Planning a community clean-up event in the City of Los Angeles can be easy. The Office of Community Beautification has coordinators that are assigned to different sections of the City to provide your group with the tools needed for a neighborhood-based clean-up event.
OCB has a warehouse full of hand tools that can be loaned out to organizations, including rakes, brooms, hoes, lopping shears, shovels and trash bags to help you beautify your community. These tools can be delivered to your organization or picked up from our warehouse. We request that orders be placed at least 3 weeks in advance of the event to ensure the availability of tools. Gerry Valido, one of the OCB Coordinators, suggests to have the following information ready upon placing your tool request:
- Your group/event name.
- Clean-up date.
- Type of clean-up (e.g. litter pick-up, landscaping, graffiti removal).
- Delivery/tool pickup date - OCB in most cases can deliver the tools a few days prior to the event and picks up the tools the week after.
- Expected number of volunteers.
- Meeting area and map of area to be cleaned.
Below are some other helpful suggestions:
- Provide water and snacks to the volunteers before and after the event.
- Have a first-aid kit visible and available on site.
- Alert all volunteers to wear proper footwear on the day of the event -- no open-toed shoes.
- Ensure there's access to restrooms.
- Have meaningful tasks for the volunteers to do.
For more information, please call the OCB hotline at (213) 978-0228.
