NO LONGER OPERATIONAL. Unfortunately, this model organization appears to have closed. We are unable to locate contact information.

Boston Can
Ron Pacy, Interim Director
Rickey Simmons, Resource Coordinator
70 Amory Street
Boston, Mass. 02119
(617) 445-6200
(617) 427-1308 fax

Started as a one-time, one-day charitable venture on Valentine's Day of 1991, Boston CAN has quickly grown into an ongoing national model of empowerment.

The initial concept, organized by the Massachusetts Volunteer Network, seemed simple: Recognizing that many homeless people eke out a small income by digging through trash cans and garbage in search of redeemable bottles and cans, the Network set up a "Bottle Bag Challenge," distributing sturdy plastic bags with a bright heart logo to residents and businesses, asking them to bring recyclable and redeemable material in these bags on Feb. 14, making it easy for a group of 40 homeless volunteers to pick them up and turn them in for the deposit money. The drive raised $1,200, which was divided among a number of local shelters; but it also generated an idea that wouldn't stop.

Within a few months, working with volunteers including the Volunteer Network's Jeanne Favazzo, businessman Andrew Martin and Rickey Simmons, who was in a shelter and emerging from a tailspin that started when he had lost his job with a bank, the group that would become BOSTON CAN mounted a pilot project. Fifteen Boston-area colleges and universities agreed to set out containers for cans and bottles; the homeless men, using a donated truck, would pick up the cans twice weekly; sort them by color and brand as redeeming agencies require; and turn them in for cash. Organizers examined models, including WE CAN in New York City, and then went on to create a new initiative that goes far beyond the existing models by creating job-training and empowerment elements for homeless workers.

Aggressively reaching out to the business community, BOSTON CAN seen built up a clientele of more than 300 firms that collect and save their recyclables for its pickup; through a donation, it purchased its own truck; and it began hiring homeless people, taking them on with the understanding that every employee would be paid the same (now $7.50 an hour), and that every employee would not only take a job but establish an Individualized Development Plan outlining personal goals and a timetable for accomplishing them. In addition to salary, workers receive a $600 annual educational stipend, applicable to tuition, fees, books and other expenses of education and training.

Now moved from its original quarters into a Roxbury warehouse that the Boston Food Bank had outgrown, Boston CAN covers 28 percent of its $250,000 annual budget through recycling revenue. It is still small -- just four full-time and five part-time employees -- but the success stories are already coming in: Among others, Jack, a former employee, went to work for a non-profit organization and is now employed full-time by an investment firm while studying non-profit management at Tufts. Renny, Boston CAN's truck driver, is going to night school to get his commercial truckers' license.

When there's an opening, Boston CAN advertises for applicants through area shelters, soup kitchens and agencies, and in its interviews, it seeks the candidates, men and women, who DON'T have the background or skills to find private-sector jobs; no "cherry picking" here. "There are many homeless people who desperately want to work but need new opportunities for employment," the organization's brochure points out. "In the right environment, they can build the self-esteem necessary to pull themselves out of the cycle of homelessness."

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

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