Thanks to a Denver-based day-labor program, some of the city’s homeless people are getting back on their feet. The Denver Day Works program started in November 2016 and in the first year, 284 people worked at least one day doing landscaping, helping public works crews and other jobs. At the end of each shift, they were paid over $12 an hour.
Of those 284, 110 participants got full-time work, and 15 scored permanent or project-based jobs with the city of Denver. Jeff Maes lived on the streets for four years before getting a job retrofitting lights at Denver’s Central Library and he credits the Denver Day Works program for restoring his pride.
"When you take a good person who's down, broken, discouraged, and you give them an opportunity to be proud of their self — to stand up and do something for their self — that’s one of the greatest gifts anybody can give to anybody," Maes says. "And for that, I"d like to say thank you."
Source: Sunny Skyz