Downtown Iowa City Launches New Clean, Safe and Hospitality Ambassador Program with Block by Block 

IOWA CITY, IA (June 20, 2024) – Block by Block is excited to announce the launch of a three-year Clean, Safe and Hospitality Ambassador Program in Downtown Iowa City, IA, beginning June 3, 2024.

The program is a collaborative effort between the City of Iowa City and Iowa City Downtown District (ICDD) to provide Ambassadors in the central business district and downtown parking garages. In addition to their traditional clean and safe role, the new Ambassadors will be trained in hospitality to offer recommendations, wayfinding, community information and a friendly presence to downtown visitors, residents and businesses alike.

Executive Director of ICDD, Betsy Potter, applauded the new program, saying, “This is a great opportunity to have a positive impact on the community and to be a part of the team…By bringing this nationally recognized cleaning and hospitality service to downtown, we’re creating a cleaner and safer space for the public to gather and enjoy.”

Block by Block has a robust history working in downtowns since their first program launched in Louisville, KY, in 1995. More than strictly a clean and safe service provider, Block by Block has developed an optimized operating model built on best practices, research, development and modern technology that has attracted partners in more than 150 locations nationwide, including improvement districts, parks, college campuses, transit systems and other public spaces.

For more information about Block by Block, visit www.blockbyblock.com

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About Iowa City Downtown District

“Downtown Iowa City has had an active business association since the turn of the 19th Century after the founding of Iowa City in 1839, becoming the territorial capital in 1841, and the official state capital in 1846. After more than a century of growth, the business association rebranded in 2012 as the Iowa City Downtown District by a successful petition to property owners to generate tax revenue through a Self Supported Municipal Improvement District to enhance Downtown. The ICDD is a 501(c) (6) nonprofit organization representing property owners and stakeholders in the Downtown and Northside Neighborhoods of Iowa City charged with overseeing the reinvestment of these funds as they advance a mission to steward the area.” For more information, click here.

Spotlight on Sioux Falls Martin Dill

605 Spotlight // Martin Dill

written by Gabby Sudenga + photos by Cailyn Patterson

Part of this article has been shared from 605 Magazine. Click here for the full article. 

In the heart of Sioux Falls, there exists a vibrant hub of culture, commerce, and community—downtown Sioux Falls. Amidst the bustling streets and businesses is Martin Dill and his team of red shirts known as the Downtown Sioux Falls Ambassadors.

“We do everything that makes downtown Sioux Falls safe, sanitary, interesting, and beautiful,” stated Dill, operations manager for Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. and Block by Block.

From watering flowers to chatting with visitors and locals alike, the ambassadors help make downtown a desirable place to visit.

“We want to be engaging, ask people how they’re doing, and help direct them to where they want to go,” explained Dill.

The outreach of the Ambassadors extends beyond tourists and residents, to businesses and shop owners as well.

“We want our business owners to know that we’re not only here to help, but that we’re accessible,” shared Dill. “If something outside of their storefront needs attention, they can let us know.”

Though some days, their duties aren’t glamorous. It comes with cleaning up trash, dog waste, and occasionally graffiti.

“We do a little bit of everything,” added Dill.

The Ambassadors also help those in need, such as the unhoused, by connecting them to resources in town.

“As far as our outreach goes, it has changed since I started two and a half years ago,” said Dill. “We now have a couple of options to help the unhoused receive the help they need.”

“our staff is trained for the safety of their well-being.” -martin dill

Dill and his team have previously transported residents to Bishop Dudley Hospitality House or The Link. In more dire cases, the ambassadors call for medical assistance to aid their efforts.

In other cases, Dill found that a simple conversation could be just as beneficial.

“I always encourage my employees to sit down and talk to the unhoused individuals,” stated Dill. “Find out who they are, where they’re from, see how their day is going, just talk to them. Sometimes that’s all they need.”

Safety for everyone in the community is at the forefront of an Ambassador’s role. Safety Ambassadors patrol bike trails along the river, underneath bridges, Falls Park, and Phillips Avenue.

“This past summer, one of my employees brought a case of water to the unhoused under the bridge when it was over
100 degrees out. That’s what we do,” reminisced Dill. “Our goal is to always approach them in a non-adversarial way.”

The Ambassadors are always there to lend a hand and enhance downtown for any occasion.

As the winter season approaches, Dill and his team are gearing up to wrap downtown Sioux Falls in holiday cheer.

Twinkling lights and garland will decorate Phillips Avenue. Dill and his team work in a hydraulic lift to wrap the vintage light poles and trees along the bustling street.

“There’s something so cheerful about the lights,” said Dill. “It’s a lot of fun to set up and it’s more fun seeing how excited people get about the Christmas lights, because it really is.”

A fan-favorite attraction will also reappear this holiday season.

“We set up a photo opportunity that’s great for kids, filled with light-up candy canes, presents, and a snowman photo stand-in,” said Dill. “We got a ton of play out of it. The second it was up, people were immediately interested.”

He added that the Sioux Falls community should stay tuned as a new light display will be featured this year that is unlike anything else in South Dakota.

For years, strolling through downtown to view the lights has become a tradition for visitors and residents. Dill and his team have become an important asset to their traditions.

“I love being a part of their traditions, but my favorite part of being an asset to their tradition would be the hydraulic lift,” Dill said with a chuckle.

For the full article from 605 Magazine, click here.

October 31, 2023

Randi Haynes Receives Good Samaritan Award

Downtown Chattanooga Alliance Operations Manager Randi Haynes received the honor of a Good Samaritan Hero Award from the Tennessee Red Cross in April for her assistance delivering a baby in March of 2023. Randi was in the right place at the right time when a driver abruptly pulled their car over in Downtown Chattanooga. The driver of the car hopped out and said “Oh my gosh – my daughter’s having her baby!” As fate would have it, Randi has a background in home birth midwifery and knew just what to do until firefighters arrived. Since the delivery, Randi has received many accolades for her assistance in this woman’s time of need with the most recent being this Good Samaritan Hero Award.

Randi is a one of a kind individual and we are so proud to have her on Team Block by Block! To hear the full story, check out this video from Tennessee Red Cross.

Launching Your Ambassador Program

How Block by Block Manages Every Aspect of Your Program Implementation

Choosing Block by Block as your service provider means the heavy lifting won’t be on you or your district’s shoulders. We manage every aspect of your program from A to Z, including everything from hiring great people to ordering your new equipment and all the nuances in between. Block by Block has the operational capacity and know-how to create a one-of-a-kind program for you based on best practices we’ve learned not only from operating over 150 programs nationwide but also from being in business for nearly 30 years.

While our roots are firmly grounded in providing clean and safe operations to downtown districts, we’ve grown well beyond this into more types of services in more types of places than any of our competitors. Today, you can find us in downtowns, transit centers, parks, universities, shopping centers and other public spaces, providing cleaning and safety, of course, but also hospitality, outreach, environmental maintenance, landscaping and more.

When it comes to launching our programs, whether they are a brand new startup or a transition from another service provider, we make it easy for you, the customer.

NewTown Macon won a 2024 Great American Main Street Award for their outstanding district that is home to one of our 150 Ambassador Programs.

Once we’ve carefully worked together to establish a contract that works for both of us, we start to hand-curate your program based on your public space’s unique wants and needs. At this point, we will have already visited your district multiple times to get a good feel for your vision for the program and how we can help you reach district goals.

Your Program Manager

Your program will be assigned one of eight experienced Program Managers (PMs). Your PM will be on-site to ensure a smooth start-up or transition of services. They will familiarize themself with the contract, district parameters and everything you want your program to be. They will begin ordering and sourcing supplies from an internal Block by Block supply list that catalogs everything a program could ever need to operate based on the contract’s operating budget. We understand how big of an investment an Ambassador Program is, and we promise to be good stewards of those dollars. The PM will order just what your program needs, nothing superfluous or short of the best industry standard tools.

Your Operations Manager

While a PM will help your program get started immediately, your program will be run by an Operations Manager (OM) who will be responsible for operational oversight and quality assurance as well as serve as your daily point of contact between you and the program. They are also responsible for recruitment, training and performance counseling when necessary.

At Block by Block, we pride ourselves on promoting from within whenever possible, so all OM positions are first shared internally to see if we can hire someone already familiar with company operations and standards. Sometimes, OMs may relocate from one program to another, while other times Team Leads or other management staff are promoted to the position of OM at your new location. If we are unable to hire from within, we will hire a qualified individual directly from your community.

The PM assigned to you will work directly with your OM to ensure your expectations are met and exceeded, training them one-on-one on best practices along the way. If there is a delay in hiring an OM, your PM can also act as a stand-in until one is hired.

Within their first few months, Block by Block will fly your OM to attend our monthly Manager’s Meeting at our home base in Louisville, KY. This four-day meeting will train them on everything it takes to be a manager, from building SMART Reports to interacting with members of the street population and facilitating community partnerships to practicing responses to real-world scenarios. This meeting will add to the training they’ve already completed alongside the Project Manager and through Block by Block’s online training system on Cornerstone.

Your District, Branded

Your PM can help you finalize any branding decisions you need to make. While many districts or customers may already have established brand standards, some may not even have a logo. We can meet you where you are, whether that’s designing a logo from scratch or using your color scheme to design impactful equipment wraps, stickers, or even banners. Our In-House Graphics and Design Team will work directly with you and your PM to create the look and feel you want for your district.

Additionally, our corporate office has invested in a large-scale Roland printer that can print stickers for your equipment on-site to increase the visibility and impact of your program. Stickers can be applied to Mega Brutes, Tennax Machines, Bikes, Buckets and so much more! And, since we print and mail these directly to your team, there’s no lag time with a third-party vendor for these small branding jobs.

For printing needs that outweigh the capacity of our printer, like full vehicle wraps or large district signage, we work with trusted vendors nationwide, with a preference to use a local company in your community.

We’ve helped many customers’ visions become reality with logos, color schemes and branding packages.

Finding You Great Employees

Our Field Recruiting Specialists will have begun finding the right candidates for your Ambassador Team by creating local job postings, filtering applicants and scheduling interviews beginning about a month before your program launch date. Qualities we look for in great candidates are a strong sense of community, a love for helping others and the endurance to work a full shift outside in various conditions. As a company, we believe an employee’s personality goes a long way, so we are willing to provide necessary training if an otherwise qualified candidate lacks experience. We strive to hire for personality and train for skills.

Our Recruitment Team will take the time to screen candidates over the phone before sending them for in-person interviews with the OM or PM. This helps familiarize applicants with the job description and its physical demands, ensuring they understand they are applying for a hands-on, outdoor job with lots of walking. This first step weeds out many individuals who may not have been a good fit for the position and frees up time for the new OM and your PM to focus on other aspects of the launch.

In some locations, our customers have expressed to us a drive to hire Second-Chance employees, individuals who were formally incarcerated and who traditionally encounter roadblocks to employment but who are deemed low-risk to repeat offenses. In these instances, we can work with community partners to hire or adjust our job listings as needed to find candidates in this applicant pool.

Our SF Travel Ambassador Team in San Francisco receives more praise than any of our programs for their outstanding hospitality services they deliver to tourists visiting the city.

Transition of Service from Another Vendor to Block by Block

Not all our new customers will launch completely new programs, and whenever we take over for another company, we are always very courteous and respectful of their work. Often, we are expanding current service operations beyond cleaning to include other service elements like safety, hospitality or outreach. We recognize that some previous employees will have been with your district for many years and have formed meaningful relationships with district stakeholders. Whenever possible, we work to retain previous employees during a transition.

After being awarded your contract, we will explain to your employees what it means to work for Block by Block during in-person district visits. Thanks to our size, national reach and strong financial backing, our company usually offers higher pay and better benefits than the incumbent vendor. For those employees who want to transition with us, we are happy to give them the opportunity to do so. Of course, we make sure any transitioning employees measure up to our work performance standards and background check requirements because, after all, there is a reason you chose to switch to us.

As the leader in our industry, we do things differently. Therefore, we often have to order new equipment to replace old, outdated or underperforming equipment from previous operators. If possible, we will keep equipment that works and meets our standards. One company-wide initiative we have in place is to “Green Your Fleet” by bringing in Tenax Machines to perform litter and debris collection. Tenax International is an Italian company that manufactures 100% electric street sweepers and we have an exclusive partnership with them to provide their sweepers to our customers across the country. Their machines are quieter, to prevent unnecessary added noise; more efficient, to standardize operations; and fully electronic, meaning they’re better for the environment! We have been replacing off-market ATLVs with these Tenax machines and have already seen great results nationwide!

Our teams have shown great excitement as they receive their new, branded Tenax Maxwind and Smartwind machines!

Training Your Ambassador Team

At Block by Block, we understand the importance of training to the overall success of a program. We have set the standard in our industry for the training of our frontline employees and we continue to expand on topics to keep the curriculum modern. Every firm talks about delivering training, but we really have built out topics and deliver training to our field employees that prepare them for every aspect of their position.

All Ambassador Programs nationwide undergo general training on our online training system, Cornerstone. In addition to this, we will work with you to develop specific training that you want your Ambassador Team to focus on in your district. If you have a particular concern, like a problem with visitors feeding birds which leads to excessive droppings and debris on sidewalks, we will coach your team on informing district-goers of the reason for not feeding the birds, as well as to focus their attention on removing feed immediately if they see it.

If your program is made up of different service elements, like Cleaning and Safety, all members of your team will receive basic cross-training in cleaning, safety and hospitality. This not only creates a collaborative and unified team where all employees have a baseline knowledge of all fields, but also flexibility in your deployment and a robust Ambassador Team.

We fully believe in continuing training well past onboarding to keep our teams operating at the highest level. We have ongoing refresher courses based on feedback from the field delivered bi-monthly. Not only does ongoing training keep knowledge fresh for our Ambassadors, but it also helps maintain consistency for all our programs across the country.

Our online training modules are convenient, easy and ensure company-wide standards.

Your Program Launch

When your start date finally arrives, your Ambassador Team will be fully prepared to head out into the field. They will conduct business drop-ins to inform local businesses in the area about the program and services they provide, often handing out informative fliers we call “At Your Service” cards. These include information about the new program and the number to call if people need to request an Ambassador response or a Safety Escort, or if they need to report other issues or disturbances to the team.

Your OM will also work to establish strong community relationships depending on your unique service elements, from community outreach partners to police departments or even second-chance employment programs.

Once your PM has established that your program has what it takes to stand independently with your trained, professional Ambassador Team, they will leave, but not before guaranteeing ongoing support to your OM. Your OM is never left to figure it out themself. They are invited to stay in contact with your PM with any questions or concerns that might arise and can even reach out to their Regional Vice President (RVP) if they encounter any difficulties along the way.

Our Accountability Never Stops

Once your program is off the ground and your PM has left, we continue to be with you every step of the way.

• Your Ambassador Team is held accountable to complete logged, monthly online training.
• Members of our Corporate Team will be on-site multiple times each year – both announced and unannounced – to evaluate the program. If things are ever not working out between you and our Ambassador Team, we can increase visit frequency and managerial attention until outcomes we both desire are met.
• Twice a year, your RVP will conduct an on-site, comprehensive review of your program that measures team visibility, equipment utilization, team morale, SMART metrics, adherence to all operating processes and more.
• Every year, we also ask our customers to complete an Annual Survey to learn how we are operating from your perspective. This gives us valuable insight into what we’re doing right and what we need to work on to deliver the best service imaginable.

Our Promise

If you choose Block by Block as your service provider, you can rest assured we will walk alongside you every step of the way to deliver the Ambassador Program of your dreams. If you think a Block by Block operated program could be a good fit for your public space, we’d love the opportunity to discuss what we can do for you. Reach out to Derreck Hughes at dhughes@blockbyblock.com to schedule a conversation today!

Golden Triangle Ambassadors provide hospitality and security in Washington, DC.

Second Chances: Former inmates help bring new life to Waikiki as Aloha Ambassadors

By: Allison Schaefers | aschaefers@staradvertiser.com

This article has been shared from Honolulu Star Advertiser 

Waikiki BID Ambassadors provide hospitality to district visitors.

Jason Esau uses a pressure washer to remove dirt and grime from the sidewalks of Waikiki, while his Team Leader, Kyle Hostallero, stops to give directions to two international visitors.

The men are part of the Waikiki Business Improvement District Aloha Ambassador program, which will expand to24 hours, seven days a week this summer and is projected by year’s end to remove 500,000 pounds of trash and serve over 350,000 visitors. It’s hard work, but Esau and Hostallero smile often as they labor to leave Waikiki better than they found it. Their work brings new life to Waikiki and provides them with a second chance, too.

The men are part of the Aloha Ambassadors second chance program, which is a partnership between the Waikiki Business Improvement District and the Laumaka Work Furlough Center/Oahu Community Correctional Center. The program employs low-risk, incarcerated people, and recently released people.

Aloha Ambassadors serve as the hospitality hosts of Waikiki, providing information and assistance to those whom they encounter on the sidewalks of the Kalakaua Avenue-Kuhio Avenue corridor. Those on the clean team provide cleaning and maintenance services to supplement the city’s efforts. There also are safety ambassadors who provide services to make residents and visitors more secure.

Trevor Abarzua, WBID president and executive director, said the organization has more than 60 Aloha Ambassadors, and 16 of them are in the second-chance program, which ahs helped augment the expanding program’s needs. That’s up from 10 second-chance employees in 2023.

The Aloha Ambassador program’s current hours are 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., but Abarzua said that on July 1 is it slated to begin providing 24/7 safety Ambassadors at Kuhio Beach Park, with a homeless and mental health outreach component overnight. The change is contingent on the mayor’s budget passing, he said.

“The idea behind it is having an extra layer of safety presence here in Waikiki. They will be more of an outreach component to the overnight services,” he said.

Robert Lee, WBID director of operations, said the Aloha Ambassadors, especially those in the second-chance program, are proactive. They are an example to their peers of what they can do to turn around their lives before they reach that tipping point,” Lee said.

A Waikiki Ambassador pressure washes some newspaper receptacles.

Uplifting outreach

Abarzua said WBID has hired 34 second-chance people since June 2018, and they have a combined employment of 16,675 days with an average of 1.34 years of employment.

“Once they graduate from the work release program with us, some move on to other companies and jobs with the experience they gained as an Ambassador,” he said.

However, Abarzua said some have stayed at WBID, where the longest-tenured second-chance employees have been in the program almost six years. He said some second-chance employees have been promoted to manager positions and speciality higher-paid positions like team mechanic, which has helped the program develop a culture of membership.

Hostallero manages 25 to 30 workers as a clean-team leader but also serves as an example to those from his past whom he sees on Waikiki’s sidewalks and streets.

“I don’t’ always give them money, because I know it will probably go to alcohol or drugs, but I do make the time to hear them out and give them some words of encouragement. I’ll say, ‘Hey, If I can do it, you can do it,” Hostallero said. “If someone had come up to me before, I would have definitely thought about it and tried to work to do better.”

Hostallero said he enjoys giving back through the second-chance program, which has afforded him another chance at life. Originally from Kauai, he said, “I’ve struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism and some mental health issues due to drugs, which caused me to break some laws—nothing serious, but enough to land me in prison.”

While serving time, he said, he enrolled in the Kashbox intensive treatment program which helped support his sobriety and encouraged him to mend fences with family, including his now 12-year-old son. The program also helped Hostallero set goals, but until he found the second-chance program, it was hard to meet them.

“Before being released, I had plans at looking at construction or working as a painter. I had great ambition. But once I got out, I was applying at all these places and was getting told no or wasn’t getting called back. There were a lot of roadblocks,” he said. “Once I applied at Block by Block (a WBID contractor), they gave me a chance.”

To read the rest of this article, click here.

LOUMED Ambassadors make progress in first year

This article has been shared from WDRB News, for the original article, click here: https://bit.ly/3w3ogKO

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Whether walking, biking, or driving a 22-block area a group of ambassadors are working to be the eyes and ears around a part of downtown that works 24/7.

Part of LOUMED’s mission is to invest in its Block by Block ambassadors, a team focused on helping maintain the area and improve safety or help visitors.

“We’re down here to help make people feel safe,” said Lamont Fleming, a LOUMED ambassador.

Anchored by Norton Healthcare, UofL Health, the University of Louisville and Jefferson Community & Technical College, LOUMED is a planned medical and education district covering a large section of the city’s downtown core.

“I know we are doing the best we can,” Fleming said. “We are doing the most we can to make this a safer environment down here, because its been tough but it’s gotten better and my team is working hard, our guys are working hard to make it so much better.”

Ambassadors are charged with tasks such as cleaning or picking up garbage, helping with directions or assisting people in and out of hospitals, greeting people and safety escorts.

In its first year, ambassadors have made 190 safety escorts, 3,000 hospitality assists, greeted 194,000 people, and picked up 37 tons of trash.

“People come out and sit out and eat now at places where they didn’t eat at,” Fleming said. “It’s not trash anymore because our team comes out several times a day and clean so they don’t have to see that all day.”

Their work isn’t going unnoticed.

Cathy Green spent 26 years working at Norton, and still frequents the area.

“It just looked like it wasn’t kept up or something, but then when I started to see those guys come around I was wondering at first what they’re doing but later on when I seen the difference in the area I realized, ‘oh so they must be cleaning and decorating or something’ and it looks a lot better,” said Green.

Ambassadors are just one part of LOUMED’s mission.

LOUMED, with $1.4 million in funding from the city, will tear down the Community Correctional Center to create LOUMED Commons, an urban park with green space and pedestrian-friendly areas.

LOUMED plans to acquire the site by October.

It also plans to reimagine an eight-block corridor along Chestnut Street.  Partnering with Metro Public Works, the project is in its planning phase, which has also received an additional $1.75 million from the city. The estimated timeline is 3-5 years.

In addition to city funding, the Kentucky state budget allocated $50 million to Louisville Metro Government for downtown revitalization, which includes the Chestnut Street project.

LOUMED said the area attracts more than 1.5 million visitors per year and employs more than 16,000 people with total annual salaries surpassing $1 billion.

It stretches for 22 city blocks north to south from Liberty to Breckinridge Streets and west to east from 2nd to Clay Streets.

Connect & Share 2024: Block by Block in San Francisco

At the end of March, we brought our managers from across the country together in San Francisco for a week of extended learning, development and networking at our biannual Connect & Share Conference. It is a unique opportunity for our managers to meet people who do what they do in other cities across the country, build camaraderie and learn from one another.

Over the last few years, Block by Block has experienced immense growth, including a company-wide development of 29.9% since our last Connect & Share in Houston, TX, in 2022. In that time, we have added 26 new programs across the United States, bringing the highest standard of clean and safe services to more and more places nationwide. We’ve added 742 employees to the Block by Block family, including nine new corporate field positions who help our programs run more efficiently by supplementing and supporting the Operations Manager’s administrative work so they can stay focused on street-level operations.

As we reflected on this growth over the last two years and how far we’ve come since we started serving our first downtown district in 1995, we felt this meeting was the perfect time and place to set new standards and re-establish best practices for our local operations. The conference theme “Forward: It Starts with Us” helped capture that sentiment and emphasizes our collective responsibility to spearhead the next phase of our company’s evolution and the evolution of service delivery industry standards.

San Francisco provided the perfect backdrop for our event, not only for its reputation as a premiere tourism destination, but also because of the city’s forward-thinking approach to placemaking and activations, the number of high-profile districts and community benefit districts located in such close proximity and the diversity of programming Block by Block offers in the area.

Connect & Share 2024 was a blend of structured learning sessions, panel discussions and hands-on exploration.

Learning Sessions

New Processes Unveiled

During the conference, we unveiled new standardized operational guidelines, improvements to our STOP. THINK. ACT. safety program, Key Performance Indicators to track performance of our teams and new tools to help centralize communication and information sharing using Microsoft Teams and a revamped, optimized Block by Block SharePoint Site. These tools will provide guidance for our local managers and create streamlined processes to improve day-to-day operations.

Operating Guidelines: Carin Cardone, Derreck Hughes

Carin, East Division Vice President, and Derreck, Vice President of Operations, discussed a new standard for Block by Block operations. While administrative content has always been available in the company-wide SharePoint site, operations details have not been readily available in an accessible format. That’s why Block by Block took the time to compile all standard operating basics into one location. The guidelines are presented in a binder format that allows managers the ability to flip through sections dedicated to specific topics on operating best practice. This guidebook clarifies the standards by which all Block by Block programs are run and can be referred to on a regular basis by managers, effecting more consistency in our programs across the country. While it does not address every possible scenario, it covers topics from Standards of Professionalism to Building and Retaining a Team, Ambassador safety to Equipment and so much more! It is a much needed asset for managers to have on standby.

Dereck presents the new Operation Guidelines to a group of conference attendees.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint: Kori Parvin

Any company that has been in operation for nearly 30 years is going to have its fair share of old paperwork, files and data. Until now, much of this has been stored in our SharePoint, a web-based service for sharing and storing information that multiple users can access. Over time, the files became cluttered and difficult to search, with many unneeded or redundant documents being stored. Kori, Vice President of Field Support, spearheaded a restructuring of Sharepoint dedicated countless hours sifting through these files organizing, archiving, deleting and rewriting. The result of these efforts is a flawless, easily accessible and — most importantly — organized SharePoint site. Managers can quickly navigate the site for documents they’re looking for, search and find with ease and upload their own content as needed.

On theme with this newly organized file-access system is Block by Block’s widespread rollout of Microsoft Teams to managers across the country. Managers will be able to use Teams to communicate with their Ambassador Teams, corporate staff and community partners. They will be able to create file sharing within groups to make work easier and more efficient. Teams will connect Block by Block staff and mangers from coast to coast for both platforms and all man>agers will have access to these tools by the end of 2024.

Kori speaks to a group of conference attendees about the new SharePoint and Teams systems.

Building Ideal Teams: Angela Grether, Jay Jones

Angela, Director of Talent Acquisition and Culture, and Jay, Conference Keynote Speaker from Quantico Coaching, both session offered invaluable insights on ways managers can craft teams that thrive on collaboration, synergy and shared purpose. Block by Block utilizes Patrick Lencioni’s team-building philosophy outlined in his book The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues. It suggests three virtues that define exemplary team players: humility, hunger and people smarts. Conference attendees were given Patrick’s book to take home, read and begin putting the principals into practice to continue building great teams at their home programs.

SF Travel spends a lot of time building their Ambassador Team’s culture and serves as a great example for other programs.

Key Performance Indicators: Blair McBride, Derreck Hughes

This year, Block by Block set a new company-wide standard process for determining the performance of employees and programs across the board by establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs give a broader snapshot of overall performance that goes beyond just seeing things individually, instead offering a complete picture of how a program is operating as a whole. Some KPIs introduced by Blair and Derreck included: revenue, risk/safety, human resources, customer satisfaction, the SMART System and more.

Blair, President, emphasized how KPIs allow us to look for patterns in outcomes and behavior to improve overall performance for Block by Block as a whole. KPIs will begin being used to assess programs nationwide in the coming months, guaranteeing that the services we provide our customers are up to par with the exemplary Block by Block standard we are known for.

Stop. Think. Act. Program: John Koch, Carin Cardone

Safety is a priority at Block by Block, and one of the ways we prioritize it is through our Stop. Think. Act. Program. Part of the program is tracking the frequency of unsafe incidents. Traditionally, we have used wristbands for this program that indicate either 2+ years (green), 1+ year (yellow) or >1 year (black) without incident by their color. Now, however, as John, Central Division Vice President, and Carin revealed, a flag will be hung in every operations center that is either green, yellow or black, corresponding to time without incident.

While we want all of our programs to strive for green flags, we understand that some incidents will occur and we do our best to train and prepare our teams to react appropriately or work to prevent them in the first place. For this reason, there are new additions to this program, including updated Safety Talks and Clarified Reporting Tools. There will be Safety Summits four times annually, beyond just our traditional Safety Day, that are fun and engaging gatherings where safety and recent incidents are discussed. New Safety Captains and Safety Committee Members will disperse safety responsibilities across every team. Further safety standards will be enforced by regular Site Safety Inspections that are a part of new KPIs.

Since getting home, our Ambassador Teams have been sending us photos with their new flags. Here, Downtown Greensboro Ambassadors proudly show off their green Stop. Think. Act. flag, representing 2+ years with no incidents!

SMART 2.0: Tina Durbin, Manny Singh

Connect & Share also featured the first live demo of SMART 2.0, which is set to begin rolling out to our customers this summer. Tina, Customer Success Manager-SMART, and Manny, Lead Product Owner from SMS Holdings, have been working tirelessly at revitalizing the SMAT System. SMART 2.0 will set a new global standard for data collection and reporting software for public spaces. This was a process nearly two years in the making with developers Cube84, who are well-known in the placemaking industry for their work with District360. The revamped SMART System will feature an enhanced user experience for mobile and desktop, a highly intuitive command center, bilingual integration and real-time notifications sent from the public to field Ambassadors. Essential naming conventions will also be added for ease of searchability and long-term data organization. It is set to roll out in June/July of this year and promises to improve usability and efficiency for logging and storing data.

Kate Robinson and Marisa Rodriguez discussed with Chip the dichotomy of their two neighborhoods.

Panel Discussions

The learning sessions were broken each day by a panel discussion led by Block by Block West Coast Division Vice President – and San Francisco enthusiast – Chip. Local industry experts discussed the challenges facing placemaking operations and how to plot solutions.

Defining San Francisco Challenges and Plotting Solutions

Steve Gibson (President of Urban Place Consulting), Paul Frentsos (Chief Operating Officer of San Francisco Travel) and Chris Corgas (Deputy Director of Economic Development for the City and County of San Francisco) discussed the city’s struggles with balancing a booming economy while struggling to provide basic needs to some of its most vulnerable residents.

A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

San Francisco neighborhoods can differ vastly, while only being a few blocks apart. This panel with Kate Robinson (Executive Director of Tenderloin Community Benefit District) and Marisa Rodriguez (Chief Executive Officer of Union Square Alliance) outlined some key differences between their respective neighborhoods – one experiencing widespread, open drug use and the other a bustling tourist district – and the challenges they each face. Managers would experience firsthand the neighborhood sights during the afternoon session walking tours.

Walking tours were led by local experts: the SF Travel Ambassadors.

Walking Tours

Seeing the City at the Street Level

We couldn’t bring our teams to San Francisco without letting them explore everything the city has to offer. Our Managers spent the afternoons on guided tours through Downtown San Francisco to see our operations in action and the impact Block by Block Ambassadors have on their public spaces. They also got an in-depth look at some of the challenges facing many of our public spaces from around the country and what some people are doing to find solutions. We saw firsthand the impact of urban placemaking in transforming public spaces to be more vibrant and inviting for those who live, work and visit downtown San Francisco.

A group of Managers prepare to take a walking tour.

Market Street Track: SF Travel, Moscone Center and The East Cut

SF Travel Director of Operations, Paulita Elliott, led a presentation on how she makes her SF Travel program unique through employee engagement, community programming and team building. SF Travel Ambassadors provide essential hospitality to tourists throughout San Francisco. Their welcoming, outgoing demeanor makes visitors feel comfortable and at ease asking for assistance. Managers learned from Paulita ways to improve Ambassador morale, create a strong team culture and  some of the ins and outs of SF Travel’s behind-the-scenes operations.

At the Moscone Center, managers were able to see some new equipment Block by Block has been rolling out to the field nationwide. Through a new partnership with Tenax International, Block by Block has begun delivering new, maneuverable electronic vehicles that pick-up litter and leaf debris. The machines are clean, green and – important for city neighborhoods – quiet.

While touring The East Cut, managers saw the impact developing unused space can have on a neighborhood. The Crossing at East Cut was formerly a bus depot, but had ceased being used. With much thanks to efforts of Block by Block’s Moe Tinoifili and James Laqui, The East Cut was developed into a community park with pickleball courts, a soccer field, an open-air gym and more. While this development was only meant to be temporary, the community rallied around it enough to make part of it permanent, even after development of a new building in the adjoining lot is complete. Managers learned a lot about how intentionally-developed placemaking can impact a community.

Bob Martins, Region 915 Maintenance Mechanic, and Clayton Ratledge, Regional Vice President, stand beside Union Square’s brand new Tenax Maxwind.

Tenderloin Track: Union Square Dispatch, Tenderloin Neighborhood and Outreach Support Services

Union Square Member Services, also known as Dispatch, operates out of the same building as SF Travel, so managers returned to the historic Flood Building to learn about how Ambassadors are dispatched to community requests. Calls come into the Dispatch Center and are dispersed based on need to appropriate Ambassadors or community partnership organizations.

As the group continued their tour to the Tenderloin Neighborhood, the scene changed drastically from the tourist-bustling neighborhood of Union Square. The Tenderloin is home to many small, single-room occupancy apartments that share a bathroom at the end of the hall, so many residents will hangout on the sidewalks during the day. The narrow sidewalks of the Tenderloin have become a mecca for people sitting and lying down. They were full of individuals experiencing homelessness, open-air drug use and even a tent here and there. During the tour of the neighborhood, the group had to step over people or squeeze past people and tents on the crowded sidewalks.

The group learned of an initiative begun by the community called “Safe Passage,” where community members ensure children get to and from school or daycare by leading them from place to place with a leader at the front and back. It has wide community backing and ensures children get where they need to be safely. They learned about the passion of community who call the Tenderloin home and take great pride in its history by making it a better place for all through community parks and other initiatives.

Local outreach in the neighborhood was also discussed that expanded on the panel session from Steve, Paul and Chris on Defining San Francisco Challenges and Plotting Solutions.

Tenderloin Community Benefit District Director of People and Culture spoke about community efforts in the district.

Closing Out the Conference

As Block by Block does, we had lots of fun. And, of course, we made sure to celebrate all the amazing individuals who make our organization so special.

Block by Block Regional Vice Presidents chose two outstanding managers from each region as Rookie ofthe Year and Frank Zammarelli MVP of the Year. These individuals represent the best of the best in Block by Block leadership for their dedication to their team and program. The overall winner of the Rookie of the Year went to Operations Manager (OM) Jason Stewart of Ybor City in Tampa, FL. Sonja Brunner, OM of Downtown Santa Cruz in CA received the award for MVP of the Year. We are so proud of these two and of all our nominees for the work they do each day in their districts! The other nominees included:

As a company, Block by Block has always set the standard for Ambassador services. We believe in our past success and we recognize the importance of our present to impact the future of public space service delivery. We take that responsibility very seriously and that’s why we always continue to train, excite and stimulate our managers with new and innovative ideas to make our industry better from the ground up.

We consider this Connect & Share one of our absolute best, and we look forward to seeing how the seeds we planted in our managers in San Francisco bloom into creative, energized outcomes in their  programs across the country.

Downtown Iowa City Welcomes New Ambassador Program

A life after drugs: Baltimore man shares his story to save lives

This story has been copied from WMAR2News.com

By: Kara Burnett

BALTIMORE — “Hey Teddy! What’s up man, how you doing this morning,” said Antonio Brown, a safety and cleaning guide for Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.

It’s the park where everyone knows his name. Antonio Brown is a familiar face in Federal hill.

“I’m a people person. I love animals and they took me in like family. They keep asking me if I’m coming back. I’m not going anywhere,” said Brown.

Brown is described by many park-goers as a dog whisperer.

“You alright scratchy? I know I haven’t seen you in a couple days,” said Brown.

He’s committed to pouring into the neighborhood, after years of taking from the community.

“It was fast money. I started smoking when I was 11, started drinking when I was 9. Sooner or later I was wondering, there has to be a better life than this,” said Brown.

From an early age Brown was surrounded by a life of drugs.

“What I saw in the street, it was normal because it was in my household. My mother showed me how to cook crack, my grandfather taught me how to cut heroin. It was just a lifestyle I was brought into,” said Brown.

It wasn’t long before he became addicted to what he was selling.

“It isn’t just getting the drugs out your system. It’s getting it out your mind. When they say you have to change the people, place and things, it’s the truth. But I never thought of it, going back and forth from prison,” said Brown.

After decades of dealing, Brown checked himself into a rehabilitation center. But it wasn’t easy shaking the only life he knew.

“I found myself for the first 4 months actually dealing in there.  Just one, if I could have one person listen to me, that could spread like currents in the water,” said Brown.

After months of working through different treatment programs, he wasn’t prepared for the “what’s next.”

“They were like your time is up Mr. Brown. I’ve been in the streets for more than 40 years. I need more than the program. My dreams for my kids are for them to live a righteous life, focus on their family and not get caught up in this world of drugs. This thing is real,” said Brown.

Brown is taking classes to become a peer recovery coach, hoping to be a mentor to others.

“What I might say, might save somebody’s life. I had some people say to me why do you talk about it? Why don’t you just forget about that life? I can’t forget about that life, it’s pain,” said Brown.

For the past 4 years, he’s been finding ways in this new chapter to spread joy and focus on the future.

“I didn’t see any of this. I couldn’t see as far as that next pole. I wouldn’t say it’s a shame that it took me this long to figure out what I wanted to do. But I did. Now that the door is open, I can see way past that pole,” said Brown.

Downtown OKC Partnership’s Green Team: Elevating Downtown Excellence

By: Selena Romero / Inside OKC / February 28, 2024

Oklahoma City’s Green Team, an initiative of Downtown OKC Partnership, is a dedicated force of downtown ambassadors dedicated to keeping our downtown OKC safe and clean. As the city thrives, the Green Team plays a pivotal role in realizing the importance of the Business Improvement District (BID).

Phi Nguyen, Chief Operating Officer of Downtown OKC, says the cleanliness of downtown OKC is no result of magic but meticulous planning and execution. 

“Our BID, the largest geographically and by budget in the city, covering 1.5 square miles and six downtown districts, gives us a unique position to shape a cohesive vision and plan for downtown—keeping it safe, clean and inviting,” Nguyen shared.

While the traditional responsibilities of a BID include ensuring cleanliness and safety, evolving communities have highlighted the significance of extending this responsibility beyond the public realm. Downtown OKC takes a proactive approach to activating unused spaces or reinventing existing spaces in the urban core through various programs. Programs like Mural Match and Midtown Tree Grant exemplify this, allowing property owners to request support in enhancing streetscapes within the six districts.  

After 18 months of engaging with community partners and studying best practices from other cities, the Green Team was launched in the spring of 2022. The team uniquely collaborates with Block by Block, one of the nation’s largest providers of street-level services to improvement districts. Block by Block provides safety, cleaning, landscaping, hospitality and social outreach services. This strategic move brings together local talent to address the varied needs of the community efficiently as opposed to hiring several different companies to address services individually.  

The Green Team provides various essential services including trash and waste removal, street vacuuming, pressure washing sidewalks, sticker and graffiti removal, special event information, business check-ins and hospitality. The Green Team also provides homeless outreach. Last year, the 14-member team conducted 5,044 welfare check-ins by connecting with unhoused individuals in the downtown area.  

Furthermore, they provided hospitality assistance in 62,770 instances, answering questions, directing visitors to OKC attractions or simply providing directions. The team also demonstrated their commitment to safety and cleanliness by removing 1,364 biohazards, conducting 4,685 proactive business check-ins with downtown establishments, recycling 28.85 lbs. of cigarette butts, addressing 2,505 instances of graffiti and dedicating 727 hours to pressure washing.  

The program’s thoughtfully crafted approach acknowledges the premium service it provides. Downtown property owners, recognizing the significance, actively support the initiative. The bright green branding of the Green Team on vehicles and uniforms serves to connect the dots, ensuring that people recognize it as a downtown BID program.  

Phi Nguyen shared her enthusiasm about the public-facing role of the Green Team, emphasizing the critical importance of customer service. “Whether interacting with property owners, retailers, visitors, or residents, the Green Team brings an advanced level of hospitality to the forefront,” Nguyen said.  

The success of this initiative reflects the local dedication and a shared vision for the future of downtown Oklahoma City.  

This story was shared from: https://www.velocityokc.com/blog/inside-okc/downtown-okc-partnership-s-green-team-elevating-downtown-excellence/?back=super_blog

Bridging Gaps through Empowerment, Resources and Compassion

“It’s brought very sincere moments for me that have opened my eyes and makes me really love the work that my team and I do,” Downtown Santa Monica (DTSM) Outreach Coordinator Donovan Wilkes said reflecting on his work with individuals experiencing homelessness.

Through determination, repeat interactions and immense patience, Donovan and his team of Outreach Ambassadors in DTSM make a real difference in the lives of people who are unhoused by connecting them with community resources.

Every day, Donovan loads his backpack with supplies to serve street residents in DTSM and then hits the streets on foot. His typical walking route includes Downtown’s Promenade and other hotspots where he finds some familiar faces — the regulars of the street community — hanging out. His goal each day is to meet and greet people who are unhoused, offer them connections to resources and generally form relationships with them.

When speaking to someone, he always asks if they “know anyone” who might be looking for services. By asking if they know someone and not if they need the services themselves, the people he talks to don’t feel pressured by his presence. If they’re interested in information, Donovan will share it, but if they’re not, he’ll just carry on with his walk and plan to try again another day. For the regulars, he’ll just see how they’re doing or if anything new is going on.

These conversations are generally light and friendly. As he makes his way through the district, he radios his other team members or messages them on their WhatsApp group to see what is happening in the other areas covered by the team. He keeps a lookout for other social service providers to say hello or join forces and walk together to nurture a working relationship toward a common goal of providing solutions for people on the streets.

Donovan has worked with Block by Block (BBB) off and on since 2015, first as a Safety Ambassador in West Hollywood and later an Outreach Specialist for Westwood in 2017. At Westwood, he got the Outreach Program up and running and was promoted to Operations Manager within two years, where he stayed until 2020. After a brief hiatus working in the non-profit field, Donovan returned to BBB in 2022 and began working with DTSM as an Outreach Coordinator, where he leads a small but mighty team of three Outreach Ambassadors.

The Outreach Team and the Area They Cover

BBB’s dynamic Outreach Team led by Donovan consists of three dedicated Outreach Ambassadors — Amy, Michael and Marc — who all worked in community outreach before they joined the team. Their experience and pre-existing relationships with social service providers have helped prepare them for the work they do each day.

The DTSM Outreach Team efforts are focused on downtown and three parks: Palisades, Reed and Tongva. The parks offer an enticing environment for members of the street population with places to sit, lay down or hide — all with less enforcement than downtown. Palisades Park also faces the ocean, providing a scenic view for transients just passing through the district and local street residents alike.

Beyond this core team, BBB provides the added resource of an experienced outreach expert in Director of Outreach, Chico Lockhart. Chico has an uncanny ability to mix humor and fun with serious, informative, real-world training. He is an asset to all BBB Outreach Teams nationwide, providing valuable insight, direction and advice. He travels to check in with BBB Outreach Programs across the country and meets with the teams virtually every month for essential mental health training, collaborative discussions and more.

“The [DTSM] team has a great leader who is very knowledgeable about services and how to get people help in the community.” Chico said. “Donovan is also spearheading meetings with the city/DTSM to discuss system gaps and trying to find ways to collaborate.”

One way Donovan illustrates these gaps in services is through data. Data plays a large role in understanding the unhoused crisis and working toward solutions for service providers, urban placemaking organizations and stakeholders alike. While the real impact is on the lives of individuals being served at the street level, data is essential to prove the value of the work being done each day by the team and to illustrate why additional services might be needed in the community. Some of this information can also be added to BBB’s proprietary SMART System to produce data and reports for district stakeholders detailing the impact the team has on the community.

The Outreach Team utilizes SMART System’s “Persons” tool to track the Top Ten people seen and interacted with in the district. Outreach Ambassadors will go over the Top Ten list monthly, making sure the team is aligned with how they are engaging with the individuals they see most frequently. Data can also show if there are any shortcomings in community-wide service delivery, if businesses have repeat incidents with the same people, the number of individuals seen using drugs in the open, interactions made and other pertinent figures.

Outreach Ambassador Amy speaks with a street resident.

The Things They Carry: Snack Packs, Flyers, Narcan and More

Each member of the DTSM Outreach Team carries a backpack with essentials for whatever they might encounter on their daily walks. In their backpack, they have what they refer to as “Snack Packs,” a prepackaged drawstring bag that includes water, an electrolyte drink, protein shake, tuna or chicken salad, chips, granola bar and, most importantly, Donovan’s business card.

These packs help get people essential vitamins and nutrients they may be lacking while informing them of local resources and service organizations that are listed on the back of Donovan’s card. Their purpose is to show individuals on the street that our team is here to help them find long-term service solutions that can guide them from Point A to Point B.

Also in their backpacks are gloves and first aid supplies, hygiene kits and service flyers. The flyers share information on different providers in the area and the specific services they offer, as well as schedules for available services. Donovan stresses the importance of not only putting information in their hands, but making sure information is accurate. Having the right information, Donovan says, is one of the secrets to a successful Outreach Team.

“A very big difference that my team makes for the community is we provide accurate and supportive information to those at the street level,” Donovan said. “They do know where to go and we are constantly motivating people. The information that we provide, but also the drive we provide to people who are on the streets, letting them know, encouraging them to get ahead of the system and not fall victim to the system.”

One final item that Outreach Team Members carry is a lifesaving tool called Narcan. Narcan is a medicine that can quickly reverse a narcotics overdose. All team members have been trained to use Narcan. Since they have started carrying it in their packs and storing it at podiums throughout the district, they have responded to six overdoses, five of which they were able to successfully reverse with the medicine.

In fact, on the same day Marc was trained to use Narcan, he reversed an overdose by himself —quite likely saving the person’s life.

“Overdoses are happening at alarming rates, not just in Santa Monica,” Donovan said. “Being able to actually respond to someone experiencing an overdose—I commend my team very much. I applaud my team for that–being able to take action in times that are life and death, giving [people] a second chance to kick addiction.”

According to The American Journal of Medicine, from 1999 to 2020 overdose deaths in the US more than quadrupled from 6.9 per 100,000 deaths to 30 per 100,000. The US also had more overdose deaths from May 2022 to May 2023 than any other 12-month period in history. Narcan is a powerful resource that helps BBB Outreach Ambassadors fight this fatal problem at the street level.

Donovan received The Citizen Impact Award from Santa Monica’s Police Department for his assistance reversing an overdose in 2023.

To read more about Donovan and his work in DTSM, click here.

Getting The Right Information: Advocacy and Nurturing Relationships with Community Providers

Outreach workers are key to helping connect those on the streets with services throughout the city, so those referrals need to reflect accurate information. If a member of the team were to give out incorrect information on services, that could spread quickly through the street population and the team could lose their credibility and respect.

“DTSM’s Outreach Team not only focuses on relationship building for those experiencing homelessness, but also with the local service providers,” Donovan says. “By building these relationships, a sense of trust is created instantly when making warm handoffs from DTSM’s Outreach Team to the local service providers.”

The team often goes into the field alongside workers from various community organizations to meet new people together, make recommendations for services or connect individuals they may already know with the other’s resources.

When not in the field, Donovan spends time researching new resources available to individuals experiencing homelessness. If he finds a new resource, he’ll reach out to the provider to begin fostering a relationship with them, asking to meet for coffee so he can learn more about what they do.

Some of the community partners DTSM Outreach currently works closely with includes:

• The People Concern – a leading housing provider
• The Salvation Army – provides a meal program almost daily and assists people going through detox
• Safe Place for Youth – for youths to get into housing quickly, sometimes even within a week
• St. Joseph Center – another leading housing provider
• West Coast Care – focusing on family reunification by helping individuals find their families and problem solve together
• Department of Mental Health – take on clients who have more severe mental health issues
• Chrysalis – a non-profit assisting with employment
• Clare Matrix – a treatment program for people battling substance abuse
• SMPD’s HLP Unit – an initiative that provides special training and awareness to police regarding people who are experiencing homelessness

“DTSM’s Outreach Team has established strong relationships with those experiencing homeless in DTSM,” Donovan says. “These relationships have resulted from the team continuously checking in with the unhoused and being knowledgeable of resources in the area. By creating these relationships, the Outreach Team is recognized as a reliable support of the [unhoused] community with the [unhoused] population now referring others to inquire about services with DTSM’s Outreach Team.”

BBB Outreach Members are able to work in tandem with social service providers through use of Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to individuals and families at risk of and experiencing homelessness.

Social service providers across the country enter data on specific individuals experiencing homelessness into HMIS, including providers they are working with, medical history, where they are from or were last located, whether someone is looking for them and much more. Chico was instrumental in getting DTSM’s Outreach Team access to HMIS, which is usually only given to social service providers.

“It’s typically places like shelters, mental health providers, substance abuse treatment, housing providers and outreach workers at nonprofit agencies,” Chico said. “This is a way for them to track who is helping people and also helps get more funding for those agencies based on metrics…We are not service providers like entities within the Continuum of Care, so we act as a referral source, and we are able to document who is on the streets to keep them on the radar for housing.”

Chico continued, “HMIS is a game changer because it allows our Outreach Workers to get our unhoused people on the housing list without having to depend on other entities. It also allows us to see where our clients are in the process, whether they’re in shelter, case management, substance abuse treatment or housing. We can also see if they have been approved for housing, so we are able to then find our client and do what is needed for the housing before the voucher window expires.”

Donovan’s Team can assess resources they should recommend to a person, add notes, photos or documentation into the system and even help locate missing street residents.

In February of 2023, Donovan’s Team was instrumental in locating someone who was considered “lost.” The Consulate of Sweden came to DTSM looking for a Swedish citizen who had been living in the US for three years as a street resident. In collaboration with the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) and BBB’s DTSM Ambassador Program, Donovan was able to locate the missing man.

“[The citizen] was transported to and put into a motel by DTSM where SMPD was able to transport [him] to and from The Consulate’s office to prepare his passport and flight tickets. [He] has since returned to his home in Sweden,” Donovan said.

Donovan speaks to a member of the street population.

Perceptions and Realities in DTSM

The City of Santa Monica conducts a yearly “Homeless Count” to determine the number of individuals experiencing homelessness. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of individuals living on the street increased 15%. Donovan co-led the 2024 count, and he said early results appear similar to or slightly higher than the numbers from 2023. He said while data has shown that people experiencing homelessness are finding housing, there are also many individuals exiting housing back to the streets.

“Affordable housing isn’t the most affordable.” Donovan says.

Housing rates have increased, the cost of living is not cheap and there is not enough affordable housing in Los Angeles or Santa Monica. He says that these factors, mental health and drug abuse are major contributors to the number of people living on the streets.

“Even spending a week on the street, your mental health will decrease drastically; living on the street puts you in survival mode,” he said.

When asked about the perception of individuals living on the street versus reality, Donovan says many people just want to be left alone and aren’t necessarily a problem to the public.

“There are a good amount of people who have mental health [concerns] and mix that with substances, can be frightening. Many people are just living their lives and don’t want to be bothered,” he said.

Because the Outreach Team has relationships with individuals living on the street, they are often called to de-escalate “scary” situations. They can address the person who might be causing a scene or other incident by name and ask them what’s going on, putting onlookers at ease and finding a resolution without police involvement.

Donovan recalls a time when his team was called to help with a “notable character” in the district suffering from mental health struggles.

“He did not engage well. He was racist…He did not do well with women either…so, there were gaps with engaging,” Donovan said. “He had severe mental health issues and was a high functioning substance user.”

While he wasn’t the nicest, he did want to get off the streets. So, the team was determined to help him. At one point, they managed to secure him housing, but he was kicked out for his behavior, making it unlikely he would be offered housing again. The team worked tirelessly with him to change his ways and, ultimately, were able to encourage him to take the medicine he had been prescribed to help with the mental health issues he was experiencing.

“He took the medicine [and] his behaviors changed drastically.” After that, Donovan said, he was admitted to housing and is still there today.

What’s Next for DTSM Outreach?

Donovan has many goals for his team in 2024 beyond connecting those experiencing homelessness to local service providers. First and foremost, he wants to build an even stronger relationship with The City of Santa Monica to make the best use of their investment in street-level outreach — ensuring the Human Service Department and DTSM Outreach efforts are in line with one another. To do this, Donovan aims to meet with Santa Monica’s Human Service Department, share DTSM Outreach success stories and plan collaborative events.

Another hope for the future? To get at least one dedicated bed in a local shelter where the team can send a person in need. Currently, the Outreach Team must work through other providers to get individuals in shelters. Donovan dreams of his team being able to directly provide that service to at least one person.

The Big Takeaway

When faced with a problem as large as homelessness, it is hard to imagine a way to effect real change. Donovan and his team are the boots on the ground doing just that — putting in the time, building relationships and trust with people living on the streets and guiding them in the right direction to live better lives.

What Donovan finds rewarding about his work is these relationships he builds and the growth he sees in many thanks to the help of the right connections. He watches and reflects on each person’s journey from those first interactions when they may be down on their luck, to those moments when they are housed and on the other side.

While the work may not always be easy, Donovan and his team are dedicated to making a real difference in DTSM. More than anything, Donovan wants people to know his team’s purpose: “To bridge gaps in communities by empowering people and promoting resources with a compassionate approach.”

Ambassador Marc checks on a street resident.

Who You Gonna Call? Dispatch Services!

A Look at Block by Block Managed Dispatch Service Programs for Hollywood Partnership and Union Square

Two Dispatch Team Members look at computers at the Hollywood Partnership Dispatch Center.

Block by Block is known for delivering exceptional service in public spaces, but our operations go far beyond what is seen at the street level. We operate sophisticated, multifaceted programs that support our teams, customers and their stakeholders in the field. With the addition of dispatch services, we can elevate our service level capacity for our customers.

While most Block by Block Ambassador Programs across the country respond to calls and requests for services, we are seeing an increased need for formalized dispatch services for the districts we serve. Urban place management organizations (UPMO) have brought dispatch services to the community level to fill gaps in services provided by city resources.

District-led dispatch services operate much like traditional emergency response — answering calls, dispatching teams, monitoring surveillance and providing an added layer of support for the community. They also lend to the customer service experience by doubling as call-in concierge services for business, residents and visitors alike. Our teams are equipped to handle requests for service ranging from cleanups to intercepting individuals causing disruptions in the public space.

Dispatch services also have a positive impact on businesses and stakeholders in a community. Public Safety escorts create a better employee experience in today’s tough job market, immediate response to calls means the frustrations of street level incidents are easier to manage (aiding employee retention) and the reports generated by this work can be directly tied back to the specific properties, enabling UPMOs to show the value of the work and identify areas where resources could be more effectively deployed.

Supplementing services

For many UPMOs across the country, bringing services like cleaning, public safety and dispatch in-house has allowed districts to create better outcomes for their community by supplementing amenities currently provided by the city. By utilizing in-house Dispatch Services, district users can expect quicker response times while preventing unnecessary calls to the police department.

In January of 2023, The Hollywood Partnership (HP) in Los Angeles unveiled its new Community Dispatch Center which aimed to streamline cleaning, safety and hospitality efforts across the district. It operates around-the-clock with about 90 Safety Ambassadors, Cleaning Ambassadors and Dispatch Members working at any given time. General Manager Sergio Andrades says the community is “like Vegas—never stopping, never sleeping.”

In their first six months, HP Dispatch received over 9,400 calls for service, including requests for welfare checks, cleanups, safety escorts and more (Hollywood Partnership Community Dispatch Center 6-Month Update). Sergio said most of the calls that come through in the evening are for safety escorts and requests to intervene with members of the street population.

In many communities across the country, if a member of the street population is causing a disturbance, the police are called. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, they receive 140,000 calls related to homelessness each year. This occupies police time, can escalate the situation unnecessarily and upset the unhoused individual further.

Because our Ambassadors spend considerable time in their districts, they are known to many members of the community — including the unhoused. When responding to non-emergency calls, Ambassadors can use their established relationships and de-escalation training to handle matters with care and compassion. The Dispatch Center can also help connect individuals with the proper social service agency while monitoring the situation as it unfolds at the street level.

Working with UPMOs, Block by Block has found implementing operations focused on community-based resources for the unhoused and increased safety initiatives, like dispatch centers, is working to enhance perceptions of public safety for our customers all while improving quality of life for the community at large.

“I wanted to commend you on all the work you all put in everyday to make Hollywood Boulevard a better place.” Hollywood resident Sydney Koepke shared via email. “[Before the Ambassadors], it felt super unsafe and dirty. I see a huge difference every day…in how Hollywood is being turned around. I really appreciate you all for continuing to help Hollywood become a safer, cleaner place for all of us.”

Hollywood Partnership Ambassadors walk through the district.

Synergy of Services

Block by Block launched hospitality services for HP in 2019 with a team of just 14 Ambassadors. By early 2023, Block by Block expanded services to include cleaning, safety and dispatch, growing the program to 90 employees. The client, already familiar with Block by Block, knew working with one company who can fulfill a variety of service needs effectively is easier than consulting with multiple companies to complete tasks that often overlap.

We’ve seen a similar transition for the Union Square Alliance in San Francisco. Block by Block has provided Ambassador Services in various capacities for the improvement district since 2015. Upon contract renewal in October 2023, Block by Block expanded programming to include Member Services — dispatch and other community resources — which was previously managed in-house by Union Square staff. Block by Block not only took over operational duties for the Member Services, but also administrative responsibilities like human resources and payroll for the team.

An added benefit is having a cohesive program all under the operational oversight of one person — General Manager Lance Goree. Lance oversees all elements of the Union Square program including cleaning, hospitality, placemaking and dispatch services. Not only does this provide budgetary benefits for customers, but also elicits a unified response to calls for service.

According to Sergio, Block by Block’s ability to manage Dispatch Services “sets us apart” from other service providers. Without a dedicated Dispatch Team, handling calls for requests falls on UPMO management or the Ambassador Team. These calls can interrupt the busy workload of these individuals, leading to difficulty following up and making sure tasks are completed. With devoted Dispatchers, requests are always completed from beginning to end.

“Our Dispatch Team is waiting for your call,” Sergio said. “They help alleviate requests coming in and they trust that the requests will be completed by the teams in the field. They trust but verify by calling and getting photos. They then follow up with the people who made the requests.”

Expanding Community Partnerships 

The HP Community Dispatch Center is unique in that it is a collaborative partnership with the City of Los Angeles, Council District 13, Los Angeles County, LAPD and Hollywood 4WRD. When a call or request comes in, depending on the need of the call, the dispatch team directs the call to one of the aforementioned agencies or to BBB Safety, Hospitality and Cleaning Ambassadors. This allows requests and incidents to be funneled to the appropriate channels which are best suited to handle them most effectively.

A March 2022 survey conducted by the International Downtown Association identified addressing homelessness as the top priority for its U.S. members. For HP, that means working to address homelessness, addiction and mental health concerns for unhoused people in the district by connecting them with programs that can provide services to get the help they need. As calls come in regarding individuals who are unhoused, they can be directed to those in the partnership who work with the specific need.

Recently an assault resulting in a head injury was reported to the Community Dispatch Center. An HP Ambassador was the first to respond and consequently called 911 for an elevated response due to the violent nature of the assault. LAPD response took 30 minutes, during which the Ambassador Team mobilized to keep eyes on the suspect and monitor his location.

The Ambassador had taken a photo of the victim and collected all pertinent information to give to LAPD upon their arrival on the scene, which was after the victim had been transported to the hospital. The Ambassadors directed the LAPD officers to the suspect and subsequently an arrest was made.

“If it weren’t for [the Ambassadors] sticking around and gathering all the information while concurrently monitoring the suspect’s location, LAPD would not have been able to make an arrest and it’s possible the incident wouldn’t even have been documented, much less an arrest effected,” Angela La Riva, Vice President of Operations for HP, said.

“Due to our footprint in the [Hollywood Entertainment District], we are often the first to receive reports of violence and theft. With our [law enforcement] partners being so severely understaffed, we are often tasked to assist in connecting victims with [the police department] and providing important information so an investigation can be conducted. We play an important role in keeping Hollywood safe. This is fantastic work and a great example of how our team can partner with our public safety partners and help victims in the community.”

The Hollywood Partnership Dispatch Center disperses call and email requests through a variety of channels to ensure appropriate responses. (Hollywood Partnership Community Dispatch Center 6-Month Update)

Quick, Efficient, Response

Having a dedicated Dispatch Team makes a significant difference in the ability to respond to requests for services. Both HP and Union Square Alliance utilize software that ensures every request is followed through from beginning to end. This guarantees service delivery for community stakeholders, promising districts they always get what they pay for.

The average response time for a request to HP Dispatch is 8-minutes (Community Dispatch Center 6-Month Update). Two HP Dispatchers monitor phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week, awaiting calls and emails from district stakeholders, visitors, businesses or residents.

Once a request is received, it is inputted into a software application that alerts the Ambassador Team of the request. The team will respond by priority based on the severity or urgency of the request. For instance, a request to handle a disgruntled individual would take precedence over a graffiti removal request. Sergio said lately there have been many calls requesting trash cleanup, and in June alone his teams collected 78 tons of garbage.

When Dispatch Team Members arrive for their shift, they review the app to ensure requests are being taken care of and reports are being closed. To document a request’s completion, HP Ambassadors will send photos of the completed work in the app or to Block by Block’s proprietary data collection and reporting software, the SMART System.

A Union Square Ambassador sweeps up a mess.

Like HP, Union Square Member Services operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Phone lines are monitored around the clock to ensure all requests are heard, documented and handled. Union Square also has an elaborate security camera system in place the team monitors for unfolding situations or possible threats that may need to be addressed by Ambassadors, security personnel or police officers.

As calls and requests come in, the team will triage them based on priority and to which department they need to be directed. Requests involving members of the street population are forwarded to the security team, while those that can be handled by Ambassadors are sent to them accordingly. If the situation escalates or calls for it, it will be handed over to local police officers. The requests are dispersed via radio, a queue on SMART System or by calling Team Leads directly on their work phone for requests that are more private in nature.

Union Square uses District360 to manage requests. District360 is a Customer Relationship Management system that works directly with Salesforce that BBB Ambassadors use on their devices. Like in HP, not all requests are for BBB Ambassadors. So, requests are always first entered into Salesforce before being distributed to the responsible parties who may be using other software programs or response plans.

When a request is inputted into Salesforce for an Ambassador, Ambassadors will be pinged in District360 on their handheld devices to notify them that something needs to be addressed. Most of the time, Member Service Team Members will follow up to confirm tasks have been completed, ensuring guaranteed service delivery from beginning to end for stakeholders in the district.

As the landscape of public spaces continues to evolve, the importance of community-based services remains a priority for many UPMOs. Block by Block is focused on providing Ambassador Programs that go beyond clean and safe, and Dispatch Centers like those in Union Square and Hollywood show the value of having a service partner who can deliver on bettering districts.

If you want to discuss how BBB can provide Dispatch Services for your district or community, reach out to Aaron Perri at aperri@blockbyblock.com . 

A Union Square Ambassador provides hospitality.

Semu One Bear: Respecting Heritage and a Heritage of Respect

Semu One Bear, Regional Vice President of Northern California

“The Chumash used every bit of what Mother Nature gave them. I am so proud of that culture that I have.”

November is Native American Heritage Month, a month dedicated to recognizing the many contributions Native Americans made and continue to make to The United States. This month, we would like to highlight Block by Block (BBB) Regional Vice President of Northern California, Semu One Bear, who spent his formative years growing up on a Native American reservation in Southern California.

A Love that Crossed the Pacific to Chumash Land

“The teepee we lived in and that’s my dad on the right holding the bow and my grandfather is on his right” – Semu

Semu’s history may seem unique to some, although to him – it’s just the way he was raised. He grew up in a culturally diverse household made up of both Native American and Japanese traditions. Semu’s father was a member of the Chumash Tribe in Southern California, while his mother is Japanese. His father was stationed in Japan while he served in the military, and after serving he later returned to study Japanese. It was then that he met Semu’s mother and the two fell in love.

According to Semu, because of Japanese perceptions of The United States after WWII, his mother’s family did not approve of the relationship at the time. So, the two eloped and moved to The United States, where they would start building their life and family together on land that Semu’s grandfather, a full-blooded Chumash Tribe member, had secured from the United States government.

The Chumash Tribe are some of the original true Californians.

“The Chumash very much used a lot of the gifts that Mother Earth gave them through the ocean. They used natural tar that washes up on shore for their boats and canoes. The land in California provided a lot for the people and they lived off the land very beautifully.”

To this day, you can see locations throughout California named after Native American names, so there is the opportunity to remember the history of the original Californians if one looks close enough.

“This was once a country where we lived off the earth and treated Mother Earth with the respect she deserves. Hopefully, people will eventually realize that and we can go back to that.”

In Chumash culture it is typical to be named after your grandfather, not your father. For this reason, Semu was named after his grandfather, a well-respected Medicine Man in the Chumash Tribe.

Life on the Rez: The Native American Way of Life

“That’s my sister on the far left and I’m standing next to her” – Semu

While living on “the Rez,” as Semu and his sister called it, Tribe Members stuck together and were very close.

“All of the men in the camp were my uncles, I consider them family. It was a very free, very spiritual upbringing,” Semu said.

One school Semu attended while living on Chumash land was a two-room schoolhouse with just a classroom and a gym where first grade to high school students were taught in the same room. Students would even arrive for school on horseback.

There were times when he and his family would stay in teepees. At one point, while they had a cabin being built, they lived exclusively in the teepee until the cabin was finished.

“I loved it as a child. There was a lot of freedom growing up. I would go with the rest of the kids to the mountains and hills, hunting, fishing, and living outside like the old ways. It was very spiritual.”

“My Grandfather Semu Huaute, a Chumash medicine man and who I’m named after” – Semu

As Medicine Man, Semu’s grandfather provided alternative medicine for those who were dealing with physical or mental ailments that didn’t require a trip to the hospital. He also led spiritual ceremonies and sweat lodges.

“When you go to a sweat, you’re supposed to sweat the bad out of your body and pray to the Great Spirit in the sweat lodge. We’d run out after to go jump in the river because we were so overheated.”

Semu danced, drummed, sang and attended powwows. During powwow birthdays, the family celebrating a birthday would give out presents to the rest of the band or camp, the opposite of traditional birthday parties most of us are familiar with.

Even though Semu and his family eventually left the reservation around the time he was in middle school, they did not stop participating in Chumash traditions.

Home Life Growing Up: Japanese and Chumash Worlds Collide

“My mom is on the far right standing next to my older sister” – Semu

Semu’s father was a strict military man who taught Semu and his sister to respect their elders and not to talk back, helping lead them down the right path. He worked for the school district and held Semu and his sister to high standards of studying and participating in their cultural heritages.

After moving off the reservation, the family still participated in powwows, including The Stanford University Powwow that is held every year. Just to participate in Powwow dances, Semu would have to spend three hours, twice a week, practicing dances after school. Semu’s father also made traditional Native American turquoise jewelry to wear and sell at these events.

In addition to teaching his children his Native American heritage, Semu’s father also devoted time to raising Semu and his sister with his wife’s Japanese culture.

Since his father spoke fluent Japanese and his mother was Japanese, they only spoke Japanese in the house. Semu and his sister weren’t allowed to speak English at home.

Semu remembers being “forced” to study Japanese reading and writing and feeling bitter about it at the time. Now, however, he realizes what an advantage it is to know a second language and is grateful for the work he did to learn Japanese and speak it fluently to this day.

Semu’s father also wouldn’t allow them to participate in sports, so instead Semu studied Aikido, a Japanese martial art that empowers one to overcome their ego to prevent violence when possible. At one point, he did sign up for wrestling with the sneaky help of his mother. But, once his dad found out, he had to quit.

“That’s me with the Buffalo skull shield” -Semu

“He wasn’t trying to be cruel. He just wanted us to be more traditional,” Semu reflected.

The family celebrated traditional Japanese holidays like Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day) and Tango no Sekku (Boys’ Day) to remind them of the old ways. They also participated in Obon Festival, which honors deceased ancestors, much like the Mexican holiday El Día de Los Muertos.

During middle school, Semu had long hair, something that signifies strength to Native Americans. He said this and growing up with a name like Semu One Bear brought him the wrong kind of attention and he would get teased and end up in fights.

Semu remembers experiencing discrimination in those days.

“It was different back then. It wasn’t cool in the 70s, 80s or 90s to be Native American. You were still considered a lower-class person then… Native Americans had a bag stigma. My dad dressed Native American—with the hat, shirt with a choker. Once, we were at a store near Red Wind and a guy called my dad a [racial slur]. My dad got upset and went over to educate him.”

While he endured bullying and, at times, discrimination, today, Semu has nothing but gratitude for the way his mother and father raised him and the respect that they instilled in him.

“I’m very connected to the Native American way of life…Every weekend, I go to nature to go hiking or camping. The love of nature and the spirituality surrounding it has followed me everywhere.”

Respect: A Way of Life into the Workplace and Beyond

While Semu no longer dances or sings, his sister and niece both dance in the Japanese Obon Festival each year, and he attends to watch them. His sister has also gotten in the habit of attending The Stanford University Powwow again, just as he and his family did when they were younger. He wants to start going back as well to support the local artisans who are doing just as he and his family used to do.

Today, Semu attributes his way of life and outlook on life to the influence of Japanese and Native American traditions during his upbringing.

“I’m very liberal in a lot of ways, I think, as far as preserving the earth. I call it Mother Earth; it is my Mother Earth. I care for the environment. I spend a lot of time outdoors. I’m conscious of recycling, making sure not to litter.”

He also believes that respect and the diverse cultural influences empowered him to be the strong leader he is today at BBB.

“I learned respect the most. In our cultures, it is all about respect. So much is based on respect. I learned respect and I carry it over to everybody. I treat a first day Cleaning Ambassador with the same respect I treat Derreck [Hughes, BBB Vice President of Operations].”

Semu also made a special point to mention that his respect extends heavily to the LGBTQIA+ Community, a community with a strong presence in the region he oversees. He intentionally works to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone working in his region.

“That one word—Respect…I use that same respect any time I deal with anyone in the workplace…I was one of the first to ask for personal pronouns and the people I asked were so happy that I asked…My childhood taught me to never judge somebody by their culture and it is important in my role to keep learning about [gender identification and pronouns] because it is all about respect.”

His connectedness to nature also influences his placemaking work, something BBB implements in many of our programs throughout California.

“I always think of the consequences of projects. The first thing I look at when I look at designer plans is the natural aspect. What are we going to do to make sure we keep the native plants and native wildlife here? How do we make something nice for everybody to enjoy, but keep in mind the river has been here long before us and will be here long after we are gone?”

Semu has worked for BBB since 2009. He began, as many of our upper management do, as an Ambassador before working his way up to Operations Manager with San Jose, Groundwerx. His drive and determined work ethic led him to being promoted to Project Manager, then Regional Director and, ultimately, Regional Vice President (RVP), his current role. As RVP, Semu oversees operations for 20 programs throughout Northern California, ensuring they all run smoothly and efficiently to BBB standards.

We are honored to have Semu in our ranks and grateful to be able to share his story. We join the country in celebrating Semu and Native American Heritage Month.

If you are interested in learning more about Chumash culture and the Tribe today, you can visit their website. There is also a lot of history that exists surrounding Semu’s grandfather Semu Huaute, as he traveled the country and world extensively sharing Chumash history and traditions. This can be found by googling his name.

Downtown Sioux Falls Holiday Lights

This article has been copied from KeloLand.com , to see the original article, including some great photos of our Ambassadors, click here.

Brian and Winston light up Phillips Ave.

By: Jacob Newton

Posted: Nov. 15, 2023

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Two men, one yellow ladder, one little red pickup and totes packed with holiday lights. This is the scene as Brian Gochal and Winston Flowers, a pair of Downtown Sioux Falls Ambassadors, work their way up and down Phillips Avenue, working to transform the street for the holiday season.

Gochal and Flowers are both in this role for the first time, and Flowers says the directive of ‘go put up some Christmas lights’ is a bit bigger of a job than the pair had expected.

The two have been out in the streets off and on for the past few weeks, stringing up lights. On Wednesday the two were enjoying the weather, a balmy 60°F. “Two weeks ago it was freezing,” remarked Gochal.

Though they’ve been working on décor for the better part of a month, they’ve been focused on lights on Phillips for the past two days.