SEEDS

SEEDS is an ongoing partnership with Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries (LMM) to provide clients of their men’s shelter with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience, and ultimately overcome their significant barriers to employment and housing.
 
DCA offers specialized skills training in urban landscaping and planter maintenance. The men learn hands-on skills such as watering, soil amending, mulching, bed preparation, planting, weed abatement, watering, pruning, dead-heading, leaf raking and composting. They also learn and practice reporting to work on time and prepared, carrying out instruction, interfacing with the public about their work, and other essential soft skills of the workplace. 
 
Through their participation in the SEEDS program, these men have the opportunity to establish the work history needed to gain full time employment and permanent housing. The SEEDS program runs for 31 weeks of the year and provides up to 20 paid work hours per week to each participant. They are paid an hourly minimum wage for their work and receive additional support from DCA and LMM in finding full-time employment once they graduate. DCA also provides uniforms, work boots, and all necessary tools for the program.
 
Examples of their work can be found in the garden beds on East 12^th, in front of Heinen’s, and the planters on Prospect Avenue.  Their work at the Plaza on Huron and E. 9^th, a popular gathering place before Cleveland sporting events, was so well received, several of the businesses voluntarily contributed to the program to ensure the Plaza was included each year in the beautification efforts.
 
The SEEDS program is also helping to change public perceptions about the capabilities and potential of the homeless and at-risk population. The evidence of this has been the growing number of private business owners who are interested in hiring the SEEDS crew to landscape their properties. Examples of places where the men have found employment after the completing SEEDS program include: Regal Cinema, the Hilton, Norton Furniture, Thistledown Racino, XO Steakhouse, Happy Dog, Holiday Inn, National Food Packaging, Le Petit Triangle Café, and Stone Café, to name a few.  A recent graduate contacted us before Christmas to let us know not only has he gained fulltime employment, but he has obtained a driver’s license and purchased a home!