Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

On Friday, August 23, Assemblyman Klein joined with local merchants at each commercial shopping area in Klein's district. The assemblyman obtained nearly $70,000 in state funding to bring The Doe Fund's Ready, Willing and Able program to Williamsbridge Road, Morris Park, Lydig Avenue, Allerton Avenue and E. 204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue to work with merchants and sanitation in keeping the areas clean. Klein toured these areas with the cleanup crews and local merchants to show the benefits of such a program.

"This is terrific," Klein said of the event and program. "This is something I wanted to do in my commercial districts for a long time. It kills me to walk through these districts and see garbage and dirt on the streets and around the stores. I cannot imagine people wanting to shop in an area covered in garbage. I want to bring back the commercial districts to the pristine conditions they used to be in. The merchants and sanitation cannot do it alone."

Klein turned to The Doe Fund's Ready, Willing and Able program. The organization operates a job training program that employs individuals, some of whom were once homeless, to maintain the cleanliness of the streets in commercial areas in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. The first in the Bronx, the program will consist of one team staying out all day in each shopping district sweeping the streets, removing fliers from poles, cleaning up graffiti and in the winter, shoveling snow in the crosswalks. "I would really like to thank the Doe Fund and their president, George T. McDonald, for his courageous and visionary leadership," said Klein. "I look forward to working with George for many years to come. They really help get people back on track. The program consists of homeless men who live in a dormitory. They get three meals a day. They are tested for alcohol and drugs each day and they pay rent. The program is all about training them back into the work force, and Ready, Willing and Able has a very good placement rate. They are a tremendous success story, and what they are doing is quite exciting for the community."

Craig Trotta, assistant director at Ready, Willing and Able, is proud of the program, and gave an example of how the program works. "This program gives a man who's homeless an opportunity to get his life back in order," said Trotta. "It is not about training guys to sweep the streets. It is about getting the ethics of work back under their belt; going to work everyday, getting along with co-workers and interacting with people. It teaches people how to pay bills and get back those bridges that had been burnt with family members and friends. The program has worked for hundreds of people and it worked for me. I was homeless, shot, stabbed and I had been in jail. I came here because of the opportunity to turn my life around. This program allowed me to realize that I had a lot of potential, and for the last five years, I have not been on drugs or alcohol and I have been helping guys get to where I am today. What Klein is doing for this neighborhood is wonderful and what he has done for this organization is equally wonderful. Thank you."

The program will run for a year and Klein believes it will be a big success. "If it works out well, like I expect, I will certainly make sure to get funding for it again next year," he said. "It is hard enough for local merchants to compete with the malls and large chains, so programs like this making shopping districts more desirable can only help business. I am confident that this program will afford our neighborhoods the opportunity to have a more enjoyable shopping experience at our local merchants and, therefore, our merchants will enjoy increased activity at their cash registers."