An Interview with South Park’s Clean Team Program Manager, Victor Gonzalez
Victor Gonzalez, our Clean Team Program Manager, has worked for the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC) for 25 years, and with South Park BID’s Clean Team for the last ten years. The primary mission of LACC is youth development, and maintenance work is one tool the organization uses to build job skills and support at-risk youth and young adults.
Hi Victor, can you tell us a little more about LACC’s programs?
We have two different programs. Clean and Green is for youth between 14 and 18. I worked with this program for 17 years at middle and high schools throughout the City of LA.
Corpsmembers are 18 to 24, and those are the teams that work in South Park. Our goal is for them to finish their education, and give them some job experience. The first year they’ll rotate throughout the program and develop different skills. Second year Corpsmembers can sign up for a particular pathway — if they want to learn about something specific like construction, zero waste, or land management, they’ll spend about a year on those projects.
What about this program inspires you?
It’s working with youth, and seeing them go through changes and learn. I still stay in contact with some of the clean and greeners — they’ve gone to college, they have great jobs. A lot of them work in the city and a lot of them have gone into military service. Just knowing what the Corpsmembers go through every day and seeing them change — a lot of the people that we work with don’t have any skills, this is their first job. Helping them with that, pushing them to continue going to school, being that support that they need — because a lot of them don’t have that elsewhere. Hearing from them later, when they come back to the office and say thank you, those are the things that keep me here.
What skills and values do you try to instill in them while they’re here?
The main thing is to be responsible. It doesn’t matter how good you are at something, if you’re not responsible it’s going to be challenging. To respect people, and to be themselves. A lot of the people who come here are great people — and I want them to be leaders, not followers.
Here at this project we train them a lot on taking initiative when they’re out in the streets doing the work. The customer service part. At a lot of LACC projects Corpsmembers work in groups. Corpsmembers here work by themselves, so customer service is really important. Every morning they’re talking to people, saying good morning.
When they’re out there we want them to take pride in everything they do — even mundane cleaning tasks. Everyone starts somewhere, and they should pride in any work they do. I always use the analogy that they want their own rooms to be clean every day, and when they look at these project as something that they own, they feel more of that pride.
We are so proud to be partnering with Victor and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to keep South Park clean. To learn more about the Corps, visit their website at lacorps.org. If you have any questions for Victor, he can be reached at vgonzalez@lacorps.org.
