Vincent and Supriya here, as the Co-Founders of Urban Compassion Project. Vincent started the organization back in 2020 after being on and off the streets for 24 years of his life. He started cleaning up the parks and streets around Oakland to better the community and find purpose.
Supriya joined Vincent as a volunteer in early-2021. She is now helping him lead and run the organization. We're a small but mighty team of three (Vincent, Supriya, and Lee) who need all the support from the community to sustain our efforts.
To date, we've cleared over 2,300 tons of trash from Oakland and mobilized over 3,000 volunteers to support our efforts.
In 2025 alone, we’ve
- Cleared 233 tons of trash (465,569 pounds) from 30 locations in Oakland!
- Mobilized 750 volunteers to help clean the streets (they are the backbone of UCP).
- Leveraged up to 12 homeless ambassadors to maintain the cleanliness of the areas
- Spent $61,687 on cleanups.
- And we’re DEFINITELY NOT done as we’re aiming to clear 300 tons this summer alone
It's difficult to combat illegal dumping entirely given systemic flaws and inefficiencies, but we're doing our best to find long-term solutions to maintain the cleanliness of the areas (with our limited resources).
- We are negotiating contracts with Waste Management to lower dump fees and receive a 20% reduction in dump costs. We’d like to expand this program to broader Oakland.
- We've made progress with the City of Oakland, now collaborating with the Environmental Services Division to report and respond more effectively to illegal dumping
- Several council people have agreed to lend us dumpsters from time to time, which should help offset some operational costs.
- Our Homeless Ambassador Program has been very successful. After each cleanup, we assign several trusted homeless neighbors to help main the cleanliness of the areas and report illegal dumping. This also gives the homeless a sense of purpose.
- We’re working with small businesses to implement surveillance measures to hold dumpers accountable.
We're a grassroots movement and need all the support we can get from the community to keep our efforts alive.
Your donations fuel the following:
- Cleanup initiatives (dumpsters, gas, manual equipment, dump fees) - every cleanup costs us between $1,000 - $8,000 depending on the amount of trash.
- Homeless Ambassador Program
- Operational expenses like storage and car payments
- Weekly distributions within Oakland's homeless communities
We're grateful to donors like Jeff Atwood and Gagan Biyani who have helped us keep our heads above water. They recently came together to support us immensely. We're now seeking the community's support to match their donations!