Serving through the Inner City Neighborhood Project

Hello, my name is Bill Gast, and I am serving through the Inner City Neighborhood Project here in Benton Harbor. There are additional sites in Saginaw, Grand Rapids, and Detroit that are part of the Project.

Our focus is to assist citizens in their re-entry into society after they have been in prison, through 300 hours of community service and pro-social activities. In addition to doing 12 hours of community service each week, our minimum-time members are placed at job sites and can work for pay up to 28 hours a week.

Some community service activities completed include cleaning at the Benton Harbor City Public Works garage and buildings, assisting at the Benton Harbor Habitat store with sales and customer service, and working at the six- degree resale store. At the Orchard Grove nursing home members took bags of Christmas cookies to the residents there, and as they sat and spoke with the residents their reactions were great.

Work sites include Bridges to Digital Excellence in Benton Harbor and Gateway in Berrien Springs; both sites are involved in recycling. Bridges to Digital Excellence takes care of recycling electronics, anything electronic. Gateway is a major paper recycler. Both sites are teaching jobs skills and what an employer expects for an employee.

A major hope of the Inner City Neighborhood Project is to place people at jobs, and from our last group each job site has hired one of the workers that were placed there. Prospective employers after having the program explained all have agreed this is the best thing that Michigan has started in a long time, helping rather that housing.

From the start of this project I have been able to share in the excitement of our members as they learned new things, as they were able to trust again, as they grew as individuals and allowed others to take part in their life.