FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

December 19, 2011
Media Contact: Patty Brosmer, 202-842-3333
pbrosmer@rwwdc.org

New Year Brings New Contract for Ready, Willing & Working in the Adams Morgan Partnership BID

Ready, Willing & Working (RWW), a 501c3 organization aimed at ending the cycles of homelessness, welfare dependency, and substance abuse in Washington, D.C., announces their new public space maintenance service contract with the Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District (AMPBID) beginning on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2012. With the new contract, RWW will hire seven (7) formerly homeless and/or incarcerated men to perform street cleaning and landscaping services within the AMPBID boundaries, including the popular 18^th Street, NW business corridor.

Ready, Willing & Working empowers men to break the cycles of homelessness, welfare dependency and criminal recidivism through a residential, paid-work rehabilitation program offering holistic programs and supportive services that allow individuals to achieve permanent self-sufficiency.  Modeled after The Doe Fund’s hugely successful “Ready, Willing & Able” (RWA) program in New York, RWW provides opportunities to the hardest to serve homeless population — single, able-bodied adults, the majority of whom have histories of incarceration and substance addiction.   Over 67% of graduates from the RWA program remain employed, independently housed and drug-free.  RWW is seeing similar successes for the District of Columbia’s homeless and formerly incarcerated.

“We are excited about our upcoming relationship with RWW and look forward to cleaner streets, improved tree box maintenance and working with a program that provides supportive services to empower people to become all that they can be,” said Kristen Barden, Executive Director of the AMPBID.

Ready, Willing & Working President Patty Brosmer is also looking forward to working with the AMPBID. “We’re grateful that the AMPBID has selected RWW to provide cleaning and landscaping services for their organization, said Brosmer. “We are confident that our clean team members will provide a visible improvement in the area.”

This will be the fourth contract for the Ready, Willing & Working program in Washington, D.C.; other service areas include the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District, Barracks Row Main Street and North Capitol Main Street. Ready, Willing & Working has also submitted an application with the District’s Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) to provide cleaning and landscaping services within the business areas of Ward 1.

For more information about RWW, visit rwwdc.org.

###