Last April 2019, the city of Little Rock, Arkansas kicked off a six-month work pilot program to provide paid labor jobs for the homeless community. It’s called Bridge to Work.

Together with the Canvas Community Church, the city has allotted $80,000 for this program. Around 350 people, both homeless and panhandlers, participated in this initiative.

The participants will be picked up in a city van from the city’s Public Works Department and brought to the worksite.

For their work, they were paid $9.25 per hour for four hours each day, totaling a daily salary of $37.

Through Bridge to Work, the city hopes to provide a source of income for the homeless and panhandling community of Little Rock. The program will also get them connected to different social services offices.

“We try to introduce them to the resources that can get them to their next step,” Rev. Paul Atkins said.

Rev. Paul Atkins is the program leader for this initiative. He says the program has removed around 1,900 trash bags from the streets and helped clean 122 sites, including the areas of Roosevelt Road and Woodrow Street and near the Clinton Presidential Center downtown.

Providing them with a regular paying job will allow them to worry less about where to get their next meal or how to get money.

The lunchtime allotted for the workers, with lunch meals provided for them, will allow the leaders to ask them about their next steps in life and how the program or the city can help them.

Six months after the project had been given the green light, the city officials and program leaders gathered to assess the progress of the program. Based on their discussion, they will vote to continue or discontinue the program.

According to their studies, the program was very much a success.

Out of the 350 participants, around 36% of them were able to connect with organizations like Our House, Goodwill and the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services to help them search for jobs.

26 participants received health insurance and 19 others were able to get identification documents. Other participants were given access to mental and physical health services, bus passes, and temporary or permanent housing.

Eight participants found full-time jobs and there were others who were able to secure job interviews.

Some had the chance to move back to their original hometowns and to be reunited with their families.

One of the participants, Roneisha Foxworth, said Bridge to Work really helped her. She was able to get a bus pass and apply for jobs.

“It helped me grow and be more responsible,” Roneisha said. “It’s still hard but it gets better day by day.”

A lot of doors had opened for her and made her very hopeful about her future.

“To me, that begins to demonstrate our hypothesis: our people face many significant barriers to employment, and working with people through these barriers requires persistent, coordinated work by several groups,” Rev. Atkins stated.

Mario Sexton, 28, is also one of the people Bridge to Work has helped a great deal.

He had come to Little Rock from Mississippi because his home state did not have enough resources to help struggling people like him.

He went to Arkansas, hoping his situation better. But when he got there, he couldn’t get a job, since he didn’t have any identification documents.

He had to resort to panhandling.

He immediately signed up when he learned about Bridge to Work.

“As a man, a young man, you feel a little bit better about yourself if you can work and get some money,” Mario said.

Now, he’s working with Our House to fix his resume and get a birth certificate.

All these success stories convinced the city to continue with the program. And their initiative inspired another city in Arkansas to adopt the same program.

Hot Springs Deputy City Manager Lance Spicer said they would implement a year-long program in an effort to lower the rate of homelessness in their city.

Want to know what the participants think of Bridge to Work? Watch the video below.

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Source: THV11