Giving back to your local community has a multitude of benefits both for the programs you partner with and your team members.
Grunder Landscaping Co. based in Miamisburg, Ohio, works to support organizations that are committed to making their community a great place to live and work.
“It’s part of our culture,” says Marty Grunder, founder and CEO of Grunder Landscaping. “Our slogan is where service is always in season, service to our clients, service to our team and service to our community. It’s fun to help others and to give back to the community that has been so good to us; we see it as our responsibility.”
One of the organizations Grunder Landscaping has been working with for a few years is Victory Project, which is a privately funded 501(c)3 after-school program mentoring disengaged young men, grades 8-12, in Dayton, Ohio.
“We donate money to their cause and we have our men working on a learning garden that we installed in the inner city at a school,” Grunder says. “We pay them to work on the garden and our men work with them on some of the visits to teach them landscape maintenance.”
The Victory Project is open six days a week year-round and is focused on producing engaged, responsible and hard-working young men. They provide weeknight meals and can serve up to 100 youth at a time.
“It gives them a sense of community and a positive influence when Dayton is not necessarily known for a lot of good things going on,” says Mike Bayer, business manager for Victory Project. “There’s a lot of violence going on, a lot of gun activity. Any moment that we can keep our guys inside the building is a moment they can’t be getting in trouble out in the streets.”
The Victory Project is focused on helping young men break free from generational poverty. The organization defines the three pillars of poverty as dropping out of high school, getting a criminal history and having a child prior to marriage. They combat this through their three Es of education, entrepreneurship and enlightenment.
“We just knock down the barriers that are keeping them from getting where they need to be to be productive,” Bayer says.
As part of the program, young men who are eligible work on Saturdays. Bayer says typically about three crews will go out with six to 10 boys. They will undertake various manual tasks, including mowing about 38 properties. The youth are paid $10.75 an hour.
“Oftentimes, that’s their first job,” Bayer says. “For those that aren’t real familiar with the neighborhood, it’s a work desert. When I was growing up, it was really easy to go to find a job. If you go into inner city Dayton, there are no grocery stores. There are no fast food places. You have to somehow find your way out of the neighborhoods and out to somewhere near a highway where there’s a mall and fast food or something like strip malls, and that’s not so prevalent.”
Bayer says they are in the business of work ethic development.
“By working with Grunder, the folks that work side by side with us are strong workers and absolutely wonderful role models for our young men as far as what it looks like to go to work,” Bayer says. “Their work ethic is always on display. Another benefit is just the conversations that take place between our young men and some of the Grunder workers. They are able to talk to the boys and talk to them a little bit about what it’s like to have a career in the landscape.”
Bayer says when the boys discover these career paths, it’s what brings Victory Project to life. He says often, the boys are a little uncertain about undertaking landscape-related jobs at first.
“They always come out with all smiles and a feeling of accomplishment because that crew does something that we normally don’t do because they’re working alongside the professionals,” Bayer says.
Grunder says his crews also reap the benefits of realizing how talented they are.
“They are put in a position to teach and help others,” Grunder says. “They enjoy it and you can see it on the smiles on their faces. To be blunt, we want to help the community, but we want our team’s self-esteem to be affected in a positive way and realize that they are smart, that they have things to offer, that they are really good at what they do, and they can teach others to do the same.”
For instance, in the spring, a Grunder crew taught the young men what plants to cut down in overgrown areas and which to save, as well as how to prune some plants down.
After finishing the program, Bayer says some of the youth go on to college but most have taken up trades such as plumbing or electrical work and others choose the public service route and become police officers or paramedics.
“It’s easy to write a check,” Grunder says. “The most noble thing to do is to donate your time. Don’t be worried about the social media posts and the fanfair. Just go help, no matter how small it is; all of us, regardless of our budgets, can give back. Imagine what a world we would have if everyone gave their time regularly to good causes like the Victory Project.”
