Organizers of a Northridge-based program that recruits homeless people to help beautify and clean up local streets in exchange for a meal and supermarket gift cards is planning to expand into other parts of the San Fernando Valley.

The goal of the program is to cultivate relationships with homeless individuals, and connect them to services that help some of them become sober, find jobs and move into housing.

Laura Rathbone heads up the Clean Streets, Clean Starts program for the Northridge Beautification Foundation, an organization previously known as Northridge Sparkle that is working to launch more crews around the Valley. She said community members in as many as 12 neighborhoods have expressed interest in starting their own version of the Northridge program, which just finished its latest eight-week round of clean-ups.

Those areas include Pacoima, Van Nuys, Chatsworth, Winnetka, Porter Ranch, Sherman Oaks, Granada Hills and Canoga Park, she said.

A clean-up team in at least one those areas is nearly ready to go, and could start as early as January, she said.

The Northridge program will continue to run, with the clean-up teams trained and led by Don Larson, who heads up the foundation and was involved with an earlier pilot version of the program, also known as Clean Streets Clean Starts. That program received a city grant and was operated out of Councilman Mitchell Englander’s office.

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Englander recognized Larson, Rathbone, and the members of the latest beautification crew, during a City Council presentation in Van Nuys Friday. He said when the program was in his office, he saw that “it changed lives, and we saw the benefit in our communities as well.”

The program, which has since been run independently of the city, just finished its fourth round, and has so far resulted in “positive intervention” with 50 homeless individuals, he said.

Rathbone said in order to expand the program, people will need to step up in each of the neighborhoods to help lead the crews, and do what Larson did in Northridge. At least two volunteers have come forward so far, she said.

“We really want it to be community activism,” Rathbone said.

They are also looking for people who can serve as liaisons to the homeless community, she said. The foundation will also help neighborhood councils and community groups get set up to apply for grants.

Donna Sullivan, 60, has been homeless for more than five years. She took part in the latest eight-week round of clean-ups and said the key thing for her was the sense of belonging that she gained from the experience.

“They treat you with respect, and they treat you with dignity, and that’s a big part of it,” she said.

She added that it is a respite from the daily struggles she faces on the street.

“They give you a meal every day, and they give you a gift card, and it helps … especially in the middle of the month when you have to make your money stretch,” she said.

Sullivan said she has come out of the experience with something to look forward to. She is expecting to move into a unit at a new Sylmar housing complex.

Part of the goal of the program is to get homeless individuals off the streets and into housing, and according to Rathbone, one crew member from this latest round found a job at a tire shop in Granada Hills.

CORRECTION: The story was updated to reflect that Laura Rathbone is director of the Clean Streets, Clean Starts program, and Don Larson is head of the Northridge Beautification Foundation.