The $1.1 billion, multiyear Clean California initiative is helping underserved and often-marginalized Californians find employment.

Assistance is through an expanded partnership between the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Butte County Office of Education (BCOE) Back 2 Work Program.

Participants are re-entering society after incarceration, have experienced homelessness, or have encountered barriers to finding employment. In the program, they learn life and job skills, and receive temporary paid employment, job placement assistance and social services.

Back 2 Work crews collect and dispose of litter and debris along the state highway system.

In 2021, Caltrans signing a $127 million contract with BCOE to expand the program. This allowed BCOE to hire 82 additional crews statewide of approximately 50 participants.

Clean California, a clean-up effort to remove trash, funded the expansion. Since launching Clean California in July, Caltrans has removed nearly 650,000 cubic yards of litter from state highways – the equivalent of more than 10,800 tons or enough to fill 197 Olympic-size swimming pools – and hired 708 new team members as part of Clean California, including 546 maintenance workers who collect litter and remove graffiti.

More than 4,000 people annually have worked on Back 2 Work crews and received the opportunity to re-integrate back into the work force.