2000 Trash Cutter Awards Program Case Studies

City of Vacaville: Best Creative Partnerships Program

• Program Description
• Program Summary
• Costs
• Benefits
• Contact

Program Description

The city of Vacaville conducted an innovative reuse program through an extensive community partnership. The "Give Winter Garb a Second Chance" program--which collects and distributes blankets, coats, and other usable items of clothing--involved various city departments and programs, the franchise hauler, schools and student clubs, the prison, local media, and businesses.

Program Summary

The Asian Pacific Islanders (API) club at Will C. Wood High School has conducted an annual on-campus coat drive for several years. With a rather limited population from which to draw its collections, over time the number of coats collected was dwindling. In 1998 club officers approached the city for help in expanding the program to further their goal of assisting the needy in the community. The program was dubbed "Give Winter Garb A Second Chance" to make the connection with reuse as waste diversion. It was advertised in the local newspaper and dry cleaning services were donated by a local cleaner. Collection bins placed at several businesses as well as on campus resulted in the collection of over 600 coats and jackets which were distributed through the city neighborhood centers' holiday parties.

The 1999 goals were to expand the collection effort to more fully partner with the Christmas Wish program, and to more effectively include the message of reuse as waste diversion. In order to meet these goals, the following objectives were set:

1. Promote the program.
2. Conduct a more efficient collection.
3. Reduce the burden on any single business sponsor.
4. Maximize the convenience of residents for their participation.
5. Collect more children's coats, as there were greatly needed.

To meet these objectives, four dry cleaners were enlisted to serve as drop-off sites from November 22 through December 10, and Vacaville Sanitary Service offered to have donated items collected at curbside on regular refuse/recycling pick-up days for one week. The items were placed in plastic bags and marked by residents. Vacant office space was offered by a local developer. This space would also serve the Christmas Wish program and the firefighters toy drive. Housing these operations together allowed more efficient coordination between the programs.

California Medical Facility (CMF) correctional officers, assisted by inmates, picked up the items collected at curbside for laundering and cleaning in their program. Clothing racks were loaned to the program by Target Stores and Goodwill of Solano County. API members, assisted by representatives from the Vacaville High School student council, visited each of the participating dry cleaners daily to collect clean articles.

Outreach was conducted through a multi-media approach with a strategy to allow sufficient time for participation while creating a pressing deadline. A program logo was developed by a local graphic artist. The Vacaville Reporter advertising department designed a print ad which also served as a flyer and was the basis for theater advertising slides. The Reporter donated the placement of 11 print ads and also provided photo and feature coverage of the program. The API members spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend handing out program flyers at local grocery stores and were also on hand at the Festival of Trees to distribute flyers. In addition, public service announcements were aired on the radio. 

The program resulted in the collection of 5,052 coats, blankets, and various articles of clothing. This represented a 171 percent increase in the number of coats alone collected in 1999 over the previous year's total collection of 600. Of the 1,625 coats collected, 459 were children's coats. 

The clothing was distributed through the Christmas Wish program and the city's three neighborhood centers at their scheduled holiday parties. In 1999 the Christmas Wish program served approximately 1,500 children from 400 Vacaville families.

Distribution was completed in Vacaville on December 18 and the remaining clothing was placed in donated storage space through January 6. After seeing an article in the newspaper describing a program in nearby Dixon, the recycling assistant contacted the coordinator of that program and arranged for pickup of clothing for approximately 500 families. With clothing still remaining, Mission Solano was contacted through the Christmas Wish program. Mission Solano is a nonprofit organization working to provide food, clothing, and services to needy families throughout  Solano County. Their representatives viewed the stored clothing, then arranged to pay for storage for the remainder of the month of January. They distributed clothing in  Solano County, then passed on items to other organizations serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Costs

Many outreach services and the cleaning services were donated. The value of donated services was estimated at over $30,000. To reward the students who participated in the winter clothing collection, Vacaville Sanitary Service donated $500 to fund a $250 scholarship at Will C. Wood High School and Vacaville High School. The scholarships were open to students at each school who committed at least 10 hours of service to the program. Vacaville Sanitary Service and city staff awarded the scholarships at senior awards night at each school. In giving these scholarships, a positive image of community service was solidified in the minds of the students and their work was rewarded. It also provided another opportunity to publicly describe this diversion program.

Benefits

Clearly this program had far reaching benefits. While there are many types and forms of donation/collection programs during the Christmas holiday time of year and much is given in the holiday spirit, it is also a time of great need. The Give Winter Garb a Second Chance program, through phenomenal cooperation and generosity of Vacaville's residents and businesses, helped alleviate that burden not only in Vacaville, but through Solano County and into the Bay Area, while clearly emphasizing waste diversion through reuse to the donors.

City of Vacaville
650 Merchant Street
Vacaville, CA  95688
(707) 446-6508