Team Clean Partners with Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition Work Stream Program to Mentor Bartram High School Students
Team Clean, a leading provider of janitorial services in the Philadelphia region, has recently partnered with the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC) Work Stream Program to mentor a group of students from John Bartram High School.
The first step in what both Team Clean and the GPUAC/Work Stream Program foresee as a long-term relationship was a day-long session at Team Clean’s offices in the Philadelphia Naval Business Center and on-site at some of the company’s client offices for six young men from Bartram.
According to Lorna Brown, director of the Educational Options Program for GPUAC/Work Stream, “The six students from Bartram who visited with Team Clean had previously dropped out of high school and we recruited them to return to school. Some of them are single parents or have displaced parents or are already out on their own, but now not only are they going to school full-time again, through our program they are learning new social and professional skills that will help them broaden their horizons. In fact, each of them has expressed their goals to continue their education and start their own businesses some day.
“We found those students who were interested in an entrepreneurial future, and partnered with Team Clean for a ‘shadowing day,’ where they could practice their interviewing skills, their social skills, and see the qualities and skills they need to present themselves professionally,” Brown said. “Everyone involved at Team Clean, as well as the young men, said it was a phenomenal experience. They saw the enthusiasm Team Clean’s employees and staff have, and they left with very high hopes.”
Team Clean founder and President Donna Allie spoke to the young men visiting from Bartram to start the day-long session on Wednesday, May 21, by relating her personal story to the group. Originally unable to find employment in her chosen field after college graduation, Allie was a single parent determined to find a way to support herself and her child. She had accompanied a friend on a job cleaning a home, and realized that there was an excellent income potential in cleaning houses. She answered newspaper advertisements for “cleaning ladies,” and began cleaning homes throughout Philadelphia’s suburban Main Line.
Her company began to grow when Allie began to respond to those newspaper ads by hiring women herself and sending them off in pairs to clean homes, establishing the burgeoning company’s “team” approach to cleaning. She took her first commercial contract in 1985, and since then has grown the company to over 550 employees and over $16 million in sales. It is currently ranked as the Philadelphia area’s top minority-owned business.
“It was such a rewarding experience for all of us,” said Allie. “It gave us a sense of joy to work with these young men, who had been described to me as ‘at risk’ but certainly did not exhibit that in person. They were attentive, polite, well-dressed and very interested in our story, what we do, and how we do it. We took great care to give them the opportunity to see African American men in a positive work environment, and they were so excited to be walking with someone they could look up to as a role model. We want to continue to work with them, take them to other professional functions and environments, embrace and wrap our arms around these six gentlemen in the coming weeks and months.”
Marcus Wright, Team Clean’s Human Resources Assistant, noted that “all of the young men came across as very respectful. They greeted everyone in the office, spent time in conversation with everybody. They all had goals they wanted to achieve. Some wanted to go to school, or own their own business, and a couple had already started the college application process. All of them had questions for us, which also pleasantly surprised me. I was very impressed.”
According to Darren Allie, the company’s Accounts Receivable Manager, “Those guys were good guys, really receptive, asked questions, all of which made me feel really good about them, and in fact I asked if we could have them come in more often.”
“It impressed me how attentive they were,” said Benton Cambridge, Team Clean’s Payroll Clerk. “They were sincerely interested and showed great focus, which you don’t see often in teenagers. They asked pretty good questions, and it felt wonderful to be able to work with young people who were so focused and attentive.”
The day-long session with Team Clean also included lunch for the Bartram students at the nearby Urban Outfitters headquarters, and visits on-site to a number of the company’s customers accompanied by operations managers Charles Gordy, Will Nelson and Sean Garcia.
Future sessions with the students will include visits to Philadelphia-area civic and business leaders, as well as an outing to a Philadelphia Phillies game with Team Clean customers in the company’s corporate box at Citizens Bank Park.
About the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition:
The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC) unites government, business, neighborhoods, and individual initiative to improve the quality of life in the region, build wealth in urban communities, and solve emerging issues. Additional information is available at http://www.gpuac.org/.
About Team Clean:
Team Clean is a leading provider of janitorial services in the Philadelphia region. The company serves a variety of clients in government, education, industry, professional offices, sports and entertainment venues and events. Active in the Philadelphia community with a variety of social and economic programs, Team Clean was recently ranked as the top Minority-Owned Business in Philadelphia according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Additional information is available at http://www.team-clean.com/.
Media Contact: Jim DeLorenzo (for Team Clean)
Phone: 215-564-1122
E-mail: jim@jhdenterprises.com