The city of Valparaiso is seeking volunteers for a brand new project that is being created for the community. The Valparaiso Neighborhood Clean Up Project will be launching this spring. It is a volunteer-based project that will be hosted by the city of Valparaiso, created and directed by the city’s Neighborhood Liaison. Partners of the project will be Valparaiso Rebuilding Together, the United Way of Porter County, the Valparaiso Department of Public Works and the Valparaiso Department of Parks & Recreation. Some city leaders and residents have already joined the project to volunteer.
The purpose and mission of the new project is to cultivate increased volunteerism and unity amongst residents of the city’s neighborhoods while cleaning and sprucing up the city’s neighborhood parks, streets and alleyways. Its main goal is to bring neighbors together for a common cause, and it promotes the necessary community component of city neighborhood pride.
The Valparaiso Neighborhood Clean Up Project hopes to launch on April 16, in direct partnership with the Valparaiso Rebuilding Together work day. A neighborhood will be selected where Rebuilding Together will be working on a particular home, and residents from that neighborhood will be called upon to step up and volunteer a bit of their time cleaning up their neighborhood at the same time. The clean up project will also be working independently, with clean up days geared towards certain segments of the city to be announced very soon.
Project day duties will include basic clean up tasks such as picking up garbage and recyclables off the ground and separating them, possible scraping of sidewalks or curbs where necessary, weeding, raking, digging, planting, edging, painting and other basic duties that may be suggested by departments of the city.
Volunteers are also needed to join the team that will help distribute fliers before clean up project days. These fliers will announce the upcoming event to the neighborhood residents and ask them to volunteer. Distribution volunteers will flier neighborhoods for approximately two hours every other month. This is a great volunteer opportunity for people who like to be outdoors and meet new people in the community, and for those who don’t have a lot of time to spare but still want to make a difference where they live.
Anyone wishing to volunteer a bit of their time to this community project is asked to contact Christine Hisick, neighborhood liaison, at (219) 462-1161 or email chisick@valpo.us, and we will get you started right away.