Statement of
Purpose
The purpose of
Harrisburg Clean Streets Project is to beautify all of
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by advocating public policy, education, and
volunteer efforts that improve city aesthetics, heighten citizen
awareness and involvement, and instill self-worth and neighborhood
pride.
Methods Harrisburg Clean Streets
Project organizes urban residential litter and
dumping cleanups that rotate throughout the neighborhoods of
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. These cleanups are designed (1) to
physically beautify neighborhoods; (2) to raise property values; (3) to
discourage further littering; (4) to bring awareness to citizens that
litter is a significant problem; and (5) to encourage neighborhood
pride, self-worth, and community-mindedness. The cleanups rotate among
neighborhoods to maximize coverage and ensure that everyone has an
opportunity to improve his or her neighborhood. After all, for many
neighborhoods, litter is an insurmountable issue that cannot be
remedied by only those in the neighborhood. Sometimes it takes
individuals from many neighborhoods to join together to accomplish one
goal by cleaning up one neighborhood at a time.
History In April 2007, his
second semester at Widener University School
of Law—Harrisburg, Shawn Westhafer
was one of three members of
the Environmental Law & Policy Society in charge of organizing a
litter cleanup of part of Midtown Harrisburg. In this first event,
Greening Green Street, forty-nine volunteers removed dozens of bags of
trash from Second, Penn, Green, Susquehanna, and Third streets, from
Forster to Maclay Street.
Not content to stop at Maclay Street, Shawn
and ELPS organized another litter cleanup that September, Greening
Green Street, Part II: Movin' on Uptown, stretching
all the way to Division Street.
Realizing that he did not
want these community service events to cease
at graduation, Shawn began to develop a separate entity from ELPS
—Harrisburg Clean
Streets Project—solely for the purpose of
organizing litter cleanups.The following litter cleanup of the eastern
half of Uptown (between Fourth, Division, Seventh, and Maclay streets)
was the more successful than previous efforts. On April 5, 2008, over
seventy volunteers
removed over fifty bags of trash from the streets and also filled a
thirty-cubic-yard rolloff container with debris from a dumping ground
on Jefferson Street, near Maclay Street.
On October 18, 2008, Harrisburg
Clean Streets Project partnered with ELPS
and Friends of Midtown on an ambitious volunteer event that covered all
of Midtown (between Forster, Front, Maclay, and Seventh streets).
Forty-nine participants removed over eighty bags of litter from
fifteen miles of streets and sidewalks in the Great Midtown Cleanup.
In the
beginning of 2009,
Harrisburg Clean Streets Project, Inc.,
became an incorporated non-profit organization registered with the
Pennsylvania Department of State. The development of this Web site soon
followed.
On April 18, 2009, at least 143 people came together to remove more
than 625 bags of waste from nearly eight miles of streets and sidewalk
in the South Allison Hill neighborhood (the area bound by Cameron,
Market, 18th, and Paxton streets). Partners in this event were Weed and
Seed, ELPS, and the Business Association of South Allison Hill.
In early October 2009, the IRS certified HCSP as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
nonprofit organization.
On October 24, 2009, HCSP and Habitat for Humanity of the Great
Harrisburg Region worked together for a community cleanup of the
Central Allison Hill neighborhood. Despite rain, twenty-nine volunteers
worked to remove sixty-eight bags of trash, five car tires, two bicycle
tires, two sofas, two mattresses, and a pile of rubble and debris of
unknown volume. Poor turnout from the neighborhood indicated that
another event must be coordinated in Central Allison Hill, but must
also include North Allison Hill.
On April 10, 2010, HCSP again partnered with Habitat for Humanity, this
time for a cleanup of North and Central Allison Hill. Together, 63
volunteers removed 195 bags of garbage, 9 mattresses, and 1 couch from
4.2 miles of streets, alleys, and sidewalks.
Future
A cleanup is being planned for the area south of Reservoir Park
to Berryhill Street, from 18th Street to Hale Avenue.
