To help remove trash and debris from San Diego neighborhoods, the City of San Diego is partnering with several organizations on a community-driven series of cleanups called “Second Saturdays” with an 8 a.m. kickoff event in downtown San Diego on Saturday, July 13.

The goal is to expand the cleanups throughout the city with small groups of volunteers collecting litter in their neighborhoods on the second Saturday of each month. The nonprofit Street Stewards will help coordinate the effort by identifying neighborhood captains to organize the monthly cleanups.

Organizers are seeking up to 200 volunteers for the initial “Second Saturdays” cleanup event to help remove trash and debris from downtown streets. Volunteers can register for the cleanup at cleansd.org. Mayor Todd Gloria and City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn will join volunteers for the kickoff event to be held in the Civic Concourse outside City Hall.

“This community collaboration epitomizes what San Diego is all about: working together to make our city a better place for all of us,” Mayor Gloria said. “This partnership gives every San Diegan the opportunity to help beautify their neighborhoods while stopping pollution before it reaches our most precious natural resources: our world-famous beaches and bays. I can’t wait to see what a difference we can make together.”

The kickoff event is a collaboration between several organizations, including Street Stewards, I Love A Clean San Diego, The Downtown San Diego Partnership, Think Blue San Diego, Ace Parking and San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness.

Street Stewards is a grassroots environmental organization that began in 2018 when a small group of friends in Ocean Beach launched a Facebook page promoting and mapping block adoptions to reduce litter and keep their neighborhood clean. It has since expanded to include block adoptions and group pickups in the following San Diego neighborhoods: East Village, Golden Hill, Hillcrest, Kensington, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, North Park and Pacific Beach. Its new website launching this summer will bring the program to all of San Diego County, with plans for a national program.

“I’m excited about how quickly the concept grows in each and every neighborhood we introduce it to,” said Aaron Null, Co-Director of Street Stewards. “People genuinely ‘get it,’ sign on, and then we are off to the races seeing early adopters catch on quickly, then the masses get ahold of the idea and run with it. It just works and neighborhoods are cleaner and happier because of it.”

San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness is an initiative started by the City that unites the capabilities of the public, nonprofit, private, faith-based and philanthropic sectors to devise a scalable and comprehensive plan to combat homelessness. Keith Jones, owner and managing partner of ACE Parking, is a key leader of the initiative.

“This collaboration of organizations picking up trash downtown is an example of what can be achieved when we work together,” Jones said. “The root cause of trash in the downtown area is homelessness. This event should bring more attention to the core of the problem.”

I Love A Clean San Diego, a nonprofit that partners with Think Blue San Diego on community cleanups year-round, is handling volunteer registration and providing cleanup materials – such as pickers, grabbers and trash bags, for event. Ace Parking is providing free parking for volunteers.

“We are grateful for these organizations coming together to remove trash and debris from the streets of downtown,” said Steve Morris, Executive Director of I Love A Clean San Diego. “Any litter not properly disposed of has the potential for entering our waterways via storm drains. As more than 80% of marine debris comes from inland sources, this cleanup is critical to maintain the health of the bay and, ultimately, the ocean.”