If you notice less trash on streets, thank Volunteer Cleaning Communities

A group of volunteers met at Canoga Avenue and Prairie Street on Tuesday, April 15, to pick up the litter and trash in the area. For two hours every day these volunteers clean up litter throughout the San Fernando Valley, working in teams of four who go in different directions to cover more ground.

How are they doing? The nonprofit San Fernando Valley-based Volunteer Cleaning Communities collected more than 400,000 pounds of trash between January, 2021 and June 2024.

Jill Mather launched the Volunteer Cleaning Communities more than four years ago, after a career in management and marketing services in the restaurant and retail entertainment industries. Now she works to make the environment in the Valley better by organizing teams who clean up illegal dumping sites, abandoned homeless encampments, and the group’s adopted section of the Los Angeles River between Owensmouth and Winnetka avenues.

Jill Mather takes a group photo of volunteers before they begin their trash clean-up in Chatsworth on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Seven days a week volunteers who belong to the non-profit group, “Volunteer Cleaning Communities” headed by Jill Mather, comb the streets, bike paths, and freeways of the San Fernando Valley cleaning up trash. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Volunteers pick up trash along Canoga Avenue in Chatsworth on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Seven days a week, volunteers who belong to the non-profit, “Volunteer Cleaning Communities” headed by Jill Mather, comb the streets, bike paths, and freeways of the San Fernando Valley clearing trash. Much of trash comes from homeless persons and containers cast aside from fast-food establishments. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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“We just organized and funded an all street litter cleanup on DeSoto Avenue … using 120-plus volunteers,” Mather said. And in two hours they had filled 225 bags of trash and found more than 30 illegal dumping sites.

The organization has grown and now has leaders throughout the Valley, who organize groups on weekends. Beyond that, she said, “We work with schools, churches, and government officials for their service days.”