The Doe Fund Partners With NYCEDC to Clean all Five Boroughs

New York, NY— In partnership with the city’s Economic Development Corporation and Mayor de Blasio’s revitalized CleaNYC initiative, The Doe Fund expanded its cleaning crews throughout all five boroughs, predominantly in low-income neighborhoods hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the first few weeks, since the program began, crews had already picked up more than 25,000 pounds of trash and cleaned more than 280 city blocks.

The Doe Fund and EDC prioritize the safety of these frontline workers by providing them with personal protective gear and practicing social distancing along cleaning routes. 

These everyday heroes are performing their duties at great self-sacrifice, but with enormous pride. “It feels good to work in a community where I see faces that look like mine,” said William Outerbridge, a graduate of The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able reentry program who is part of the initiative. “To know that I am helping keep people safe while serving as a role model to the kids when there aren’t many positive role models around is powerful.”

The Doe Fund employs and provides housing to graduates like Mr. Outerbridge, who lost his construction job—which The Doe Fund helped him secure—due to the pandemic. By serving as a safety net, The Doe Fund prevents men who are trying desperately to do the right thing from returning to lives of crime, addiction, and homeless. 

Mr. Outerbridge currently lives in the Upper East Side at The Bentley Hotel, where half the residents from one of The Doe Fund’s transitional housing facilities were transferred in accordance with City directives to allow for better social distancing.

George McDonald, Founder, and President of The Doe Fund said, “With this expansion, The Doe Fund can fully live up to its status as an NYC icon by providing our most vulnerable neighbors with cleaner, safer streets in every borough of the city. We are proud to support our trainees and graduates through the storm of this pandemic, just as they are proud to give back to their fellow New Yorkers in this hour of need.”