The Brighten Bloomington crew has been busy this year, working downtown, in parks and everywhere in between.
Brighten Bloomington, a partnership between Centerstone of Indiana, Inc. and the City of Bloomington, offers no-to-low-barrier employment for residents experiencing substance abuse, mental health issues and homelessness.
The program has employed 118 people since its founding in 2017, said Vanessa Douglas, Centerstone manager of adult and family services. Past employees have gone on to recover from substance abuse, secure housing and find full-time jobs.
“We’ve had a lot of success, even just in this year,” Douglass said. “When you think we've been doing this since 2017, we've touched a lot of lives.”
In 2025, the city employed over 20 people through the program.
In addition to providing work experience, benefits, resume building and interviewing skills, Douglas said Brighten Bloomington connects employees to supportive services at Centerstone.
“I'm really proud of the fact that we're not only helping our community and making it cleaner and safer, but we're able to promote recovery,” Douglas said. “We're able to reduce the stigma around mental health.”
Since 2017, 71 Brighten Bloomington employees have been unhoused or in transitional housing. During the program, Douglas said all of them found sustainable housing. Forty people went into resident treatment for substance abuse, and 85 people participated in outpatient treatment.
The program is flexible, accommodating court appearances and inpatient treatment, Douglas said.
“We will hold their job if they're transparent about what their needs are, and we will help them get into services,” Douglas said. “Then we'll be there for them when they get back, so they have some kind of foundation and something to look forward to.”
Brighten Bloomington works all over the city. Sometimes crew members handle custodial work in local parks, said Cassie Werne, special projects and operations manager in the Department of Public Works. Other times, they’ll pull weeds and debris from the biking infrastructure. Before and after storms, they keep drains unclogged.
Crew members have cleanedalmost15,000 pounds of trash this year alone, according to the city. They’ve also cleared more than 400 ADA accessible curbs and painted about8,200 feet of curbs.
But Werne said the program’s impact goes beyond that daily work.
“Every time I'm downtown, talking to a business owner, talking to a resident, talking to a community leader, they are singing the praises of the Brighton Bloomington crew,” Werne said. “What we're not able to quantify in that way is these relationships that they've built with the community and vice versa.”
Brighten Bloomington was given the 2024 Design Award by Downtown Bloomington for creating a vibrant and inviting place, Werne said.
There’s no shortage of maintenance and infrastructure projects in Bloomington, Werne said. It might not sound glamorous, she said, and sometimes people forget the bigger picture.
“We're creating this clean, beautiful place,” Werne said. “It's really place-making. It's creating a community location where people want to come together.”
