Cleaner Futures: Team Up to Clean Up Program

Research and recommendations to expand the Team UP to Clean Up community clean up program.

Project Description:

Team Up to Clean Up (TUTCU) is a year-round city-wide community cleanup program. Approximately 25,000 volunteers participate in Team Up to Clean Up each year and invest more than 45,000 volunteer hours to help clean our community.

The program helps keep public places in your neighbourhood clean and safe for everyone. You can host a cleanup event on City property including parks, trails, alleyways, streets, and parking lots.

The team at Pubic Works Environmental Services would like to expand this program and attract more volunteers. There is a specific interest in how this program might be expanded to involve more people and projects in priority neighbourhoods. How could TUTCU be a vehicle to enhance equity in the environment of the city and in the delivery of city services?

Toward these goals, we would like to collaborate with IBH students to conduct a literature review (community cleanup/equity and community cleanup programs) and an environmental scan (how are other municipalities conducting similar programs) to result in a plain language report containing recommendations that could be enacted within the limited budget allotted to this program.

Background Research:

1. Literature Review

2. Environmental scan and/or key informant interviews with staff administering similar programs in other municipalities or through environmental organizations

Intended Outcomes:

The audience for this research is the staff at Public Works – Environmental Services. The research will be used for idea generation, laying the basis for future programing and collaborations.

City Staff: Rob Wagner, Manager-Business Programs, Public Works, Environmental Services

Secondary City Staff: Florence Pirrera, Project Manager Outreach

Instructor: Dr. Karen Balcom, Associate Professor, History, Faculty of Humanities

Course: Intergrated Business and Humanities Senior Captone