“Last year’s special cleaning targets were: Broadway between 70th and 86th (on Mondays, focusing on 70th to 79th) 72nd between Columbus and Broadway Verdi Square Broadway between 90th and 96th and the northern end of the district, 106th and below. “Our office sits down with them regularly and, based on information from our constituents and staff, we identify areas that should be top priority in terms of cleaning,” Crean said. Rosenthal is directing her full allocation this year -$220,000 - to Green Keepers. Sarah Crean, Rosenthal’s communications director, explained that every council member has access to Clean Streets NYC funding. “As a result of Clean Streets NYC, we are providing year-round, five-day-a-week, supplemental sanitation services to the Upper West Side.” “In the past few years, we have had a growth spurt, as a result of our involvement with several citywide initiatives made available to us through our local Councilwoman, Helen Rosenthal,” said Deborah Kaplan, Director of Employment and Rehabilitation Programs at Goddard Riverside. The way things are going, it should move fast. Green Keepers currently employs around 40 people, with a waiting list to be hired. “We do work on terraces, rooftops, and gardens.” Most of Green Keepers’ expenses, including wages, are covered by contracts. “We also have some private entities,” Ewell added. Green Keepers’ customers include Broadway Mall Association, Lincoln Square B.I.D., the Riverside Park Conservancy, and a host of block and neighborhood associations, including West 77th Street, West 88th Street, and West 90th Street. Six crew members were promoted from within to crew leader positions. A number have gone on to private-sector employment, but the majority have stayed. “They’re employed by Goddard Riverside, just like I am. “If someone steps out of line, they’ll talk to him or her.” (There are a handful of women working for Green Keepers.) “They come to understand that when they’re in uniform, they’re not just one person, they’re every other person out there wearing the uniform. “Another thing about the Green Brotherhood is, they self-check,” Ewell continued. It could be the last conversation they have when they leave.” People come to us who don’t have vibrant social lives and that brotherhood is very important, even if it lasts only two hours a day. “It’s nice for them to know there are guys in green who’ve got their back. “These are people who have been adrift, not necessarily had anyone they could depend on,” she said. “It’s messy,” Manny said, “but nothing we can’t handle as a group.”Įwell calls the Green Keepers the “Green Brotherhood.” When WSR caught up with him, he and his fellow crew members were cleaning their way up the west side of Broadway to 106th Street. After a probationary period, he was hired by Green Keepers, earning minimum wage, currently $13.50 an hour. Manny was referred to “TOP Opportunities” (TOP/OP), Goddard’s job-training and placement program. He smiled a smile that was impossible not to return. I needed to save money to get us an apartment.” “My son was just born and I had to take care of him. “I kept telling them I needed a job,” he recalled. A longstanding and revered Upper West Side social service agency, Goddard is known for its “continuum of care,” which worked seamlessly in Manny’s case. He was hospitalized by his family “four or five times” before being referred to Goddard Riverside’s outpatient “Assertive Community Treatment” (ACT) team, which provides intensive psychiatric care and on-going case management for adults with severe mental illness. Thirty years old, he had his first breakdown when he was 21. Manny, one of the above crew members, has schizophrenia. “We meet people where they’re at and bring them to where we can.” “Everyone is expected to give 100%, but we recognize that one person’s 100% is not the same as another’s,” said Elizabeth Ewell, business manager of Green Keepers. Green Keepers performs supplemental sanitation, horticultural and pest control services, mainly on the Upper West Side. That same morning, on the corner of 100th and Broadway, five other men stood, holding brooms and dustpans, wearing green uniforms with vests that read “GODDARD RIVERSIDE GREENKEEPERS.” These men had requested and received a different kind of help: paid employment, offering the support and understanding they need.įounded in 1995, Green Keepers is Goddard Riverside Community Center’s “social purpose business.” It employs and provides on-the-job training for men and women living with mental illness, many formerly homeless, now residing in supportive housing. One recent morning, a man stood on the corner of 86th and Amsterdam, holding a paper cup, wearing a sign that read, “Please help.” Green Keepers take a short break from work to pose for a photo at 100th and Broadway.
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