NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Association for Community Employment for the Homeless (A.C.E.), and its neighborhood initiatives, the SoHo and TriBeCa Partnerships, will extend to include NoHo/Bowery into its non-profit foundation to aid the homeless and keep lower Manhattan clean and green! The NoHo/Bowery Partnership will officially begin May 15, 2009. The NoHo/Bowery Partnership will become the third entity under the A.C.E. umbrella, modeled after its existing neighborhood initiatives, which have helped hundreds of recovering homeless men and women achieve full-time employment and long-term economic self-sufficiency.
Founded by philanthropist Henry Buhl, the mission of A.C.E. is to enable New York City’s homeless men and women to re-enter the workforce and achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency. Serving recovering homeless individuals with multiple barriers to employment, many program participants also must struggle with difficult issues such as past substance abuse problems, criminal histories and psychiatric diagnoses.
A.C.E.’s approach consists of two programs designed to combat the cycle of homelessness at its roots. Project Comeback is an intensive, four to six month vocational rehabilitation program that incorporates work experience, job-readiness workshops and one-on-one counseling. Upon securing full-time employment, graduates of Project Comeback are encouraged to sign up for Project Stay, our life-long job-retention program. Project Stay provides a permanent safety net for our clients, helping them to maintain and build upon the positive changes they have made in their lives. A.C.E.’s unique strategy has been wildly successful. Since January 2006, 87 percent of our clients have remained employed for two years or longer.
In addition to vocational and practical assistance, A.C.E. participants spend between 20 – 24 hours a week helping clean the streets, removing snow and ice, caring for trees, removing graffiti, and maintaining garbage receptacles with our signature Go Green! bio-degradable trash bags. The men and women of the program currently remove an astounding 20,000 lbs of garbage from Soho and TriBeCa a day!
As a privately funded organization, the NoHo/Bowery Partnership will rely entirely on voluntary contributions from local residents and businesses to maintain this incredible service and continue helping program participants to reclaim their lives. Local businesses that have already become members include Chef Restaurant Supply Company, John Varvatos, Think Coffee, Von and Zero Maria Cornejo.
These important initiatives serve program participants as well as their namesake neighborhoods, keeping historic areas beautiful, and fostering a sense of community.
Information: David Wilson, +1-212-541-5698.
