VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Caroline Hogan
In one year, 25 people have gone through Hope Faith's Clean Up KC program, and for those 25 people, it's a step in the right direction.
"I knew I could do better than what I was doing," said Jannett Wylie, one of the current cleanup crew members. "So, I just jumped into it and started doing it."
Wylie's spent three months cleaning up the streets she, and many others in the program, used to sleep on.
"Some people just don’t care and I do," Wylie said. "I wanna see Kansas City look like what Kansas City’s supposed to look like."
It helped her pick up the pieces in her life.
"I used to have a, you know, somewhat of a bad attitude, but it’s helped me with my attitude, adjust my attitude better," she said.
Now, Wylie's trading in purple bags for a full-time job with Hope Faith in the laundry department. She's also living in an apartment that filing those bags helped her pay for.
"To me it was beautiful," Wylie said, recalling the day she got the keys. "I felt like, 'OK, this is where I want to be, so I’m here and Imma try to stay here."
Clean up crew members work four days out of the week, around 20 hours and are paid $18 per hour.
"There’s a misnomer that they don’t want to work and we [Hope Faith], have knowing, working with this population for a long time, that’s just flat out not true," said Doug Lagner, executive director for Hope Faith.
He said the program's become a recruitment tool, saying they received around 50 application for the next round of crew members.
The goal is to encourage and help people get jobs, a home of their own or even reconnect with family.
"It’s not just coming to a place for a meal, not just place for clothes, but now we kind of have an off ramp to move our life forward," Langner said.
In it's next year, Langer explains they hope to be able to connect their residents with more winter housing, as well as work with them prior to joining the Clean Up Crew.
"Often times, it’s about getting a chance," Langner said. "Giving people that might not get that chance, that start, as a springboard towards other things."
Wylie has launched herself off that ramp into bigger and better things. So while it's her last day cleaning, it's only the first in her new life.
"I’m very proud of me," Wylie said. "It get’s better and better every day."
—
