000 person-hours worked, so that's about 13 full-time employees.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Do they get a living wage?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, absolutely.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Right, that's good.

Adam Wason:
We're in adherence with the Living Wage Ordinance.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Did you tell me that one of them got promoted through the program to be a crew leader, too?

Adam Wason:
Yeah, so there's been quite a few great success stories, whether it's about finding permanent housing or permanent employment beyond the program. One of the original clients, just participating in the program as a laborer, moved up to be the crew leader.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Nice.

Adam Wason:
Jason's done a great job for us, leading the efforts and coordinating, day-in and day out with our staff, and in my career in city government, it's probably one of the programs I'm certainly most proud that we've gotten off the ground, and it has been successful.

Mayor John Hamilton:
Well, Adam, I know you deal with a lot of hard things: sanitation, streets. The weather can blow you up, and all that stuff, and downtown issues. But I'm really proud of what you've done with Parks to create this opportunity for people in our community to be employed by our community, by the city government, and to improve their lives.

So thanks for the update and for everybody here; if you want more information, check it out. But this program and this partnership with Centerstone, we thank them for their work on this, too, and really proud of what you're doing with your peers in city government for this. So check it out. Thanks, y'all, for your attention, and be well.