Episode 16: From Trash to Triumph: How City Problem Solvers is Cleaning Up San Antonio

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Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Giving, the best nonprofit

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podcast on the Boost Network, sponsored by Give Kit. Today we’ve got Edmund in

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the studio from City Problem Solvers. Thank you so much for joining us today

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for this conversation.

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>> Thanks for having me.

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>> Yeah. So, um, let’s just kind of jump into it. I’d really like to understand a

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little bit more about kind of your background, where you came from, and how

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you ended up running an organization like the City Problem Solvers.

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>> Yeah. Well, I uh my wife and family came out here from Waco, Texas, and this was

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where we had our our home for the first time, we were first time homeowners, and

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we realized that um no matter how hard we try cleaning up in our neighborhood

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on on the back side of our fence, the very same day, there’s garbage back

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there. And uh I went around looking for like where could I find out like why is

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this happening? And uh I realized that I if I don’t want it to happen then I have

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to do something about it. and thought the best way to do it would be to start

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a nonprofit that would inspire all generations to help be a part of this

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movement or part of a an effort to clean up our city and make it go from the what

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I found out was the top 10 dirtiest cities to the top 10 pleated cities or

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>> San Antonio is the

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>> one of the top the top 10 in the top 10 dirtiest cities.

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>> That’s what I’ve read. Yeah.

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>> Wow, that’s interesting. Um that’s crazy. And so you saw this problem. The

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place is trashed. you need to clean it up. So you started the city problem

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solvers, right? Can you talk us through kind of like what that experience was?

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So you identified this problem. What did you go through to kind of get the

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organization started and how did you land on what the actual mission would be

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your focus at the city problem solvers?

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>> Sure. Um so I realized that I couldn’t do it myself

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and I had to figure out like well how can I get a team together and what would

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that look like? I realized that changing the mindset was an important thing and

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that that that needs to be done on all levels. So, I realized that what we

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really need to do is put together a K through 12th grade program to teach kids

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about the environment and how it’s better to not litter and how you can

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really enjoy where you live and have a clean place. Like, there are cities

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around the world that are in really clean conditions. And so, I figured we

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could we could be like that, too, but we have to all kind of be working together.

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>> How do you think it’s it’s an interesting it’s an interesting concept,

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right? So education being a piece of that. Teach the next generations. No,

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you should not throw this on the ground. You should throw it in a trash can, the

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appropriate bin, right? All those different things. I knew growing up,

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that’s what we always learned. Don’t litter. Litter is bad. You know, $400

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fine for littering. Like all this stuff. But you still constantly see it

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everywhere, right? Um I was at a stoplight the other day and somebody was

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smoking and tossed their cigarette out, right? Just on the ground because I

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guess, you know, there wasn’t a trash can in the car. you see around like

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these public park uh trash cans, you see trash like around them on the ground

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instead of in them. So, when does it come from an education thing to an

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accountability or like what is the next step after that? You’re teaching them

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not to litter, but they’re still littering.

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>> Yeah. Well, there’s so many so many potential solutions to the problem and

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we need to use more than one solution. Um, so like we would like to have people

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come out and join us at city hall so we can advocate for please do not litter

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signs and I think that’ll help. It’d be one of the needed solutions like if we

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can get the signs up. It’s it’s like I’ve been to a lot of places and haven’t

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seen them but they are considered just to get on people’s radar to let people

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know like some like either as a reminder to people that others care and we need

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to

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>> all be thinking about achieving a similar goal

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>> or even the shame of being the person that is the reason that sign is there,

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right? Um you know, whatever gets the trash into the appropriate receptacle.

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Yeah.

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>> And so like this this initiative you’re working with or or advocating at the

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city local city government for these signs. Do you have like particular

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places you need to place them? And what do you guys need to kind of help execute

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on that?

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>> I think starting off we should go to parks and playgrounds cuz like you got

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kids at at a early age just learning for the first time about what’s acceptable

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and what’s not in life. and they see even if it’s just a piece of micro trash

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the size of a water bottle cap that’s something that they realize is if they

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see it on the ground acceptable so that as they get older and they go to school

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like you know if they you know micro trash is a big one cuz you can be

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walking around somewhere and it could be anywhere when you’re driving it’s harder

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to see but for anybody walking especially kids who can’t drive you see

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a lot more of the micro trash and so we want to primarily start off in parks and

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playgrounds and then any point like any any place of interest, any place that’s

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really going to have like a large group of people if we can, you know, find

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those spots and uh get permission to put the signs up there. Um, we want to even

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if there’s not a fine on it, I mean, like, you know, it’d be nice if,

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well, if it could be enforced to some degree, but what we’re hoping is that if

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it gets to the point where it goes to court as an alternative to paying a fine

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if if the person who littered would actually just come join us instead on a

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clean, think that that would be a lot better.

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>> Um, and and you know, it actually isn’t it isn’t like not fun. It’s actually

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like sometimes looking for Easter eggs, you know, like finding little pieces of

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>> So, so I did I’ve gone on a couple of the city problem solvers cleanups uh

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locally, right? We did one not far from here. Uh I think it was uh by the bridge

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under the is that the 35 or the 37?

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>> Oh, yeah.

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>> And near where your street fair was.

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>> Yeah. West Houston and 35.

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>> Yeah. And then there was one super north. What was interesting about that

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is, you know, I’m like, “Okay, we’ll go. This is a good thing. We need to help

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pick up trash, right?” And I was surprised how like after we got a

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section cleaned up, how we were like, “Wow, you know, we cleaned this up. We

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made physically made this section a better place, right?” Um, but you did

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see a lot of micro trash, right? Those little cigarette butts, those ball caps,

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little pieces of of wrapper. You see a ton of that stuff. And I think we hauled

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away what? Bags and bags of uh trash on those cleanups.

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>> Yeah.

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>> When you first started like putting these together, how did you figure out

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that when you started building the city problem solvers, how did you figure out

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that like collective trash pickup is an area like when you’re when you’re

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looking at the city and and trying to figure out how to solve it? Um how did

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that become one of your main events? Um well I realized how important of a

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role the cleanliness of the environment plays on people in society. You know

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businesses want to be where their employees can like live a good clean

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life. Um and it shows like how well things are doing in general with the

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people and the and government and um and our children are being raised here. You

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know we want them to appreciate where they live as well.

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>> Definitely.

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>> Definitely. And like so in those cleanups we hauled away a lot of trash.

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Do you know like how much tonnage or how much trash you guys have picked up

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across the area since you started? Have a rough idea?

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>> I’d say we’ve picked up tons of trash, but we’re trying to focus a metrics on

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our metrics on not just the weight of what we’re picking up, but on the uh the

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the how many lives we are impacting in a good way. So we so at a playground where

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children are, you know, using that playground every day, you know, if we

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were have a clicker, we can count how many people are there. But also some a

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lot of times people are driving by and we can use our clicker on that as well.

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See how many people are driving by not seeing litter.

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>> And you might even be able to find these studies that have already been

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completed, right? Um what is the typical usage of this park? Uh traffic on this

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road that’s adjacent.

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>> You can probably find a lot of those metrics too. And so

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>> and we could if we were picking up micro trash, we could if we were to count it,

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it would be a lot. It would be, you know, millions of p pieces pro pos. Not

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sure where we’re at, but like one bag of micro trash is

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hundreds of thousands of pieces.

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>> And like when you say a bag, right, you’re not filling up these like kitchen

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trash bags, right? These are like giant yard uh bags, right?

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>> The city gave us a couple extra organic matter bins, those big green ones. So,

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we put a liner in that one and it can fill up a lot. Yeah. We what we do when

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we go around cleanup is we give each volunteer a five gallallon bucket and a

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and a grabber and they can unload into that giant organic matter bin,

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>> right?

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>> Um so, uh collectively it adds up to a lot. Um and it means a lot and what

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we’re doing in the cleanup is a necessary a necessary um

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remediation towards the problem that we have. uh but we’re hoping to also work

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towards protection as well. So to keep it from happening in the first place and

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so that’s why all these program all our programming has to work together right

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>> as a you know going getting into a K through through 12th grade programming

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for the kids

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>> and to give them an opportunity to actually see what it’s like when they

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have to clean up their mess or somebody else’s mess. And if if we’re working

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with the kids like you know they can also encourage their parents you know to

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to not litter or you know

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>> Absolutely.

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>> And so now you’ve started the city problem solvers you’re making a

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difference in the community. What is a day a life a day in the life of the city

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problems solvers executive director look like? Like what what is what does a day

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look like for you? I really need more help cuz like I’m trying to do what I

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can like as whenever I have the time, but I need more people to um to join me

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in uh some of the efforts necessary to get all this programming like continuing

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and additional programming up and running.

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>> And so like what kind of what kind of help do you need in that? Do you need

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like program managers? Do you need volunteers? You obviously need

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volunteers. Like what what specifically are you guys looking for? Yeah, I think

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we need a we actually need a new secretary cuz, you know, we started off

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with some some of our board was, you know, got us starting got us started.

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Um, but then some board members might be moved out or, you know, got caught up in

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work somewhere else and didn’t have the time anymore. Um, but like, uh, we need

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people to be on our special events committee. Um, we need people to uh help

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us with different specific programming of city problem solvers. So, for like

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the cleanup program, the uh K through 12th grade program, we have a homeless

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outreach program as well. And that one’s pretty neat because um we’re working on

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making it into uh like a homeless leadership program where we’re

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incentivize the homeless to be a part of the

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leadership program by giving them funding, but we um we need to we need to

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there’s a lot that needs to be done.

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>> So, you’ve got a couple board seats that you’re going to be filling soon. You’ve

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got uh committees to run these different things. Um, one of the things that I

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think about when you’re talking about the different programs and the things

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that you might need committees for is you have an annual awards ceremony,

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right? Can you tell us a little bit about what what that is and and like

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what the impact that that’s had for the city problem solvers?

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>> Sure. Uh, so we’ve had the past two years and we’re having again this year

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and what that does is recognize people in communities that have done something

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good in their community and it also inspires people to do good in their

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communities. So, um, we’ve had it out at the Windare Civic Center the past two

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years. Um, this last year, uh, we’re thankful for the San Antonio River

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Authority helped make it possible and the Alamo College District helped make

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it possible and everybody there made it possible. And um, and we had CPS Energy

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out there who um, was really happy to see how well it turned out. And we’re

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looking forward to we’re still we haven’t have all the the details

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finalized yet, but we’re we’re hoping to have our award ceremony at their

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headquarters this year.

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>> Oh, that’ll be a really cool venue for that.

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>> Yeah. And uh and they they seem pretty uh interested in in that in that. It’s a

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partnership that I think would would do really well. And we’ve also been going

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out to their um community resource fairs. So, if anybody ever wanted to

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look into one of those and come out and and help uh talk about city problem

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solvers with us, um that would be a cool thing.

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>> Definitely. Um cool. And now I want to transition just a little bit here. Um

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when you walked in, you handed me uh this badge, right? Uh junior city

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problem solvers badge. Can you What is this and how do you get one?

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>> Right. This is one of the steps to incentivizing the youth to care about

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their city more. You know, to be a junior to be a city problem solver, you

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know, that’s, you know, what we want to all be, but we have to start somewhere

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to get there. And so, starting off as a junior city problem solver is that

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getting your your first step in the door and and, you know, knowing what it’s

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like to actually be a part of something important. And so, uh, when we go to a

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resource fair, we’ll have these. And what we’ll ask is that if they want to

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be a junior city problem solver, they just have to make a commitment to listen

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to their parents

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>> and to if they see litter, pick it up and put it in the garbage if they can

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without, you know, without getting hurt and just as long as it’s safe to do so.

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Um, but then as they get older, you know, there’s more that you can do as a

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junior city problem solver. Um, so we’re looking for all the different levels of

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being a junior city problem solver and hoping that’ll transition into a

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full-time city problem solver, somebody who can help grow with us as our

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organization grows.

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>> That makes sense. And engaging them early, right, with the junior uh problem

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solver badge and like and having multiple touch points throughout their

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life gears them up for actually helping solve these problems and it makes it a

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problem that they care are more likely to care about, right? if you know if I

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grew up in a space where we didn’t care about litter, we didn’t care about

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trash, nobody ever said it was a bad thing to throw your trash on the ground,

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right? Um I probably not going to care about that when I get older. So that

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that education piece is super important.

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>> Um now when are some of the other kind of programs you talked about uh some

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homeless outreach, you talked about the city cleanups, and then some advocacy uh

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with local government. What are kind of the biggest three uh programs that you

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you guys operate now? And can you tell us a little bit about those? Yeah, the

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um the the easiest way to get and be a part of city problems offers is to join

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us for a venture to city hall where we go to advocate for please do not litter

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signs in parks and playgrounds cuz like I’ve been to some parks where you know

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there’s litter all over the place and people are having a baby shower and I

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feel bad that like you know the babies the little children there are like

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you know learning from a young age that this is

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is acceptable to have all these litter and there’s been some some some are

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worse than others but like I’ve seen um you know like not just cigarette butts

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but you know like bags of bags of drug bags and

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things like that

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>> other things that should also be cleaned up. So how does that happen though? So

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like in the case and I can think of some areas um where like this is a problem.

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You might have like things like you know maybe a needle or like some narcotic or

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something. When you guys come across that stuff, what do you do? Like can can

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you just pick like pick it up and throw it in the trash or like do you need to

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report it or what is

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>> That’s that’s really funny. Um, our first cleanup was at like a homeless

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encampment area. And so we found like over 40 needles.

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>> Mhm.

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>> And our VP, John, he put them in like a little container. I think it was a

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insulin needle container. And he took some duct tape and he wrapped it up and

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up and up so nothing could get out. And he went all over town looking for where

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he could drop that off cuz everybody’s saying like, “No, we don’t take that. We

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don’t take that.” I think he even went to like I’m not trying to like name

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names and like bad things, but he went to some places where you think that they

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could would take it and they all kept saying no and they just said

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>> so what do you do with that? Because I would have assumed there would have been

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a sharps collection program somewhere, right? If you have if you have needles

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like laying out around the city, there’s usually a spot where you can dispose of

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them. So, what did you guys end up doing with those?

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>> Uh, I think that he ended up getting tossed and I hate to say it, but I mean

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he we he tried. He went to like close to a dozen places to try to find like he

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was like I don’t I wouldn’t have maybe gone to so many. Um but you know he’s

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really cost you know it’s a needle. It could be a bad thing. So you want

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careful. Um, but what we’re doing now, you know,

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if we find some, it’s mostly like uh the little Ziploc bags, drug bags, I don’t

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know what you call them, but um and lots of cigarette butts, stuff that isn’t as

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intense as the needles cuz we’re trying to focus on not just the cleanups that

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like the hardcore people who are doing cleanups can be a part of, but the but

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anybody who wants to come to a park and playground. So it like cuz what we’re

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doing by going to park and playground, we realize it’s covering more of our

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objectives. Like it’s remediation and protection at the same time because like

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we’re cleaning up the mess and people are seeing it. So people see it, they

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realize that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Yep.

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>> And that’s how we change the mindset by like letting people realize like, oh,

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maybe I shouldn’t litter. And so, you know, maybe it’ll be less next time or

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eventually, you know, we can get enough people to realize that it’s something

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we’re fighting against.

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>> And so, what what do you think the impact is? How old is the city problem

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solvers?

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>> About three years.

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>> Three years. And so what do you like looking back when you first got started

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three years ago and then looking at the different things you’re doing now? What

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do you think how do you think that impact has scaled uh over those three

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years and like what’s the biggest surprise that you learned during that

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process?

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>> I think we’ve made a decent amount of progress in the three years and um

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>> so I’m going to interrupt because you didn’t make a decent amount of progress.

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You guys have made a huge amount of progress. Like like we need to own that.

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You guys have picked up a ton of trash in a ton of areas. You uh have you uh

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commissioned the painting, the murals on the bridge under the freeway. You hosted

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that street festival. Right. I think I think we need to we need to be serious

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and intentional with what we’re saying here. You guys didn’t make a decent

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effort. I think you guys have done a lot of work.

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>> Right. Right. Well, I’m trying to figure out how to quantify that in a way that

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expresses how like from when we started off to where we’re at. And um we we have

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the purposes of our organization. We started off with um you know getting it

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official with the state of Texas and I believe we’re fulfilling those like and

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we’re kicking off like all the different things like um we uh we’re working with

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the homeless we’re um doing our cleanups um we’re revitalizing neighborhoods and

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we’re um you know I would say like it’s all

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getting covered but we want to grow and make it into something that can um just

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continue and be sustainable uh in making things better throughout the whole city

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and county and um but I think if you look at city problem solvers and what

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we’ve done if you go on our website I like bring this with me to show some of

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what we’ve done and uh you’ll see that we are um we are doing what we’re trying

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to do and we’re you know we’re it’s starting it was funny because starting

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off I’m trying to talk with people about what we have got what we’re planning on

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doing and where our organization is going to go

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>> and it’s like we haven’t done it all yet but I’m going to try and explain it cuz

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cuz I know it’s going to happen but now at this point we’ve done enough where

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you can actually see what we’ve done and like so you can sort of

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>> it becomes more of a a v the vision of our organization is starting to take

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shape more and so um like if you came and if you go on our website, you can

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see some of that if if you if you spend time with us, we you know, you’ll you’ll

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be able to hear about the things that we’ve done and um you know, it’s it’s

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tough because I want to like tell everybody everything we’ve done, but

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there’s actually starting to be quite a quite a lot of what we’ve done.

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>> And so um

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>> so now you’re not talking about what will happen, you’re saying this is what

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we did, right? You can show point people exactly how your organization’s going.

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Like I mean I don’t like I’ve got like these are some of our uh cleanup crew.

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Uh you might have been in this one.

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>> Which one was this?

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>> Uh this was that one district uh five cleanup I think or

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Yeah. There you are.

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>> Oh yep. There’s us. Oh wow.

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>> Yeah. And this is half of the crew. We took two two pictures for this uh

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cleanup. Um and oh we we Oh, one thing we need help with. Um, we’re covering

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the cost of it right now, but we bought a portable toilet unit and we have that

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downtown for the homeless to use after hours, but we’re getting cleaned up

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every week and that cost a servicing fee.

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>> So, if anybody wants to help contribute to that, they can. Um,

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>> uh, we let’s see. Well, we’re going to we keep

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going to resource fairs. Um, and when we do this, like this trophy here, like if

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you want to clean up in the area around you, we’ll give you a a 5gallon bucket

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and some grabbers mostly like for for children um or for any adult or anybody.

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Um, but it’s just a sort of way of saying thank you and to let you know

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that um what you do is deserving of recognition. And so we we talked we

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started to get a little bit into that direction with your uh mobile restrooms

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and like the the financial costs to provide all these services and programs.

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Uh what does that look like for city problem solvers and where are you guys

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looking for you know financial partners and folks to help fund this?

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>> Okay. So I’m a little bit cautious in like saying what the vision is to

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everybody because I I know a lot of people like want to clean up in their

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neighborhood. Like when I meet a lot of people, they they say, “Oh,” they they

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get excited and they’re like start thinking, “Hey, my my neighborhood’s a

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mess or my my front yard is a mess.” And it’s like, “Hey, any chance you would

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like to come to a homeowners association?” And not to say that’s a

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bad thing or anything like, but they want to get specific and have a me do a

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cleanup in their like front yard or something like that. And um

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>> that’s a a potential like it’s a potential fundraising angle though,

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right? I mean because this is what you guys do, right? And then you charge like

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whatever the you know commercial rate would be for something like that or even

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slightly less.

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>> Um that could be an interesting fun way to raise a way to do fundraising.

23:39

>> Yeah. And I don’t think that it’s not something we will do. Um but I think

23:43

right we’re not there yet. And so we’re sticking to our citywide cleanup program

23:47

called the San Antonio Cleanup Countdown where we have predeter predetermined

23:52

location throughout the city uh where we do a cleanup in a district each month

23:56

and we want to go beyond that but we need like the support for that. So we

24:00

need more volunteers and what we can do is once we find out about some cleanup

24:05

locations outside of this program we can put that on our event on our uh well

24:10

actually we can put it on uh give kit.

24:13

>> Yep. Absolutely.

24:14

>> And we and let people know like where we’re going to be where where you have

24:18

opportunities to help out beyond this program. And uh and it was the name of

24:22

this podcast, Beyond Giving.

24:24

>> Beyond Giving. Yep.

24:25

>> So yeah, that would be a perfect match for that. Uh but right now um

24:30

>> and so when’s your next when’s your next uh cleanup?

24:33

>> It’s going to be this month on the 23rd.

24:36

>> Okay. So May 23rd and you do these

24:38

>> coming up in like a day or two.

24:40

>> Okay. Yeah. I don’t know what the date is already. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so this

24:44

episode won’t be out before then, but you do them monthly in each district,

24:48

right?

24:48

>> Right. Right.

24:49

>> And so, uh, your next district is what number?

24:52

>> Uh, well, we would be an eight or seven, depending on when this comes out. Uh,

24:56

the one we’re doing this month is going to be at Mission Lock Hill Cemetery.

24:59

It’ll be a Memorial Day cleanup.

25:01

>> Okay.

25:01

>> So, that’s cool. Clean up around grave uh graves and um and uh so that’ll be

25:08

good timing for that. And so what can volunteers expect when they show up to

25:12

one of these city cleanups? Like um what they’ll do you provide like vests and

25:17

safety things like that? Do you like what can they expect to find? We started

25:21

off with the adopt spot program which we still have adopt the spot locations and

25:26

their requirements are you know bright clothing vests um safety cones and

25:32

>> um like safety equipment and so we basically have

25:37

>> the necessities to keep yourself in uh safe conditioning. Um basically uh yeah

25:45

like we advise you to wear closed toed shoes. Um, I mean, we’re And it really

25:50

depends. I mean, like we want you to wear all the safety uh clothing and uh

25:55

whatever is going to keep you safe while doing a cleanup. Um, probably

25:59

comfortable shoes cuz you do a lot of walking, right? If it’s cold, probably a

26:03

jacket. I uh the last cleanup we did uh with you guys, it was cold. It was so

26:09

cold. And I ended up getting this like so I have this ski jacket in my closet

26:12

that I ended up digging out for that. But I originally was going to wear

26:15

shorts, you know, uh, and so like dress appropriately. But um, and how like are

26:21

these cleanups like children friendly? So like if I have a little 5-year-old or

26:26

four-year-old, I don’t know how old they start picking up trash, but like

26:28

>> when we’re going to parks and playgrounds, they are. And we, you know,

26:31

you need a guardian with you. Um either way, you’re going to have to either sign

26:36

a waiver or have your guardian sign the waiver for you. And then um and then we

26:41

give you a five gallallon bucket and a long reach grabbers. And it’s it’s like

26:47

you fill it up as much as you can and you empty it into the larger organic

26:51

matter bin that we have where we’ll start at 9:00, we’ll go to 12 or close

26:55

to 12. Each location is a little bit different, but it’s making a difference

26:59

in like people out there seeing us do a cleanup and picking up litter, which

27:08

there’s so much of in the city,

27:10

>> it’s like impossible to really do it all and even just a group once a once a

27:15

month. So, we’re hoping people see that we’re one of many groups that are needed

27:20

throughout the city. like if you want to start a group, you know, you don’t have

27:23

to be a part of our city problem solvers. Um, we advise I mean because

27:28

it’s it’s not going to happen,

27:29

>> but if you just want to help out, city problem solvers is a really easy way to

27:33

get involved to to start giving back to your community and and helping clean

27:37

that trash up, right?

27:38

>> Yeah. We’re hoping like people will want to become leaders um through city

27:42

problem solvers in different areas throughout the city.

27:45

>> So, to recap the folks that you’re looking for, you’ve got some board seats

27:47

that you want to fill. you’re looking for uh uh coordinators or leaders for

27:51

your committees and for your different initiatives. And then you’re also

27:54

looking for volunteers that can just help out right at these cleanups that

27:58

can volunteer at your award ceremony probably like different things like

28:01

that.

28:01

>> Yeah. There’s really so much going through my head and like what we need

28:05

help with and like what we plan on doing and it gets to be where um it it can be

28:12

a lot of fun. I mean it really I think like

28:15

>> we had a blast.

28:16

>> It’ll be magical. I mean like if we can get fully like operating it, you know,

28:22

like solving problems in the city and um and speaking of which I know what I

28:28

was going to say before.

28:29

>> Let’s do it.

28:30

>> Okay. So like so a lot of people want to like do want to help out here locally in

28:36

San Antonio, which I totally understand because like we’ve got a lot of problems

28:39

and I was like I I wasn’t say I was against cleaning up in like like outside

28:44

of this program. Um, but so because people like really want help outside of

28:50

this program here in San Antonio, I’m a little bit like

28:54

hesitant to sort of say what I envision for city problem solvers in the long

28:58

term. Uh, which is um helping out in cities around the world that have either

29:04

no or poor sanitation.

29:05

>> So there is a there is a a plan to scale to different cities.

29:08

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so like I realize like, you know, we’re not in this world

29:14

alone and so there’s cities out there in this world that are worse than ours, you

29:19

know, much worse than ours.

29:21

>> And and for the people that just want to help in their area, you know, that’s

29:24

fine, too, right? Because because they can join, they can become a city problem

29:27

solver in San Antonio, in Dallas, and wherever.

29:30

>> Yeah. And we’re not we’re not trying to leave San Antonio. We’re trying to help

29:33

make San Antonio be the best it can be. And so, but you know, for those who want

29:38

to know more about where we want to go someday, it is to help out in cities

29:41

around the world.

29:42

>> That’s awesome. I think it’s a really cool mission. And so, where can people

29:45

learn online or socials, learn more about city problem solvers and uh learn

29:49

about these different openings that you have, areas that you need help?

29:52

>> Um, you can go to our website at cityprosolvers.org.

29:56

Uh, if you want to scan this QR code, that takes you to a web page where you

30:02

can see some of the ways we need help. And um you know, you can if it doesn’t

30:06

say something you’re interested in, you can always like send us a a comment or

30:11

use a form to let us know what your like area of expertise is or what you would

30:15

like to do as a city problem solver cuz there’s like so many ways that

30:19

>> you can help us. An organization is made up of so many uh people working in so

30:24

many different ways that um like we need some influencers. We need people to help

30:30

us with our social media. And if there’s something that you’re good at, let us

30:34

know because Yeah.

30:36

>> Awesome. And then of course, you’re always raising money for your different

30:38

programs as well, which they can learn more about on your website. Is that city

30:41

problemsolvers.org?

30:43

>> Uh yeah, citys.org. And if you want to donate, you can donate through like

30:47

using zel or something like that to donate at cityprosolvers.org.

30:53

>> Awesome. Cool. And is there anything else before we wrap up? Any other final

30:56

thoughts or important things about city problemsolvers that our viewers should

31:00

know? getting involved with us, learning more about us. I as you get more

31:04

involved, you’ll really be able to like tell other people about us and help

31:09

us to grow. So,

31:10

>> they become those kind of community ambassadors, right, for for cleaner,

31:14

better places.

31:14

>> Yeah. And it can be a lot of fun when we go to some of these resource fairs and

31:18

vendor markets. Um there’s a lot of people out there. There’s a lot going on

31:22

and they’re really actually excited about what we’re trying to do. And so we

31:27

need people to come out and like cuz when I start talking with some people

31:30

and it’s just me and and maybe one or two other people more people show up and

31:35

then like I feel bad when I have to tell somebody sorry I want to speak to this

31:40

other person before they walk off you know so so it’s nice to have more people

31:44

to like you know to have someone to talk to when you get to our uh table at our

31:48

resource fair that we’re at. Um

31:50

>> okay awesome. Yeah thank you so much for joining us on Beyond Giving Edmond. It

31:54

was a great conversation and I really enjoyed learning more about the city

31:57

problem solvers and the uh different uh impact that you’re creating in the

32:00

community.

32:01

>> Thanks. I really appreciate being on your podcast. Had a good good time.

32:05

Thanks for uh all everybody like tuning in to the podcast and um we appreciate

32:11

it so much. Thanks.

32:12

>> Awesome. Yep. And visit cityolvers.org. You can find him on socials for ways to

32:16

donate and ways for you to get involved and help clean up your city or your

32:20

city. See you next time on Beyond Giving, the best nonprofit show on the

32:23

Boost Network.